Tiny home rules in Sacramento, CA — covering tiny houses on wheels (THOWs), park model RVs, and tiny home on foundation builds — determine where they are legal and how they get permitted.
The City of Sacramento does not have a stand-alone movable tiny house (THOW) ordinance like neighboring West Sacramento's Ordinance 24-9. Tiny homes are only allowed as permanent dwellings when built on a permanent foundation and permitted as an Accessory Dwelling Unit under City Code Chapter 17.228, Article XIV (ADU regulations) and the 2022 California Building Code adopted in SCC Title 15.
Sacramento treats a tiny home built on a permanent foundation as a single-family dwelling or ADU and reviews it under the same Title 17 standards as any other residential structure, including the accessory structure setbacks of SCC 17.624.050 and the ADU rules in SCC 17.228.XIV. Movable tiny houses built to ANSI 119.5 or NFPA 1192 are classified as recreational vehicles under California Health and Safety Code Section 18010 and Title 25 CCR; they cannot be occupied as permanent residences on a city lot and are limited to lawful RV parks or mobilehome parks. Unlike West Sacramento, which in 2025 adopted Ordinance 24-9 allowing THOWs as legal dwellings in most residential zones (up to 399 sq ft, utility hookups required, R-3 high-density excluded), the City of Sacramento has not adopted parallel legislation, so a THOW parked in a Sacramento back yard remains a recreational vehicle subject to RV storage and street-parking rules in SCC Title 10.
Living in a recreational vehicle or movable tiny house on private residential property is treated as an unlawful occupancy under SCC Title 17 zoning and the California Building Code adopted in SCC Title 15. The Code Enforcement Division can issue administrative citations under SCC Chapter 8.04 with escalating fines and require removal of the unit. Unpermitted use of an outbuilding as a dwelling can also trigger California Health and Safety Code substandard-housing notices.
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Side-by-side rule comparisons with other cities in Sacramento County.
See how other cities in Sacramento County handle tiny homes.
See how Sacramento's tiny homes rules stack up against other locations.
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