Apex, NC Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

After reviewing the Apex Unified Development Ordinance, the Apex Code of Ordinances (Chapter 5 - Buildings, including Article VII Housing Code), and Apex's published planning materials, there is no codified short-term-rental-specific occupancy cap such as a per-bedroom-plus-an-adder formula. Apex regulates occupancy through three layers of generally-applicable rules. First, the Apex Housing Code in Code of Ordinances Chapter 5, Article VII codifies basic habitability standards for residential dwellings: minimum room sizes for sleeping rooms, basic light and ventilation requirements, sanitation, plumbing fixtures per occupant, and smoke alarms. The Housing Code allows the Apex Inspections Department to require corrective action where a dwelling is overcrowded or unsanitary. Second, the North Carolina State Building Code (applicable statewide and enforced by Apex through the Inspections Department) governs structural egress, smoke and CO alarm placement, and life-safety equipment; each bedroom must have a code-conforming egress (a door to the exterior or an egress window meeting size and sill-height standards), smoke alarms must be installed in each sleeping room and on each floor, and CO detectors must be placed near sleeping areas in dwellings with fuel-burning appliances or attached garages per NC law. Third, North Carolina G.S. 160D-1207(c) preempts Apex from imposing additional STR-specific occupancy conditions through a registration or permit framework; the only registration the state permits is the chronic-violator registration (4+ verified Article 11/12 violations in 12 months or 2+ in 30 days), and the fee for that is capped at $500 per 12-month period. The practical operating rule for Apex STR operators is therefore to size guest capacity to the bedrooms that are actually designed and built as bedrooms with code-conforming egress, smoke alarms, and CO detectors; not to market dens, lofts, finished basements without egress, or other non-bedroom rooms as sleeping space; and to keep total occupancy proportionate to the dwelling's water, sewer, and septic capacity to avoid Housing Code complaints. Common industry-norm formulas (such as 'two persons per bedroom plus two' or 'two persons per bedroom') are not codified by Apex but are reasonable house-rule guidelines. Operators should also confirm any HOA covenant occupancy limits, which in some Apex subdivisions cap maximum guests independently of the town code. The lack of a codified town occupancy cap does not authorize overcrowding; an overcrowded dwelling is still actionable under the Housing Code by complaint and inspection, and repeated Housing Code violations are precisely the chronic-violator pathway that triggers the 160D-1207(c) registration backstop.