Charlotte County, FL Accessory Structures: ADU Rental Restrictions (2026)

Under Section 3-9-2, a guest home is a dwelling unit in a building separate from and in addition to the principal residential building on a lot, intended for intermittent or temporary occupancy without compensation. That language is the county's rental restriction: a guest home is not a rental unit, it is an accessory living space for family or guests who pay nothing to stay there. Section 3-9-69(g)(8) sets the conditions the Zoning Division checks before issuing a conditional-use permit for one. In the RSF and MHC districts, the lot must be at least twice the minimum lot area required for a single-family dwelling, the guest home and main house must be under one ownership, the guest home must meet every development standard of its zoning district, and it must be built of the same materials and color scheme as the principal dwelling; the county also assesses an impact fee against it as if it were a full dwelling unit.

In the AG, EM and RE districts, only one accessory dwelling unit is allowed per single-family home, and if the parcel's base density does not already cover it, the owner must transfer a density unit onto the site under the county's transfer-of-density-units provisions before the guest home can be approved. The same ownership, materials-match, and impact-fee conditions apply. Because guest homes cannot be counted as separate rentable units and require this permitting path, leasing a detached guest home to an unrelated tenant is not a permitted use under this chapter.