Sutter County, CA Short-Term Rentals: Insurance Requirements (2026)

Unincorporated Sutter County does not require operators of short-term rentals to carry liability insurance or to name the county as additional insured, because the county has not adopted a short-term rental ordinance that would contain such a term. County Code Chapter 150 (Hotel/Motel Surcharge) addresses only registration and the 10% transient lodging surcharge; it sets no insurance minimum. The Zoning Code (Chapter 1500) does not define short-term rentals and imposes no STR insurance condition. By contrast, many California STR ordinances require operators to maintain commercial general liability coverage (often 500,000 dollars to 1,000,000 dollars); Sutter County has no equivalent mandate. In practice, coverage is governed by private arrangements: the operator's homeowner or landlord policy, any mortgage lender's requirements, and host-protection or host-guarantee programs offered by booking platforms such as Airbnb or Vrbo, none of which the county administers or verifies. Operators should confirm that a standard homeowner policy actually covers commercial transient use, since many exclude it, but that is a private insurance matter, not a county requirement.