Throwing the baby out with the bathwater: The unintended consequences of a careless statutory definition change

Lawmakers drafting short-term rental regulations have ignored expert warnings, risking the legal status of existing long-term housing investments and student dormitories through a flawed statutory definition.

The Interconnected Nature of Law

Law is a system of connected vessels, a truth that does not always reach our lawmakers. In the heat of the debate on short-term rental regulation (the draft bill amending the act on hotel services and services of tourist guides and tour leaders, and certain other acts – Sejm print 2865), the drafters ignored expert comments and the fact that changing the definition of a hotel service could radically alter operating conditions for existing buildings and long-term rental investments, such as dormitories or nursing homes.

Day Limit

For the proposed short-term rental solutions, the definition of hotel services is planned to be modified by introducing a 30-day stay limit. This seemingly harmless change may prompt architectural and construction administration bodies to conclude that long-term rental properties unexpectedly cease to function as hotels under the law, altering the previous legal classification of existing, ongoing, or planned investments. An investment permitted in a specific location as a hotel facility may suddenly become impermissible due to a hasty and seemingly systemic interpretation, without any changes to planning regulations or administrative decisions.

Meticulous, costly, and long-term preparations for investments hang in the balance or may be thrown in the trash. In a state of law that should ensure the predictability and stability of legal conditions, this cannot happen. Despite warnings, officials and politicians have remained deaf to these substantive arguments. So far, the authors of the proposed amendment to the hotel services bill are agreeing to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If the bill does not change, the unintended consequences of good intentions will be harmful.

Simple Solution

Meanwhile, solving this problem is trivially simple, straight out of the textbook of lawmaking. Specifically, the definition of hotel services itself should be left unchanged, while simultaneously excluding the application of the proposed short-term rental provisions to the provision of premises for periods exceeding 30 days. As a result, planning regulations will remain stable without room for new interpretations, and the goal of the proposed bill—adding new short-term rental regulations—will be fully achieved. Such changes ensure the proposed bill actually addresses the problems it was prepared for, without creating new barriers in housing policy, investment, and spatial planning.