Auburn, AL Short-Term Rentals: Repeat Violator Strikes (2026)

Both of Auburn's short-term rental categories carry the same two-strike enforcement mechanism. For an owner-occupied homestay, Section 511.04(e) authorizes the Planning Director to revoke the home occupation approval if the City receives two or more substantiated complaints within a calendar year, or if the owner fails to maintain compliance with any of the homestay regulations in Section 511.04, covering things like the 90-day unhosted cap, the more-than-180-day residency requirement, and the ban on private events. The consequence extends well past the current complaint: an owner whose homestay permit is revoked under this paragraph cannot receive any new home occupation approval for a homestay for the rest of the calendar year in which it was revoked, and for the entire calendar year that follows, a lockout that can run close to two years depending on when in the year the revocation happens.

The City's other short-term rental category, the Short-Term Non-Primary Rental defined in Section 203 and regulated in Section 408.02.D.6, carries an identical two-complaint revocation trigger and identical lockout period under Section 408.02.D.6.c, so an owner cannot escape the strike system by switching between an owner-occupied homestay and a non-owner-occupied rental. The Planning Director's authority to inspect an approved home occupation's premises on reasonable request, under Section 511.04.C.3, is what typically generates the evidence behind a substantiated complaint. Beyond the permit consequences, a person who keeps operating after revocation is subject to the general zoning penalty in Section 909, up to a $500 fine and six months in jail per day of continued violation.