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The right of hotel guests© St. Petersburg Times published September 20, 2002 A conflict is brewing between St. Petersburg police and the operators of small hotels along 34th Street. The operators claim police are ignoring their duty to assist them in ejecting guests who engage in illegal conduct, don't pay their bills or are otherwise disruptive. Some operators are so frustrated that they have started paying undesirable guests to leave. Peter Sharp, president of the local business association, says his group is considering legal action against the police. Sharp's anger is misdirected. The police are merely following a reasonable interpretation of current law, which gives nontransient occupants the right to a court eviction process before being removed, a process that can take days or weeks. If Sharp has a problem, he should be knocking on doors in Tallahassee. Rather than helping to eject guests on the say-so of certain hotel operators, police are directing the businesses to the local civil court to obtain an eviction order. Police say many of the older hotels are operating as rooming houses: Guest sometimes stay for months at a time. In-room cooking facilities are provided. Guests can move their own furniture in. And daily maid service isn't offered. Hotel operators say that their guest rooms aren't residences just because some guests don't have a specific check-out date. They say state law explicitly gives hotel operators the right to decide who may utilize their establishment, and the police are legally bound to assist them in ejecting anyone undesirable. While it is true that a section of state law gives hotel operators the right to eject disruptive guests immediately, it explicitly doesn't apply to nontransient occupants. Who qualifies as a nontransient occupant? The presumption is that hotel guests who have no other dwelling are in fact residents. These hotels are abodes of last resort. The people staying there are often unemployed or working in low-paying jobs and unable to gather the funds to cover the upfront costs to rent an apartment. When a dispute arises, it makes sense for police to err on the side of caution and not tread on tenant rights unnecessarily.
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From the Times Opinion page Editorial Editorial Letters |
