Santee, CA Accessory Structures: ADU Rental Restrictions (2026)

Section 13.10.045(D)(3) of the Santee Municipal Code sets a flat 30-day minimum lease term for every accessory dwelling unit and junior accessory dwelling unit in the city: "No ADU or JADU may be rented for a term that is shorter than 30 days." The rule reaches backward as well as forward. The code specifies the prohibition "applies regardless of when the ADU or JADU was created," so an ADU built years before this restriction was adopted is bound by it the same as a unit permitted today.

The 30-day floor sits alongside a companion rule in subsection (D)(4): an ADU or JADU can be rented, but except as allowed under Government Code Section 66341, it may never be sold or conveyed apart from the lot and the primary dwelling on a single-family lot, or apart from the lot and all dwellings on a multifamily lot. Together, the two provisions steer ADUs toward the long-term rental market and toward staying bundled with the parcel, rather than becoming stand-alone vacation units or separately titled properties.

Development Services administers ADU permits ministerially, and the 30-day rental floor applies no matter how the unit was approved, whether under the limited, building-permit-only track in subsection (F) or the fuller review track in subsection (G). Owners advertising a Santee ADU on a short-term platform for stays under a month are outside the ordinance even if every other permit condition is satisfied.