The city appears to be on the job — at last — where policing the rules about vacation rentals are concerned.

Two weeks ago, the Department of Planning and Permitting, through a vendor, began the crackdown against illegal short-term rentals, and as of this past weekend, delinquency notices for past-due violation fines went out to 20 accounts.

The department has hired a collection agency, Aargon Agency Inc., for this work. Another good sign: The contract required no payment up front but the agency will keep 18% of what it collects.

So there’s motivation for aggressive enforcement beyond what the three additional inspectors hired by DPP can provide. Excessive overtime costs can be avoided.

Further, Mayor Rick Blangiardi has concluded that the best approach is to make those fines stick, and this makes sense. Prior assumptions were that fines had a scare-them-straight purpose, leading to more settlements for partial payments rather than collections in full.

Residents now know how well that approach worked out (it didn’t). If violators of the vacation- rental ordinance are going to stay within the lines, they need to see the city is serious about the high penalties, which can reach $10,000 per day.

That law, Ordinance 22-7, took effect in October, and it is strict but reasonable. It limits new vacation rentals to specific zones. There is a grace period after a violation is issued: The property owner has 30 days to correct any problem before the penalty is assessed.

If a lapse is not corrected, the new rules direct the city to issue a notice of order, which gives the owner two months to pay. A demand letter follows, granting three more months for fine payment.

These kinds of allowances are common features of an enforcement protocol, but indulgence needs to end, ultimately. Serial offenders must not be tolerated.

And it’s important, right now, to have these guardrails in place. The lure for owners to put vacation-rental units back on the market is building, alongside the rebound in tourism and in Waikiki business.

COVID-19 and the ensuing shutdown of tourism triggered a deep decline in the tally of vacation-rental units. But in September, just before the new ordinance went live, state figures show the count had bounced back up to 181,500 available unit-nights.

The financial draw is even more striking, according to the figures. The average daily rate for a vacation rental in February was $251, up 13.5% from 2022 and up 58.6% from February 2019.

Of course, there are legal complications to keeping this in check, too. The ordinance faces a legal challenge from the nonprofit Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance, due to the law’s prohibition of rental terms shorter than 90 days.

This is because the alliance in 2019 had sued over the city’s previous vacation-rental law, leading to a stipulated court order that units rented on 30-day terms did not constitute illegal vacation rentals. Ordinance 22-7 does not allow the 30-day rental practice to continue.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson on Oct. 13 enjoined the city from enforcing rules covering rentals for terms between 30 and 89 days while the case is still unresolved. The alliance has complained that the enforcement actions are in contempt of the injunction.

Encouragingly, according to court records, parties are working on another agreement. A telephone conference is set for April 6.

A settlement of these disputes is to be sought swiftly, clearly defining Oahu’s short-term rental policy going forward. This ordinance rightly aims to right-size the vacation-rental sector, which is all but impossible without firm enforcement of the rules.