Hemet, CA Short-Term Rentals: Primary-Residence-Only Rule (2026)

Some California cities limit short-term rentals to an owner's primary residence or otherwise cap non-owner-occupied 'whole-home' STRs. Hemet's publicly reported approach did not adopt that kind of restriction. When the City Council introduced its STR ordinance on June 10, 2025, the City Attorney described it as a light-touch model focused on registration, transient occupancy tax collection, and good-neighbor rules for noise, parking, and litter, and explicitly contrasted it with the more detailed, restrictive regimes some jurisdictions impose. The reported framework contained no primary-residence or owner-occupancy mandate, suggesting that both owner-occupied and non-owner-occupied short-term rentals on residentially zoned property may register and operate, subject to TOT and the good-neighbor conditions. Because the ordinance was newly introduced and was still being finalized, an operator who intends to run a non-owner-occupied (whole-home) rental should confirm directly with the City of Hemet that the adopted text contains no owner-occupancy condition. Note also that this is a city determination: Riverside County's separate STR rules for unincorporated areas should not be read as imposing a primary-residence rule inside Hemet.