Whether you are a property owner interested in offering a room as a short-term rental, a resident opposed to short-term rentals in your neighborhood, or a municipal official hearing from concerned residents of either opinion, you should be aware that unclear zoning regulations can cause significant roadblocks for all sides of the debate. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has addressed these roadblocks in several cases, recently adding Reihner v. City of Scranton Zoning Hearing Board, No. 256 C.D. 2017 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2017) to its growing line of cases involving the application of ambiguous zoning regulations to short-term residential rentals. The uptick in these cases reflects the increased popularity of the trend, expanded by online sites such as Air BnB, VRBO, and HomeAway that connect travelers with local residents or homeowners that want to rent rooms or residences for short-term stays.

Reihner, along with its predecessors, originated with a notice of violation issued in response to neighbor complaints about the use of a single-family home, or portion thereof, as a short-term rental property. Critically, in each of these cases, the municipality had not amended its zoning ordinance to address short-term rentals. Rather, each municipality relied on existing regulations and terms as the basis for enforcement. In each case, the Commonwealth Court determined that the treatment of the newly popular rental activity was ambiguous under the existing applicable zoning regulations, and that Section 603 of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code requires interpretation of ambiguous terms in a zoning ordinance to be in favor of the property owner, i.e. in a manner that allows the broadest use of the property. While the specific definitions and regulations at issue in each case are unique to each municipality’s ordinance, the court’s application of the rules of interpretation to address the evolving use is relevant throughout the state.