There is a law in Southampton that says you cannot rent your house out to another person for 29 days or less. It was written in 2007 and the entire purpose of the law was to prevent massive share house parties from happening. The logic was that people who rent for the short term are most likely people who are party people and would cause a disturbance to the area. In 2007 real estate in the United States was at an all time high and was just beginning to collapse.
It’s now 2013, and I think it is safe to say that this law doesn’t make sense anymore. People who rent in the Hamptons on a short term basis are for the most part very normal people and not share house people. A few years ago, it was certainly the case that people who rented for the short term were wild and crazy, but that’s because back then anybody with a social security number could buy a home, and anybody who owned a home could borrow money against it and afford any rental in the Hamptons they wanted. Things have changed.
Today, a lot of people want to be in the Hamptons, but they simply can’t afford to be out here all summer long. They can afford a month in a gorgeous house, or a week, but that’s it. They are professionals, many times with families and kids, and it is absolutely INSANE that it is on the law books today that it’s illegal to rent to them for the short term.
Fight the people who pack 100 kids into a home and party all week and destroy the neighborhood. Don’t punish people who are looking to have a nice vacation in the Hamptons and don’t punish the local homeowners out here who have mortgages to pay and need the extra money but can’t afford to give up their houses for the entire summer.
