Short-term rental permit rules in Tulare County, CA — also called Airbnb permits, vacation rental licenses, or STR registration — list the application steps, fees, and operating requirements for hosting.
Unincorporated Tulare County has no stand-alone short-term rental permit. The Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on July 9, 2024 to reject a proposed county-wide STR ordinance, so the only county-level requirement to operate is registering with the Treasurer-Tax Collector for a Transient Occupancy Registration Certificate before renting.
Tulare County Code Article 1-05 (Finance) governs the Transient Occupancy Tax. The code requires that 'Every person engaging or about to engage in business as an operator of a hotel or short-term residential rental in the unincorporated area of Tulare County shall register with the Tax Collector' on a form provided by the Tax Collector's office. The certificate itself states that it 'signifies that the person named on the face hereof has fulfilled the requirements of the Transient Occupancy Tax Law of the County of Tulare by registering with the Tax Collector for the purpose of collecting from transients the Transient Occupancy Tax and remitting said tax to the Tax Collector,' but expressly does not constitute a land use or business permit. The 'operator' definition reaches the owner/proprietor (principal operator) and also any managing agent, booking agent, room seller/reseller, online travel agent, or other agent (secondary operators). On July 9, 2024 the Board of Supervisors held a public hearing on a draft county-wide STR ordinance that would have added zoning permits, posted-notice requirements, occupancy caps, and good-neighbor rules and rejected it on a 3-2 vote (Supervisors Vander Poel, Townsend, and Micari voting against adoption; Supervisors Valero and Shuklian voting to adopt). As a result, no STR-specific permit, registration, or zoning clearance is presently required at the county level beyond the TOT certificate.
Operating without the required Transient Occupancy Registration Certificate is a violation of Article 1-05. The Tax Collector may issue a deficiency determination, impose the standard 10% delinquency penalty (plus an additional 10% second-month penalty and 0.5%/month interest), and record a Certificate of Delinquency and Transient Occupancy Tax Lien against the operator and property. Continued violation of the Ordinance Code is generally enforceable as a misdemeanor or infraction under the County's general penalty provisions.
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