Short-term rental permit rules in Hendersonville, TN — also called Airbnb permits, vacation rental licenses, or STR registration — list the application steps, fees, and operating requirements for hosting.
Operating a short-term/vacation rental in the City of Hendersonville is categorically prohibited in all residential zoning districts and is permitted only in two commercial zones: Old Town Commercial (OTC) and General Commercial (GC). The framework was adopted by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen in 2016 (Ordinance 2016-16) as an amendment to the Hendersonville Zoning Ordinance under Title 14 (Zoning and Land Use Control). Each commercial-zone STR must obtain three items before advertising or booking: an Engineered Site Plan, a Use and Occupancy Permit, and a City of Hendersonville business license. The 2016 ordinance was challenged constitutionally by an investor-owner; Sumner County Circuit Court Judge Robert E. Lee Davies initially struck it down (July 30, 2021) but reversed his own ruling on November 3, 2021, upholding the ordinance under rational-basis review as a reasonable regulation of residential neighborhood character. The Tennessee Short-Term Rental Unit Act (TCA 13-7-602 to 13-7-606) protects properties that were lawfully operating as STRs before the October 2016 ordinance, but Hendersonville's documented enforcement record shows that owners who purchased properties after 2016 (such as J and J Ventures at 540 Indian Lake Road and 107 Breakwater North, purchased 2022) do not qualify for legacy protection and are subject to permanent injunction.
Hendersonville's short-term rental framework is administered by the Hendersonville Planning Department (planning@hvilletn.org, 615-264-5316) and the Codes Department, both housed at City Hall, 101 Maple Drive North, Hendersonville, TN 37075 (615-822-1000). The Hendersonville Zoning Ordinance (Title 14 of the Municipal Code) defines a 'vacation rental' or 'short-term rental' as 'a dwelling unit or other structure rented and/or used exclusively by a person or group of persons for lodging for terms of less than 30 days.' Rentals of 30 continuous days or more fall outside the STR framework. Owner-occupied dwellings where the owner lives full-time and rents only a portion of the home are also expressly excluded from the STR definition - a hosted room-rental arrangement is not a vacation rental for ordinance purposes. The substantive geographic rule was adopted by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen in October 2016 as Ordinance 2016-16, amending the zoning ordinance to permit vacation rentals only in the Old Town Commercial (OTC) and General Commercial (GC) zoning districts and to prohibit them in every residential zoning district (R-10, R-15, R-20, R-25, R-30, R-40, R-80, and the various PUD residential overlays). Each commercial-zone STR must complete three approvals before operation: (1) an Engineered Site Plan reviewed and approved by the Planning Department, addressing parking, ingress/egress, lighting, and life-safety; (2) a Use and Occupancy Permit issued by the Codes Department upon successful building/life-safety inspection; (3) a City of Hendersonville business license issued by the Finance Department. Operators must also register with the Tennessee Department of Revenue for state sales and privilege tax collection, with Sumner County for the county hotel/motel occupancy tax, and with the City of Hendersonville for the city hotel/motel tax (4% under Ordinance 2023-13). The Tennessee Short-Term Rental Unit Act (Public Chapter 972 of 2018, codified at TCA 13-7-601 through 13-7-606) provides statewide grandfather protection for short-term rental operators who were lawfully operating before the October 2016 Hendersonville ordinance took effect, but Hendersonville's documented enforcement record indicates a very small legacy footprint - properties purchased after October 2016 do not qualify, and the city has been aggressive in pursuing post-2016 violators in court. The most prominent enforcement matter, City of Hendersonville v. J and J Ventures LLC (Jeremy and Jessica Durham, owners), involved properties at 540 Indian Lake Road (purchased April 2022) and 107 Breakwater North off Bonita Parkway (purchased August 2022). After multiple municipal court convictions (July 2023 nearly a dozen counts; August 2023 sixteen citations), Sumner County Circuit Court Judge Joe Thompson granted a permanent injunction on October 7-9, 2024. The Middle Tennessee Court of Appeals vacated the injunction on February 17, 2026 and remanded the case for additional factfinding regarding actual rental usage, but the underlying 2016 ordinance and its commercial-only zoning framework remain fully in force.
Operating a short-term/vacation rental in any Hendersonville residential zoning district is a zoning violation enforceable by the Codes Department and prosecutable in Hendersonville Municipal Court under the Hendersonville Zoning Ordinance and Title 14 of the Municipal Code. Tennessee law authorizes municipal court fines of up to $50 per day per violation plus court costs for zoning violations of this type, and each day of unpermitted operation may be charged as a separate offense - the J and J Ventures matter accumulated nearly two dozen daily citations across two properties before the city sought injunctive relief in chancery/circuit court. Operating in a permitted commercial zone (OTC or GC) without the required Engineered Site Plan, Use and Occupancy Permit, and business license is independently actionable. Hendersonville has demonstrated willingness to seek permanent injunctive relief in Sumner County Circuit Court against repeat violators after exhausting municipal court remedies, with the J and J Ventures permanent injunction granted October 7-9, 2024 as the leading local precedent (vacated on procedural/factual grounds February 17, 2026 by the Middle Tennessee Court of Appeals; underlying ordinance unaffected). The Tennessee Short-Term Rental Unit Act at TCA 13-7-603 limits the city's authority to retroactively shut down properties that were lawfully operating before October 2016, but the city's documented position is that the legacy footprint is minimal and that the three-strike termination rule under TCA 13-7-603(a)(3) - three violations of generally applicable local laws permanently terminate legacy protection - is an active enforcement tool.
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