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

Subsection C.11 of Milpitas's Short-Term Rental ordinance sets a specific dollar floor for liability coverage: liability insurance is required of the operator, or hosting platform on behalf of the operator, in the amount of no less than $500,000. The Subsection then carves out a narrow exception to the proof requirement, not to the coverage itself: proof of liability insurance is not required if hosting activity is only handled by a hosting platform that already extends similar liability coverage, meaning an operator who books exclusively through a platform that carries its own qualifying host-protection policy does not have to separately document a $500,000 policy at permit application, though the coverage amount the ordinance requires does not change.

The insurance duty sits among the same General Requirements, Subsection C, that impose the Good Neighbor Manual in Subsection C.14 and the indemnification obligation in Subsection C.15, under which the owner must defend and hold the City harmless from claims arising out of the STR's operation; together the three provisions shift both the practical and the legal risk of an STR incident away from the City and onto the operator or the platform standing behind the listing. Because the insurance requirement is a General Requirement rather than a one-time application item, the Director's annual Subsection E compliance review can confirm coverage is still in force for the life of the permit, not only at the time it was first issued.