Orange County, NY Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Permits (2026)

Orange County's short-term rental registration mandate arrives through Local Law No. 12 of 2025, which the County Legislature adopted on November 24, 2025 to amend Local Law No. 13 of 2009, previously the Orange County Hotel, Motel and Occupancy Tax Local Law. The amendment opts the county into New York Real Property Law Article 12-D as a covered jurisdiction, extending the county's existing hotel and motel oversight to short-term rental units, defined broadly to include houses, apartments, condominiums, cooperative units, cabins, cottages and bungalows rented to transient occupants where the operator-occupant relationship is not landlord and tenant.

Section 7(1) of the amended law directs the Commissioner of Finance to establish a registration system and to write implementing regulations consistent with Real Property Law § 447-c. Once an operator registers, Section 7(2) requires the Commissioner to issue a certificate of authority within five business days, plus a duplicate for each additional unit the same operator runs. The certificate must name the specific hotel or short-term rental unit it covers and must be displayed prominently where occupants and prospective guests will see it.

The certificate carries real conditions: it is nonassignable and nontransferable, and it must be surrendered to the Commissioner of Finance immediately when the unit stops operating or changes hands. Section 18(6), also amended by Local Law No. 12, backs the registry with a recordkeeping mandate: operators must track the type of unit, services rendered, rooms occupied daily, leases, rents received and occupant names, and furnish that information to the Commissioner on request. Anyone selling or transferring a registered unit's business must additionally notify the Commissioner by registered mail at least ten days before closing, under Section 17(4).