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

The insurance requirement lives inside § 16-415(b), the subsection listing everything a short-term rental application must contain. Item (5) requires the applicant to sign an acknowledgment covering four things at once: that the unit is legally permitted and meets Fire and Building Code habitability standards, that the space meets or exceeds fire and life-safety requirements including smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and adequate egress, that the city may inspect the property under § 16-232, and, at subitem (D), that the host has valid insurance that explicitly covers short-term rental activity.

Unlike the special-event insurance rule elsewhere in Chapter 16, which sets a minimum coverage limit by council resolution, § 16-415 does not fix a dollar amount or specify a particular policy type; it requires only that the coverage the host already carries be valid and expressly extend to short-term rental use, since a standard homeowner's policy commonly excludes commercial or transient-rental activity. The acknowledgment is sworn: the whole application is filed under penalty of perjury under § 16-415(b). A false statement about insurance coverage exposes the host to the same consequences as any other material misrepresentation on the application, including denial of the permit under § 16-415(h) if a prior permit was suspended or revoked for a similar violation, and to suspension or revocation of an existing permit for engaging in fraud, misrepresentation, or false statements on the application under § 16-419's general violation provisions, which also authorize a civil fine up to $1,000 for a first offense.

The insurance acknowledgment must also be renewed: § 16-416(b)(1) requires a renewal application to include all the information required by § 16-415(b), so the insurance attestation is not a one-time filing but a recurring condition of keeping the permit.