Sunapee trailer rental win could spur short-term rental fights elsewhere
May 15—A Sunapee couple's victory in a two-year battle to rent out their travel trailer could persuade other communities to create more specific rental ordinances, the town's attorney said after a state Supreme Court decision this week.
"Yesterday's decision suggests that if towns want to limit short-term rentals, they will need to express those limits much more clearly in their ordinances than was previously thought," Cordell A. Johnston wrote in an email Wednesday.
The decision means that Lisa and Peter Hoekstra will be able to rent out the 20-foot Ameri-Lite trailer parked on their Maple Street property for up to 90 days a year.
"We are encouraged because we feel there could be a real positive ripple effect for other short-term rental owners and for property rights," Lisa Hoekstra said.
Towns across New Hampshire have clashed with property owners over whether, and under what conditions, homes and other housing options may be rented on a short-term basis.
"Regarding the broader issue, short-term rentals are a major concern in some towns — mainly in vacation and tourist areas — and not a concern at all in many others," said Johnston, a former government affairs counsel with the New Hampshire Municipal Association.
The Hoekstras rented their trailer a handful of times until they received a letter from the town's zoning administrator in April 2022, which stated the trailer couldn't be used for rentals. The local zoning board upheld the decision.
The couple lost their case before the state Housing Appeals Board and took the case to the state Supreme Court.
The town contended that a provision allowing for a travel trailer to be used for temporary sleeping quarters for not more than 90 days per 12-month period was an additional requirement, but it didn't create new categories of permitted uses, according to the Supreme Court decision.
The court took issue with the town's position.
"By definition, a permitted use is a use that is allowable in a district as a matter of right under the ordinance," the court wrote in the unanimous decision released this week.
Lisa Hoekstra said the two-year fight cost her family an estimated $13,000 in rental revenue.
The family plans to resume the trailer rentals.
Since 2018, the Hoekstras also have rented out a 400-square-foot efficiency apartment in their home for about 225 days out of the year. There is no limit on the number of days if the owner lives on the property, she said.
According to a 2023 report by New Hampshire Housing, Sunapee had the state's fifth-largest change in the percentage of housing units that are considered seasonal, recreational or occasional use.
Just about half the Sunapee units were used that way in 2021, compared with 37% in 2014.
Johnston said communities haven't all treated short-term rentals the same way.
"The towns that are concerned have taken a number of different approaches, from trying to exclude them altogether to allowing them by special exception to allowing them but requiring them to register with the town," he said.
"These efforts have met varying levels of resistance, much more from non-resident property owners than from town residents themselves," Johnston said.
"But there are some towns where local residents have also opposed restrictions because they believe (short-term rentals) are good for the local economy."
