The Institute of Justice, a civil rights public-interest law firm, is challenging municipal regulations that prevent people from renting out their own homes:
“The rule is a rental ban on renting out your home,” said Anthony Sanders, an attorney with the Minnesota Chapter of the Institute of Justice, a libertarian non-profit based in Virginia.
Sanders and co-counsel Katelynn McBride are representing four homeowners in Winona for free, in a lawsuit challenging Winona’s rental cap. The rule prevents homeowners from converting their houses to rental units if there’s already a concentration of 30 percent rentals on that city block.
Under a rule like this, any renting might be prevented, even if one were hoping to rent to a single tenant. It is, in effect, a law against the rental of private property triggered only after others have lawfully rented their private property.
These restrictions hurt both owners hoping to rent (they’re denied an otherwise lawful use of property they own, for income) and renters (there’s a reduced supply of available places to live, leaving remaining options more expensive).
Via KARE 11.