Hawai'i County's Bill 108 STVR rules apply to rentals where the owner does NOT live on site. Short-term use of an owner's primary residence (as defined under IRC Section 121) is excluded from the STVR definition. There is no county-wide primary-residence-only mandate for STVRs.
The STVR definition in Ordinance 18-114 targets non-owner-occupied rentals: "a dwelling unit of which the owner or operator does not reside on the building site." It expressly states, "This definition does not include the short-term use of an owner's primary residence as defined under section 121 of the Internal Revenue Code." So renting your own primary home short-term is not a Bill 108 STVR. Rather than requiring hosts to live on site, the county instead restricts non-owner-occupied STVRs by zoning: they are allowed by right only in resort/commercial districts, and elsewhere require a Nonconforming Use Certificate proving pre-April-2019 operation. Later hosted-rental bills (121-123) were proposed to close this gap.
Claiming a primary-residence exemption while operating a full non-owner-occupied rental can void the exemption and expose the operator to STVR registration and enforcement requirements.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Hawaii County, HI
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Hawaii County, HI
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Hawaii County, HI
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Hawaii County, HI
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Hawaii County, HI
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See how Hawaii County's primary-residence-only rule rules stack up against other locations.
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