(A) No later than 24 hours before every stay the owner or owner’s designee shall perform a background check on the person booking a short-term rental through the online national sex offender public website operated by the United States Department of Justice to ensure that there are no sex offenders at the short-term rental.
(B) An owner or owner’s designee shall retain a printout (either in hard copy or electronic form) of the background check on the person booking the property for 12 months after the booking date. Records of each background check shall be made available for inspection by the town upon demand during normal business hours.
(C) It shall be a civil offense for owners or owner’s designees to fail to comply with the requirements of divisions (A) and (B) of this section and shall be punished by a mandatory minimum fine of $1,000.
(D) It shall be a civil offense for a person to intentionally or knowingly book a short-term rental on behalf of a sex offender when the person booking the reservation will not be staying at the short-term rental. A violation of this division shall be punished by a mandatory minimum fine of $1,000.
(E) The requirements of divisions (A) and (B) of this section are satisfied and/or waived if the online lodging marketplace on which the short-term rental is advertised performs the background check.
(F) For the purposes of this section, booking means the act of securing a reservation for the use of a short-term rental.
(Ord. O2023-02, passed 7-17-23)