Highlights
- Mohave County Assessor Jeanne Kentch reclassified more than 900 short-term rentals as commercial properties, raising their assessment ratio from 10% to 15%.
- The policy targets non-primary-residence rentals rented for fewer than 30 days, mirroring how hotels and motels are taxed.
- Opponents, including the Goldwater Institute, argue the move contradicts a 2016 state law defining rented residential property as residential use.
- The Arizona Department of Revenue is reviewing the policy; Kentch says her office will continue reclassifying the county's remaining short-term rentals.
Mohave County Assessor Jeanne Kentch has reclassified more than 900 short-term rental properties from residential to commercial, a unilateral policy shift that will push assessment ratios from 10% to 15% and raise property taxes for owners across the county, the Arizona Capitol Times reported Friday.
Kentch announced the policy in July, though her office began implementing it roughly a year ago. The reclassification applies to short-term rentals, defined as properties rented for fewer than 30 days, that are not the owner's primary residence. Kentch framed the change as a fairness measure, writing in a county update that the policy "creates fairness by ensuring that year-round short-term rentals are classified consistently with motels and hotels that have long been assessed under the commercial classification."
The county has more than 3,500 short-term rentals, and Kentch said her office will continue reclassifying properties it deems full-time rentals. She cited an Arizona Department of Revenue guideline stating that real property devoted to producing income is generally considered commercially used. The revenue department confirmed the guideline comes from its Residential Rental Property Classification Manual, published in 2004, and said it is reviewing Mohave County's policy.
Is the reclassification legal?
Opponents say no. Tom Farley, chairman of the Responsible Tourism Coalition PAC, argues that Senate Bill 1350, passed by the Legislature in 2016, defines real and personal property leased to lodgers as residential. Jon Riches, the Goldwater Institute's vice president for litigation, called the policy "problematic" after a legal review, saying Kentch is "conflating an owner's business activities with the property's actual use." Riches added that property owners affected by the change have standing to sue.
Jonathan Wicks, president of Arizonans for Responsible Tourism, pushed back on the hotel comparison: "The vast majority of Arizona residents who share their homes do so to help make ends meet — no different than residents with other side hustles."
Kentch backed House Bill 2316 in 2025, which would have enacted a similar classification statewide, but the bill never received a committee hearing. She has received only a handful of appeals to the more than 900 reclassifications already issued. The Arizona Department of Revenue's review of the policy is ongoing.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- azcapitoltimes.com retrieved 24/07/2026 18:17
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 24/07/2026 18:17. Every claim traces to a source.
