A group of Clark County, Nevada, property owners has filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the county and state challenging the government’s ability to enforce restrictions on providing short-term rentals to visitors to Southern Nevada.

The Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association and several of its individual members say Clark County’s restrictions are unconstitutional and they’re seeking an injunction to block enforcement of rules and policies that took effect in September 2022 with the first permits allowing a minimal number of rentals first issued in August.

Representatives of the state and county could not be reached for comment.

The 84-page, 20-count lawsuit was filed Monday by the association; co-founders Jacqueline Flores and Louis Koorndyk and Koorndyk’s wife, Estrelita; county residents Thomas McKannon, Debra and John Hansen, Samuel and Lisa Hankins, Troy Uehling and Philip Johnson; Haan’s Properties LLC; LK’s Properties LLC; and 5402 Palm Mesa LLC.

Another plaintiff expected to add legal muscle to the lawsuit is San Francisco-based Airbnb Inc., which has more than 5 million members worldwide.

Members of the group on Tuesday flanked Flores and Louis Koorndyk in a news conference in front of one of his Las Vegas homes that currently isn’t permitted to be rented short-term.

“I depended on the income from my short-term rental to help care for my elderly parents when they were living and now to supplement my own health-care expenses,” Louis Koorndyk said. “The county’s extreme short-term rental rules unfairly benefit resorts over everyday Americans like me who are struggling to keep up with skyrocketing costs.”

Flores said one of the many unfair county rules governing short-term rentals is that residences within 2,500 feet of a resort hotel are banned from applying.

“So who is the county really trying to protect?” said Flores, who serves as president of the 1,200-member association.

“Even people who live far from the Strip are forced to go through a complicated, expensive and delayed licensing process just to apply for a rental permit — many homeowners have been waiting close to three years for a license decision. What’s worse, the county sends armed code enforcement officers to search people’s homes without a warrant. On major holidays, (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police) officers are deployed to go door to door in neighborhoods to warn about using these rentals. This kind of government overreach is deeply un-American and violates our basic rights.”

Violating Constitution

The lawsuit claims the county is violating people’s First, Third, Fourth, Fifth and 14th Amendment rights and several sections of the Nevada Constitution by enforcing county rules established after the Nevada Legislature approved Nevada’s Assembly Bill 363.

The lawsuit argues that county regulations violate the U.S. and Nevada Constitutions by preventing Nevadans from exercising the rights of property owners to lease their properties and to welcome guests into their homes, which in turn threatens their livelihood.

The lawsuit also says that the county’s regulations impose unlawful burdens on short-term rental platforms by requiring them to share personally identifiable information of hosts without due process, verify short-term rental permits, and delete listings without a valid permit, even though hosts face significant, ongoing challenges in attempting to obtain permits from the county.

Louis Koorndyk said permit applicants must spend thousands of dollars to gather data for licensing, including cameras and sound-level meters to measure noise at a residence — and then, there’s no assurance a license would be granted.

“That usually comes for your average house to about $6,500,” Koorndyk said. “And the thing is, you have to pay that money up front without any guarantees if you get a license. In other words, even when you had to upgrade your homeowner’s insurance and everything else, we literally went another year and had to reapply for a license again, redo our insurance again with no guarantees you’d even get licensed.”

1 percent allowed

The county’s rules permit 1 percent of residences to be licensed as short-term rentals and while 1 percent of all residences in unincorporated Clark County translates to several thousand, the county has issued less than 180 permits and more than 500 permit applications are pending without an explanation of the delay.

Some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit:

— Flores, a long-time Nevada resident and short-term rental advocate.

— Koorndyk, a retired Navy veteran and his wife who have lived in Nevada for 45 years and depended on rental income to care for Louis’ elderly parents when they were living and now to supplement their own health-care expenses, including cancer treatment.

— The Hansens, small-business owners unable to rent their home for less than 31 days because another owner whose property is within 1,000 feet of the their property was arbitrarily given priority in the permit lottery.

— Uehling, a self-employed father of four who can’t rent his home short-term because it is within 2,500 feet of a hotel.

— McKannon, a retired U.S. military veteran who purchased a home for short-term rental use but cannot operate it due to a ban on short-term rentals on Mount Charleston.

— The Hankinses, a schoolteacher and accountant whose short-term rental license application was denied by the county because another host received a short-term rental license for a property located within 1,000 feet of their property.

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