When the lake cabin owners are away, the renters will play

The cabin seemed like the perfect hideaway for a week Up North. It sat on a hill overlooking a lake on the Whitefish chain. It had three bedrooms, so I could treat my father-in-law to a little fishing. There was a nice deck, a fire pit and a game room with a pool table. I could even bring the dog, a perk that few resorts offer.

I saw the place listed on one of the websites that feature vacation properties that are rented out by the owners. It was not booked the entire month of September, so I made a lowball offer. We had a deal.

We relaxed, read, took a few drives in the country, went for walks. What I didn't know then is that I may have been an accomplice to a scofflaw, or at the very least a participant in a growing practice that has riled resort and cabin owners across the state.

As the Star Tribune reported last week, the number of cabin owners renting out their properties for profit has soared as the economy stutters. People are having a hard time selling lake properties, so they are renting them out to help pay mortgages and taxes. Though anyone who rents out a cabin is supposed to be licensed, many are not.

The state recently began to crack down and enforce existing laws. More than 600 property owners recently got a letter warning that if they rent their cabins, they need to buy a license and face getting inspected, just like a hotel or motel.

I don't own a cabin, so I have mixed feelings about the increased scrutiny. My initial reaction that it is an unnecessary infringement on people who are just trying to recover some of their investment, a government agency putting its substantial nose where it doesn't belong.

But resort owners make a good point: It's hard to play ball when you have to comply with health and safety regulations while others don't. This week, I checked one popular website and found 32 cabins for rent in Brainerd alone. That's a lot of unregulated competition.

People who responded to the article told horror stories, tales of overflowing sewage and piles of garbage left by renters who filled the cabins way beyond capacity.

"You'd see a new group come in for the weekend, and you just knew it was party time," said Mark Lauderbaugh, who was on a task force to study the issue. "Renters are not likely to care if the neighbors get upset. They stay up late, party and pollute the lake."

Another cabin owner who asked her last name be omitted because she still has to live near her neighbor, said new renters come in every Saturday and often raise hell all week. "They had as many as 25 people in there at one time," said Kim. "The sewer is not set up for that and it's running into the lake."

Renters typically are not aware of cabin culture or lake etiquette, many said. They run their personal watercraft too close to swimmers and fishing boats, let their dogs run free and create havoc.

"I feel like the mentality is that they paid $2,500 for this week, so I can use and abuse the cabin and don't really care what anybody thinks," Kim said.

Another reader who asked to remain anonymous said she sold her "dream cabin" on Lake Superior after only a few years because a nearby cabin became a rental property and "I just couldn't take it anymore."

Like the others, the woman said she repeatedly tried to get county and state officials to do something, but was ignored.

Kent Gustafson, extension professor in tourism at the University of Minnesota Tourism Center said "it's not realistic" to believe the state will inspect the several hundred cabins for rent, but local agencies do sample inspections to encourage owners to meet laws.

Meanwhile, he said, common sense and human decency need to prevail if rental cabins and resorts are to co-co-exist.

"Owners have to set some ground rules and realize laws have to be followed even if they are not there," said Gustafson. "And [renters] need to know it's like you are staying at a hotel, and certain behaviors are not acceptable."