DeKalb County, GA Short-Term Rentals: Noise Rules (2026)

Under Sec. f, an owner applying for a short-term rental permit must submit an agreement to use best efforts to assure that occupants' use of the premises will neither disrupt the neighborhood nor interfere with neighboring property owners' rights to the quiet enjoyment of their properties; that agreement is a required part of the annual permit application filed with the county's business license division. Sec. 7 goes further and directly prohibits owners and short-term rental agents from advertising, marketing, or promoting the use of the rental for a special event, listing parties, concerts, reunions, banquets, weddings and receptions as examples, with failure to comply exposing the permit to suspension or revocation.

Sec. 9 then makes explicit that every short-term rental remains subject to the county's nuisance and noise regulations under Chapter 16 of the DeKalb County Code, meaning the general noise ordinance applies to short-term rental guests exactly as it would to any other residential occupant. Together these three provisions give the county three separate levers against a noisy or party-oriented rental: the quiet-enjoyment pledge in the permit application, the outright special-event advertising ban, and the underlying Chapter 16 noise ordinance that any neighbor can invoke regardless of the rental's permit status.

These rules apply only to short-term rentals located in unincorporated DeKalb County; a rental within Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Tucker, Stonecrest, Decatur or any of the county's other cities is instead governed by that city's own short-term rental and noise ordinances.