LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Short-term rental owners in the Las Vegas valley are now suing Clark County and the State of Nevada claiming the licensing process and updated regulations are violating their constitutional rights and property rights.
"For many years, we have been attempting to work with our local and state politicians to come up with regulations that are fair for homeowners so that they can make ends meet. Every time that we have tried, they have made matters worse," said Jacqueline Flores, the founder of the Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association. "As many people know, resort hotels are a powerful industry in this state and in the city and many [lawmakers] are beholden to the resort. hotel industry and they are the ones that are attacking property owners."
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According to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, there are several provisions that the homeowners are contesting.
- The lottery system that "effectively bans the majority of all residents from the opportunity to put their property to use as a short-term rental"
- Limited the number of licenses to 1% of the total number of housing units within the county
- Requiring property owners to obtain a separate business license, among other business-related costs
- Allowing code enforcement officers to do warrantless searches of homes
- Allowing officials to impose excessive and selectively-enforced fines for violating ordinances
You can read the full lawsuit below.
In 2021, the Nevada legislature signed Assembly Bill 363 into law. That required Clark County, Henderson, Las Vegas, and North Las Vegas to adopt new regulations and strengthen enforcement against illegal short-term rentals. In June 2022, Clark County commissioners approved an ordinance to regulate short-term rentals in unincorporated Clark County.
"I think when the public officials write these regulations, they forget that people have property rights, that people have freedoms and, frankly, they don't care," Flores said. "Their attitude has been that if you don't like it, we sue them and they know that the vast majority of people don't have the funds to be able to fight the government and the government uses our tax dollars to fight us. They will drag us all the way to the end and they will not change anything unless the court orders them to do so."
As of March 2025, county officials have approved 175 business licenses, denied 141 licenses, and 515 applications are pending. Flores says that is way too long for people to wait, especially if they are relying on that income to help pay their bills.
"It's been almost three years and hundreds of people have yet to get a response on their application, which is an outrage," Flores said. "When it comes to Formula 1, the county can process multiple permits and licenses in record time. But when it comes to property owners here in Las Vegas, they're made to wait and to pay an incredible amount of money to get a simple license."
In April, county officials did say they are trying to speed up the process.
"Average processing, we're processing six units a week. With over 500, just doing basic math, it would take about a year and a half [to process the backlog]," Vince Queano, Director of Business Licensing said. "But then again, as we license each short-term rental unit, it creates that 1,000-foot buffer so there may be several hundred that may be denied in the future, which would make the licensing [process] overall shorter."
He also proposed changes to current procedures. For example, switching from a randomized number generator process to a first-come, first-served basis and requiring homeowners to be connected to the municipal wastewater system and having $500,000 in liability insurance at the time their application is approved instead of when they applied for the permit.
APRIL 2025: Clark County officials give update on short-term rentals to commissioners
How much money does it cost to get licensed?
"The license itself is about $1,000 to $1,700. But in order for you to apply, you end up spending thousands of dollars because you have to get a state license. You have to get special homeowners insurance. You have to bring your home into compliance," Flores explained. "All that stuff takes a lot of money and on average, people are spending $6,000 to $7,000 just to apply. That's with no guarantee that the county will give you a license."
One person playing the waiting game with the county is GLVSTRA co-founder Louis Koorndyk, who says he needs to generate income to help with his cancer treatment.
"You have to pay that money upfront without any guarantees, even when you had to upgrade your homeowners insurance and everything else," the retired Navy veteran said. "We literally went another year and had to apply for a license again, redo our insurance again, with no guarantees we'd even get licensed."
In addition to those fees, the lawsuit claims the Koorndyks were also fined more than $60,000 by the county for operating a short-term rental. To help pay those fines, they had to move his parents from the assisted living facility where they were living.
"Inferior living arrangement were made for Louis' parents, but they were the only arrangement the family could afford," the lawsuit states. "Just a few months later, Louis' mother suffered a fall and she died; shortly thereafter, Louis' father, who suffered from dementia, also died."
According to the county, unlicensed short-term rental homeowners can be fined between $1,000 to $10,000 per day. With a change to Title 1 codes in February, he added liens can be placed on those properties for the fines and with the liens, fines over $5,000 can be placed on the properties, as long as it meets criteria that is laid out in the Nevada Revised Statute. The fines would be placed on the properties as a special assessment on the tax roll.
I asked Clark County for a copy of the title code changes and was told "the information in the presentation is the extent of our comment on fines as pending legislation prevents additional comment."
Between April 2024 to March 2025, a survey of Clark County Airbnb hosts shows nearly 50% said hosting on Airbnb has helped them say in their home and 63% said hosting on Airbnb allows them to meet the rising costs of living.
This is the second lawsuit the association has filed against the short-term rental ordinances. The previous lawsuit was dismissed.
"The court decided, unfortunately, that homeowners needed to be harmed first in order for them to be able to file a lawsuit, which is disappointing. We have people that are disabled. People that are trying to make ends meet. People that are dealing with health issues. For the court to say they have to suffer damage first in order for their constitutional rights and freedoms to be protected makes no sense to me but that was their decision," Flores said. "They wanted more homeowners to be added to the lawsuit, which is what we've done so we're filing again with the individual plaintiffs that the court wanted. And so, we believe that we're going to be very successful this time."
Flores added that many short-term rental owners were scared to come forward and join the lawsuit, claiming that Clark County officials are retaliatory.
As for what they hope comes from the lawsuit, Koorndyk said they hope the court stands up for their rights.
"We're looking for the Constitution to be honored and not circumvented."
I reached out to Clark County and the Nevada Attorney General's Office to see if they had any statements or reactions to the lawsuit. County officials said they are unable to comment on pending litigation while the AG's Office had no comment.
