Montgomery County

Montgomery County Considers Rules for Private Pool Rentals

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Some residents of Chevy Chase, Maryland, sent a petition to the Montgomery County Council asking for private swimming pool rentals to be banned.

The app Swimply allows people to rent other people’s home pools.

“We have a lot of young, little kids in the neighborhood and all these strangers running around the neighborhood,” said Marylin Schwartz, of Chevy Chase.

“It commercializes a residential neighborhood,” Mau Van Duran said.

“It’s not safe,” Schwartz said. “People are urinating on the lawns and everything in the area.”

Their neighbor who rents his pool showed it’s tucked away behind trees, not visible from the street. He said he’s lived there more than 20 years and has always tried to be respectful of those around him.

The County Council is considering a bill that would tax pool rentals and require owners to register with the county.

“Similar to Uber and Lyft and Airbnb, those things started happening before regulation caught up to them, and we’re just trying to get a little bit ahead of the game here,” Councilman Will Jawando said.

Pool owners would also have to pay a licensing fee and get an inspection every two years.

Cornell Hudson, who rents out his pool in Damascus, said he’s fine with that.

“We understand regulations, why they exist,” he said. “They should be there to help people.”

Swimply sent News4 a statement saying it’s working closely with the Council and is “happy to work with localities who treat us akin to the rest of the home sharing economy.”

Swimply also said it offers a $2 million insurance policy for hosts and works with them to be good neighbors. It said just 7% of its bookings are large parties of more than 10 people.

The county held a public hearing March 7.

CORRECTION (June 6, 2023, at 5:38 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article said there was a public hearing was scheduled for June 13. The public hearing has already happened.

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