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FALL RIVER – The owners of the mansion at 503 Highland Avenue and the city have filed competing injunctions against each other because the Zoning Board of Appeals denied a special permit that would have allowed them to rent the massive home through Airbnb and Vrbo.
Austin Feng and Rui Tang, whose primary residence is in Wellesley, purchased the 7,860-square-foot, seven-bedroom, six-bathroom stone home in June 2021 for $1 million.
The couple had been renting the home to guests through short-term rental websites for a year before Glenn Hathaway, the city’s director of inspections, ordered them to apply for an exemption from the ZBA.
Last January, the ZBA unanimously denied Feng and Tang an exemption for short-term rentals because they are not permitted under zoning regulations in the property’s single-family residential district.
At the hearing, the ZBA board noted that under state law, it could only approve a change of use for hardship reasons related to the soil, shape of the property or topographical conditions. Feng and Tang had cited financial difficulties and told the board that the villa cost $50,000 a year to maintain.
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City imposes $3,000 fines on villa owners for law violations
Feng and Tang apparently continued to rent the house in defiance of the ZBA decision by listing it on Vrbo for $1,022 per night.
They sued the city on July 24 after Hathaway served them with a notice for multiple zoning violations totaling $3,000. Hathaway also informed them that he intended to begin evicting the short-term tenants.
On July 25, both the villa’s owners and the city filed a motion for a temporary restraining order in Bristol County Superior Court in New Bedford.
Feng is asking that a judge determine that the ZBA cannot legally prohibit him from renting the property on a short-term basis because the zoning code does not contain specific provisions on short-term and long-term rentals. He is also asking the court to prevent Hathaway from “illegally” evicting his tenants, claiming, “Mr. Feng will suffer irreparable harm to his relationships, reputation and future rental prospects as a result.”
In its motion, the city asks the court to grant the owners a temporary injunction to prevent them from renting the property, then issue a permanent ban on short-term operations and allow inspectors to “enter the premises and evict any short-term renters found there.”
On July 30, Feng, his attorney David Glod, Hathaway and city attorney Kenneth Fredette appeared in Bristol County Superior Court in New Bedford before Judge Renee Dupuis, who consolidated the cases.
Dupuis has scheduled a court hearing on the matter for September 24.
Fall River is close to passing a short-term rental ordinance
According to company lawyer Alan Rumsey, the villa’s owners argue that short-term rentals should be allowed because they are not prohibited by regulation.
“Our position is that you can’t do it unless an area is specifically designated for something,” Rumsey said.
However, the city’s law firm is working on a bill addressing short-term rentals that the city council will vote on.
“We are close to passing a short-term rental ordinance that will allow short-term rentals in the future, under strict conditions,” Rumsey said.
According to Vrbo and Airbnb, Feng and Tang aren’t the only property owners renting to short-term guests in Fall River.
“If we’re going to enforce this, we need to enforce it across the board,” Rumsey said. “So it’s a fair argument that we don’t think we need a regulation to prevent them. Having a regulation that regulates this, registration and fees and things like that, is probably more helpful than just trying to catch them.”
Judge orders no action against villa owners for now
According to court documents, Dupuis ordered that the city “refrain from taking any action against plaintiff’s tenants, lessees, guests or other residents” during the litigation.
This could be good news for the owners of the villa on Highland Avenue.
A review of Feng’s Vrbo account shows that he has rented the property for periods from late August to October.
