Salt Lake County, UT Short-Term Rentals: Host Presence Rule (2026)
Key Facts
- On-site host
- not required by county code
- Responsible party
- must reside or have an office in the county
- Availability
- reachable by phone 24 hours a day
- Response time
- must respond within 20 minutes (§5.19.070(C)(3))
- Liability
- responsible party personally liable for mismanagement
- Noncompliance risk
- license suspension or revocation (§5.19.040(B))
Summary
Salt Lake County does not require an owner or host to live on site at a licensed short-term rental. Instead, Code §5.19.070(C) requires every licensee to name a responsible party based in the county who is reachable by phone around the clock and must respond to any inquiry within twenty minutes.
5.19.070 - Maintenance—Structures and grounds—Other requirements and limitations. ...C.Responsible Party.1.The licensee must designate a responsible party who is an individual or property management company residing or maintaining an office in Salt Lake County.2.The responsible party is personally liable for failure to properly manage the short-term rental.3.The responsible party must be available by telephone, or otherwise, twenty-four hours per day and must be able to respond to inquiries within twenty minutes of receipt of an inquiry.D.The licensee must have a sales tax collection and sales tax accounting number for the rental operation and the sales tax number must be included on the short-term rental application. All applicable taxes, charges and fees, including the transient room tax, must be paid in full during the period of licensure.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 49).
Full Breakdown
030, is a list of conditional uses permitted in the R-M zone (apartments, bed and breakfasts, boardinghouses, hotels, lodginghouses and similar uses) plus generic setback and parking standards for multi-unit development; it says nothing about host presence and does not govern this topic. 19, the county's short-term rental licensing chapter. 030(A)(6) already requires the application to list a local responsible party's name, address and phone number. 070(C) spells out what that role means: the licensee must designate an individual or property management company that resides or maintains an office in Salt Lake County, that person is personally liable if the rental is mismanaged, and they must be reachable by phone or otherwise twenty-four hours a day and able to respond to inquiries within twenty minutes of receiving them.
Subsection (D) of the same section separately requires a sales tax accounting number on the application and full payment of all taxes, fees and the transient room tax throughout the license period. 180.
Violations & Fines
A licensee whose responsible party can't be reached by phone at all hours, or who fails to respond to an inquiry within twenty minutes, is out of compliance with §5.19.070(C) and exposes the license to suspension or revocation under §5.19.040(B)/§5.07.020, appealable under §§5.02.140-5.02.180. Section 5.19.090 makes each day a violation continues, and each day applicable taxes or fees go unpaid, a separate offense.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Salt Lake County require someone to physically stay at my short-term rental?
Who counts as the 'responsible party' for a Salt Lake County short-term rental license?
How fast does the responsible party have to respond to a complaint or maintenance call?
What happens if a short-term rental's responsible party isn't reachable?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Salt Lake County
Compare Salt Lake County to another location·View the Utah short-term rentals overview
See something wrong?
Help us keep this page accurate. If you notice an error or outdated information, let us know.