CAPE MAY – City Manager Paul Dietrich is warning property owners that a failure to obtain a mercantile license for short-term rental properties will result in punitive action by the city.

“You will be fined,” Dietrich said at the March 4 City Council meeting.

“We are not looking to make money on this,” the city manager added. “We are concerned to ensure the safety of the rental spaces.”

Mayor Zach Mullock noted that the city has licensed new software that helps municipalities enforce short-term rental laws by identifying illegal rentals. The owners of rental units that have not obtained the appropriate mercantile license are subject to being fined.

Mullock emphasized that the short-term rental detection software is expensive, and reiterated that the city will impose fines for unlicensed properties. By ordinance, a short-term rental operating without the proper license can be fined $1,000 for the first offense and $2,000 for subsequent offenses.

All city short-term rental units are subject to inspection, to ensure in part that units are not exceeding the number of tenants for which the space is registered.

Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.