126th General Assembly
(As Introduced)
Sens. Stivers, Goodman
BILL SUMMARY
· Specifies that the licensure, safety, and sanitation requirements to which hotels and SRO facilities are subject do not apply to commercial lodging houses.
CONTENT AND OPERATION
Under existing law, hotels and SRO facilities (SRO stands for "single room occupancy") must be licensed in order to operate in this state. Hotels and SRO facilities must maintain premises in sanitary condition, have proper plumbing, lighting, and ventilation, and satisfy specified requirements concerning bedding, carpeting, restroom facilities, and hotel rate postings. Persons who operate without a license or who knowingly fail to make necessary alterations or changes specified in a violation notification issued by the State Fire Marshal are guilty of a first-degree misdemeanor. Persons who fail to satisfy other specified requirements of the Hotel Law (R.C. Chapter 3731.) must be fined $10 for each day of violation.
Current law defines "hotel" as:
(1) Any structure consisting of one or more buildings, with more than five sleeping rooms, that is kept, used, maintained, advertised, or held out to the public to be a place where sleeping accommodations are offered for pay to transient guests for a period of 30 days or less, including, but not limited to, such a structure denoted as a hotel, motel, motor hotel, lodge, motor lodge, bed and breakfast, or inn; and
(2) Any structure consisting of one or more buildings, with more than five sleeping rooms, that is specifically constructed, kept, used, maintained, advertised, and held out to the public to be a place where temporary residence is offered for pay to persons, including, but not limited to, an extended stay hotel or extended stay motel that is specifically constructed, and approved by the building official having jurisdiction over it and by the fire marshal, for extended stay temporary residence by persons, and that contains six or more dwelling units with provision for living, eating, cooking, sanitation, and sleeping.
An "SRO facility" under current law means "a facility with more than five sleeping rooms that is kept, used, maintained, advertised, or held out to the public as a place where sleeping rooms are offered on a single room occupancy (SRO) basis and that is intended for use as a primary residence for residential guests for a period of more than thirty days." "Single room occupancy (SRO) basis" means one occupant per room. "Hotel" and "SRO facility" do not include agricultural labor camps, apartment houses, lodging houses, rooming houses, or hospital or college dormitories. Currently, the Hotel Law also does not apply to other structures in which all of the units are "residential premises."[1]
The bill specifies that the Hotel Law does not apply to commercial lodging houses with more than three units in which all of the units are constructed, approved, and certified by the building official having jurisdiction over the building as residential occupancies where the occupants are primarily transient in nature if all of the units are kept, used, maintained, and advertised as transient residences and where the minimum stay of the occupant is more than 30 days but less than one year.
HISTORY
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ACTION |
DATE |
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Introduced |
03-28-06 |
S0305-I-126.doc/jc