P.J. and Rachel Anderson’s story is about as Nashville as they come.
P.J. is a singer-songwriter who frequently travels around the country to play shows. His wife Rachel is a graphic designer who is able to set her own hours and work remotely.
This had worked out well for them as a young family, as Rachel and the couple’s three children often were able to travel with P.J.
That is, until they fell afoul of a Nashville law preventing them from renting out their home while they were away.
The good news is, a judge recently struck down Nashville’s restrictions on short-term rental properties, finding them unconstitutional.
For more than a year, laws restricting short-term rentals have infringed upon the property rights of the Andersons and other Nashville residents, arbitrarily liming the number of homeowners who could rent out their homes on websites such as Airbnb or VRBO.
Not only that, but the city initially implemented rules banning homeowners from placing signs advertising their properties anywhere on the premises. The city also gave police the power to conduct warrantless searches of a property owner’s records.
A new legal foundation of the Beacon Center of Tennessee filed its first lawsuit to challenge these restrictions on behalf of P.J. and Rachel Anderson. The suit forced the Nashville City Council to change the law.
The concept of property rights in general came into question recently when Nashville Metropolitan Council member Burkley Allen declared before a state Senate committee that homeowners’ ability to use their homes as they see fit was a “privilege, not a right.”
Airbnb has provided a much-needed additional income stream for families, including the Andersons, who are able to rent out their homes while they travel.
And the benefit of this goes far beyond the homeowners themselves. The neighborhood where the Andersons live, for example, is now one of the trendiest in town. But a mere five years ago, it was a high-crime section of town devoid of industry.
That all changed when approximately 85 people a day began pouring into Nashville. Due to its proximity to the city’s core, the Germantown neighborhood exploded, adding a new baseball stadium, high-end restaurants, boutiques, and small businesses among the residences.
Germantown also became a popular place for tourists who want to stay in Nashville but either can’t afford a hotel (now the most expensive in the nation), or simply prefer to stay in a home.
Because of all these factors, Germantown was one of the first neighborhoods to reach the cap of 3 percent that Nashville instituted on nonowner-occupied, short-term rentals. This meant the Andersons were unable to continue renting out their home when their life circumstances changed.
The Beacon Center challenged the ordinances, arguing that they violated the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, the anti-monopoly provisions of the Tennessee Constitution, and the equal protection clause.
The vagueness of the law made it impossible for an average person to comprehend it. For example, hotels were exempted but permit holders had to pay hotel taxes—so were they operating a hotel or not? This violated another important constitutional standard, that laws must be clearly written.
Ultimately, the court agreed and ruled that the city could not conduct warrantless searches or prevent homeowners from placing signs on their properties. That forced the Nashville City Council to repeal these requirements earlier this year.
The biggest victory came in the courtroom, though, when the judge agreed that the vagueness of the law rendered it unconstitutional. This was an important win for Nashville’s property owners and, hopefully, an important lesson on the Constitution for lawmakers who would seek to violate those rights.
President Calvin Coolidge stated: “Ultimately, property rights and personal rights are the same thing.”
An earlier president, Founding Father James Madison, said: “The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects for the protection of which the government was instituted.”
Property rights are one of the foundations on which America was built. If we allow governments to threaten that foundation, the house eventually will fall.
