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The Star-Advertiser article on short-term rentals (STRs) and the city’s failure to collect fines related to zoning violations is sure to encourage more scofflaws to break the law and ignore those fines (“City fails to collect millions in rental fines,” Star- Advertiser, April 14).
Without more immediate and effective penalties, these lawbreakers stand to make tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, and by the time foreclosure is attempted, the value of the house may have been exceeded by the illegal rental income. This does not even take the unpaid fines into consideration.
Laws may impose fines to discourage unlawful activity, but if the activity pays enough and no additional effective penalties are forthcoming, does it not pay to break the law?
Gerald Ching
Waialae Iki
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