DeKalb County, GA Short-Term Rentals: Repeat Violator Strikes (2026)

4 gives the director of the department of planning and sustainability distinct powers over short-term rental permits in unincorporated DeKalb County. The director is authorized to deny an application, or a renewal of one, pursuant to Sec. 15-45. More sharply, the provision says the director shall suspend or revoke an existing permit based on a determination that one or more of the conditions outlined in Sec. 15-45 has occurred. The word shall matters: once the determination is made, suspension or revocation follows rather than being left to the director's discretion.

The phrase one or more matters just as much, because it means there is no accumulated-strikes threshold anywhere in the rule. A single confirmed condition, such as false information on the application, code violations on the premises, or operating under an unregistered name, is enough by itself to end the permit. Owners who lose a permit are not without recourse: the Code routes appeals to a hearing officer under Sec. 15-46, within the Code's appeal deadlines. The rule reaches only unincorporated DeKalb County, so it governs the county-issued short-term rental permit rather than any permit issued by a city inside the county.