Aliso Viejo, CA Accessory Structures: ADU Rental Restrictions (2026)

Subsection (H)(4) of Aliso Viejo Municipal Code § 15.14.080 sets a flat rental floor: no ADU or JADU can be rented for a term that is shorter than 30 days. The code adds that the prohibition applies regardless of when the ADU or JADU was created, so a unit built before the current ordinance is held to the same floor. Subsection (H) applies to all Class 1 and Class 2 ADUs and JADUs, whether the unit was approved with a building permit only or through a development review permit.

Subsection (H)(5) confirms that an ADU or JADU can be rented, but bars separate sale. Except as Government Code Section 66341 provides, no unit can be sold or otherwise conveyed separately from the lot and the primary dwelling on a single-family lot, or from the lot and all of the dwellings on a multifamily lot. For a JADU, the deed restriction recorded before the certificate of occupancy must state that the JADU may not be sold separately from the primary dwelling, and the director enforces it.

A companion rule sits in AVMC 15.14.165, which prohibits short-term rental uses such as transient bed and breakfast, hostel, hotel, inn, lodging, motel and resort uses for remuneration in all residential districts, except as otherwise permitted by the municipal code. That section reaches beyond the host: any property owner, tenant, subtenant, occupant, agent, real estate broker, real estate agent, property manager or reservation service who arranges or negotiates the short-term use of residential property is liable under Chapter 1.06 AVMC.