Several Middlesex County cities cap annual STR rental nights for non-owner-occupied units, with Cambridge limiting non-primary rentals and Somerville permitting owner-adjacent STRs under residency rules.
Some Middlesex County municipalities have adopted annual night caps or residency-based limits on short-term rentals to preserve long-term housing stock. Cambridge requires that STRs be operated from the operator's primary residence, with owner-occupied units, owner-adjacent units (a second unit in an owner-occupied two-family), or owner-adjacent in owner-occupied triple-deckers. Pure investor STRs (non-owner-occupied) are prohibited in Cambridge. Somerville imposes similar primary residence rules, effectively capping the operator to one host unit plus in some cases a second adjacent unit. Boston (which shares the Charles River with Middlesex) has a strict owner-occupancy rule with no hard night cap but only owner-adjacent and home-share categories. Other Middlesex towns (Lowell, Newton, Framingham, Waltham) have less restrictive caps or none, but may limit the number of days a non-owner-occupied unit can be rented annually to 90 or 180 nights. Check your municipality's STR ordinance for specifics.
Contact your local code enforcement office for specific penalty information.
See how Middlesex County's night caps rules stack up against other locations.
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