By Aaron Mudd, CivicLex · July 2, 2026

On Wednesday, July 1st, Council got an overview of what Lexington is doing to enforce the city's regulations on unlicensed short-term rentals, including how it's trying to collect more than $59,000 in unpaid fines.

In recent years, Council has stepped up its oversight of short-term rentals like Airbnbs in response to complaints from some residents that too many unhosted stays are clustering in their neighborhoods and causing problems for locals.

After passing an ordinance in July 2023, Lexington began requiring short-term rental operators to license and register their units. Later, in 2024, Council updated the ordinance to add density restrictions for unhosted short-term rentals (where the operator does not live on the property).

Lexington has seen a significant drop in the number of current short-term rental listings in recent years. When the city's compliance software first went live, it identified 1,290 short-term rental listings in Lexington, the presentation to Council's General Government and Planning Committee showed. The current number has fallen to 787 – a decline of about 40%.

How is Lexington trying to collect unpaid fines?

All short-term rentals here have to obtain a Special Fees License through the city's Revenue Division. The license is subject to annual renewal at $200 for the first unit and $100 for every additional unit, according to the city's website.

Unlicensed short-term rentals can be fined up to $500 a day for non-compliance.

Since it began regulating short-term rentals, the city has issued 61 citations for a total of $78,125.

Most of the citations were for unlicensed rentals, though 9 were for nuisance violations, such as for noise, parking, trash, and excessive occupancy issues. While $19,000 of those citations have been paid, a total of $59,125 in fines remains outstanding. What's more, four individual properties account for $52,400 in fines, the committee presentation showed.

Responding to a question from District 3 Councilmember Tom Eblen about what the city is doing to collect the $59,125 in unpaid citations, Revenue Director Wes Holbrook said the city is putting liens on some properties.

"One of the liens that we have is for $22,000, on a single property," Holbrook told Councilmembers.

Holbrook noted that properties cannot renew or obtain a license as long as they owe outstanding fines.

Other Councilmembers asked questions about whether the city's website covering short-term rentals could be made more user-friendly, with the compliance hotline advertised more prominently.

District 4 Councilmember Emma Curtis asked whether Lexington should expect the number of active short-term rental listings to continue declining. Holbrook said the number of listings seems to be stabilizing between 700 and 800. He added other factors could also be contributing to the current number of listings, including the real estate market itself and competition among stays.

Noting that state lawmakers have taken an interest in passing their own rules on how cities can regulate short-term rentals, At-Large Councilmember James Brown asked how the Council could potentially make the city's ordinance more resilient.

Holbrook said city officials have spoken to some state lawmakers.

"Our policy seems to fit within what their overall goal is," Holbrook said. "...I think the best thing we can do is just continue to advocate for what we view as good policy and talk about some of the successes that we've seen."

Overall, Holbrook said the city tries to be "measured" in its enforcement approach.

When a property is out of compliance with the city's ordinance, they're given multiple notices and opportunities to comply before a citation is issued, Holbrook said.

"We're not just coming in blazing and trying to cite people," Holbrook said. "I think what we're doing is very balanced."