Scranton, PA Short-Term Rentals: Primary-Residence-Only Rule (2026)

A of the zoning ordinance ties short-term rental status directly to owner-occupancy: the dwelling has to be the owner's permanent address, and the owner must occupy it for at least six months out of every calendar year. That single requirement rules out the classic investor model of buying a house purely to list it online with no one living there full time. The same section layers on additional operating conditions. Subsection B makes every short-term rental subject to the City's existing noise, nuisance and property maintenance ordinances.

Subsection D limits any individual guest stay to seven continuous days, so the use has to function as short-term lodging rather than a disguised long-term tenancy. Subsection C adds a real consequence for guest misconduct: if a house guest is convicted of a disturbance of the peace on the premises, the owner loses the right to continue operating that dwelling as a short-term rental at all. Because the short-term rental use lives inside Chapter 445, it is administered like any other zoning use, meaning the Zoning Officer processes it and enforcement runs through the same enforcement-notice and civil-judgment machinery in § 445-77 that governs the rest of the zoning code.