TROUBLESOME RENTAL HOME WAS PROPERLY REGISTERED
Neighbors had questions after gunfire on property
A Waterford Township home used as a short-term rental where gunfire erupted last week had a proper rental certificate.
A data-entry error made it appear that the certificate was on hold, said Waterford’s director of development services, Jeffrey Polkowski. The error was corrected on Monday, March 25, he said.
No one was hurt, but the March 19 gunshots at the Watkins Lake Road property just west of Scott Lake Road remain under investigation, according to Waterford police Lt. Scott Good.
The property’s owner, Adam
Wright, said some of the neighbors have blamed him for the incident, sending angry messages.
“While I am terribly sorry this happened and do feel horrible for the neighbors, I was completely misled by the guest, and they disconnected my camera system,” he said in an email to The Oakland Press, adding that the agreement limited the rental to eight guests, including visitors.
“I had stopped allowing large groups there long ago,” he said.
One adjacent neighbor has never contacted him about issues with the home’s status as a shortterm rental, he said. But another neighbor contacted him more than a year ago after a guest drove on that neighbor’s lawn. Within days of that problem, he ordered and installed security cameras to monitor the property
“I was extremely apologetic and offered to do whatever was necessary to prevent issues,” Wright said.
He provided documentation of the rental agreement with the renter’s name redacted. That person had rented the home for March 18 through March 23 with a limit of eight guests. After the March 19 gunfire incident, Wright canceled the rental agreement.
A video taken by a neighbor and posted to social media recorded dozens of gunshots being
exchanged.
Wright had advertised the home as a short-term rental for more than two years and now plans to sell the property,
he said.
Short-term rental certificates are not transferable, according to township officials. Each property must have a special-use request approved by the planning commission and be inspected by the township before it can get a rental certificate.