Harmari STR partners with Linebarger Analytics & Information Services, LLC (LAIS) to strengthen its Short-Term Rental compliance offering

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A growing number of municipalities require STR owners to live on-site or only list their primary residence. While those requirements typically have centered on quality-of-life and code enforcement concerns, the COVID-19 pandemic has also prompted conversations around "home-grown" ownership. Those concerns invariably lead to enforcement questions, centering on how to verify the owners have actual, primary residence.

The LAIS/Harmari compliance package meets that challenge head on, incorporating a sophisticated data- and research-driven process to determine primary residence.

This capability was developed by LAIS and its parent company, Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP (Linebarger) to meet the needs of property tax-administrators to determine homeowners' eligibility for homestead exemptions, and similar benefits that require the owner to have primary residence at the property in question. The homestead exemption analysis (HEA) process uses a proprietary algorithm to compare government data with powerful third-party data sources, identifying suspect home exemptions where owners are either deceased, improperly hold multiple exemptions, or do not primarily reside at the exempt property.

The application of advanced technologies enables our professional research staff to work more efficiently, while providing personalized attention to our clients and their taxpayers. The HEA process has identified and removed scores of ineligible homestead exemptions, recovering extensive underpaid taxes and restoring hundreds of millions of dollars in property value to the tax rolls.

LAIS has now repurposed this technology for use in STR licensing, code enforcement, and administration, to offer clients the proven ability to test and verify whether existing and newly detected STR owners are truthfully representing their primary residence. Depending on local laws and rules, that determination can result in both revocation of the property tax exemption and STR permit reclassification, revocation, and penalties.

LAIS's groundbreaking HEA adds to the proven and powerful Harmari® STR software service. Based in Toronto, Harmari® STR is a recognized leader in the STR compliance market for both its capabilities and advanced technologies implementation. Harmari® STR employs artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools to assist municipal and private customers with identifying, regulating, and enforcing compliance on short-term rentals.

Like LAIS, Harmari® STR has an impressive pedigree; its parent company LTAS Technologies, Inc. has provided AI and machine learning products to customers in government, law enforcement, insurance, cybercrime, and consumer protection across the globe since 2011. Harmari Search was LTAS Technologies' flagship product, assisting department of motor vehicle agencies to fight curb-stoning and other motor vehicle and title fraud. Harmari has grown to be a go-to investigative tool for law enforcement worldwide.

As part of a combined comprehensive STR Monitoring and Compliance service, Harmari and LAIS will:

• Customize our STR program to ensure maximum effectiveness, using local and national databases combined with human "last-mile" analysis and research
• Guarantee 95% accuracy rate for single family homes and 75% for condos and multi-family dwellings
• Go beyond identifying unregistered properties and owners to verify the primary residence status of STR permit-holders, applicants, and unregistered owners
• Provide fully-trained researchers, managed by a highly-experienced data analytics team
• Use only human personnel (not robo-callers or IVRs) at our Hotline call center for incoming and outgoing calls

We have a best-in-class solution developed for examining property-tax exemptions. This capability allows us to determine the truthfulness of primary residence assertions, which are central to a local government's effective management of STR properties, including accurate permitting and assessment of penalties when necessary.

"Many municipalities are either considering or have already enacted primary residence and/or on-site host presence language into their laws as a requirement for legal short-term rentals. Drawing from a well-known hockey analogy, we have to skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is today. We believe our partnership directly addresses those concerns" said Allen Atamer, CEO and Principal Engineer for Harmari® STR.

Austin-based LAIS is wholly-owned subsidiary of the Linebarger law firm that has focused on identifying and collecting delinquent property taxes and other government receivables since 1976. The firm brings these and affiliated services to thousands if clients across the nation.

Peter Slover, LAIS Director of Analytics, is an attorney and former investigative reporter. Over a two-decade period at the Houston Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News, he pioneered the use of public data sets by journalists. He has worked for and with governmental agencies to discover underpaid revenue sources since 2007, when he served as Special Counsel and Director of Criminal Investigations at the Texas Comptroller's office. His expertise in using tax data analytics to identify non-compliance and tax evasion has been instrumental in allowing public agencies to recoup valuable revenues. "Effective data use is the starting place for detection and discovery in today's public sector," Slover said. "Beyond that, we bring our clients subject-matter expertise and old-fashioned shoe leather. That moves our services beyond raw data and into actionable intelligence."

SOURCE Harmari STR

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