Broomfield, CO Short-Term Rentals: Primary-Residence-Only Rule (2026)

Chapter 5-39 of the Broomfield Municipal Code defines a short term rental as renting all or part of a dwelling for under thirty days, but section 5-39-050 flatly prohibits doing that unless the unit is the owner's principal residence. Section 5-39-010(B) defines principal residence as the dwelling where a person lives more than half the year, and it builds in four presumptions against that status: the unit is presumed NOT a principal residence if it is offered for rental more than twenty days in any month, if the owner's spouse or domestic partner has a different home, if the owner's driver's license, voter registration or a dependent's school registration lists a different address, or if the Broomfield County Assessor's mailing address differs from the dwelling address.

Any one of those four facts can defeat an owner's claim that a listed property is their principal residence. Section 5-39-050 further requires the property owner to be a natural person, or the named beneficiary of a trust that holds title, appearing on the recorded deed for the rented dwelling; corporate-owned investment properties cannot be licensed as short term rentals at all. This ties directly into the license application under section 5-39-030, and section 5-39-040 sets a $100.00 application or renewal fee for a five-year license.

A license found to cover a non-principal residence is enforced through the show cause hearing process in section 5-39-090 before the local licensing authority, which can revoke the license under section 5-39-100.