Memphis, TN Short-Term Rentals: Repeat Violator Strikes (2026)

Section 5-44-7, titled 'Compliance,' closes out Chapter 5-44 by tying the short-term rental permit itself to the property's track record under the rest of the Memphis Code. The council's stated intent is that complaints about a short-term rental be resolved under the city's existing public nuisance, vehicle and traffic, health and safety, and public peace, morals, and welfare ordinances rather than a separate short-term-rental court system. The enforcement teeth come in the next sentence: continued use of the property as a short-term rental unit will be prohibited, and the permit revoked, if, as a direct result of operating the unit, it has been found to be in violation of a generally applicable local law three or more separate times by a court of competent jurisdiction, and the operator has no appeal rights remaining for any of the three violations.

The section places the burden of proof on the city to establish that each violation was a direct result of the short-term rental operation, not an unrelated issue at the property. Because the strikes must come from a court and every appeal on each one must be exhausted, the revocation trigger is a final adjudicated record rather than a citation or complaint alone, and it operates independently of the show-cause suspension and revocation grounds already built into § 5-44-5(E) and (K) for a non-responsive responsible party or a fraudulent application.