Tuscaloosa, AL Rental Inspections: Inspection Programs (2026)

Sec. 7-205 makes inspection a condition of every short-term rental business license issued or renewed under Sec. 7-200, and ties the inspection directly to the safety standards set out in Sec. 7-204. For a short-term rental in a single-family dwelling, subsection (a) requires the initial inspection to be performed by a licensed home inspector or another individual the city's chief building official approves, using an inspection report form the chief building official has established. At renewal, the property does not need a brand-new inspection every year: an inspection report performed less than twenty-four (24) months before the renewal date can stay on file with the revenue division, but the property owner still must certify at each renewal that nothing has changed since that report was written.

Subsection (b) puts a different inspector in charge of the higher-occupancy property types: short-term rentals operating out of bed and breakfasts or multi-family buildings must be inspected by the city fire department, the building inspector, or both, rather than by a private licensed home inspector. That distinction matters because bed and breakfasts and multi-family rentals also carry heavier Sec. 7-204 obligations, including full building and fire code compliance rather than the base seven-item safety list that applies to a single-family whole-house rental.