Pearland, TX Rental Inspections: Inspection Programs (2026)

Section 20-113 of the Code of Ordinances requires an initial inspection before a short-term rental permit is used. Once an applicant applies for a permit, and before any guest occupies the property, the applicant must schedule an inspection of the residential structure with the fire marshal's office to confirm six minimum occupancy standards: the number of bedrooms, a working smoke detector in each bedroom, a working smoke detector in the hallways, two means of escape from each bedroom, working carbon monoxide detectors, and a fire extinguisher that is present, accessible and inspected.

If the inspection turns up a deficiency in any of those standards, subsection (b) requires the city to give written notice, and the applicant is responsible for scheduling a re-inspection; the permit cannot issue until the property passes. The inspection duty does not end at opening. Subsection (c) requires each owner to certify in writing, every year, that the premises still complies with the initial occupancy standards before the city will renew the permit, and subsection (d) gives the city discretion to perform additional inspections at any time a violation is reported or suspected, independent of the annual renewal cycle.

This inspection program sits inside Article IX, Short-Term Rentals, which the city rewrote entirely under Ordinance No. 1611, adopted April 11, 2022, and it works alongside the permit application requirements of Section 20-112 and the operating restrictions of Section 20-114, such as the one-vehicle-per-bedroom parking rule and the ten-person occupancy cap.