Short-term rentals in Apple Valley, explained properly.

Sec. 8.34.080(c) limits occupancy for any short-term rental to two occupants per bedroom, as defined in the California Building Code. An additional two occupants are allowed in short-term rentals that provide a separate living space. Total occupancy cannot be greater than the capacity of the number of vehicles that the off-street parking under subsection (d) can accommodate; subsection (d) counts vehicle capacity as four individuals per vehicle.

Sec. 8.34.080(d): properties offered as short-term rentals must provide sufficient designated and easily identified off-street parking spaces to meet the occupancy level offered. If multiple short-term rentals are offered concurrently on the same property, separate designated off-street parking spaces must be provided for each. Total occupancy cannot exceed the vehicle capacity of the designated spaces, counted at four individuals per vehicle. Where vehicle access is shared with multiple owners and privately maintained, a Parking Plan must be submitted (methods may include existing variances, shared maneuvering diagrams or conditions, signage, or agreements identifying designated spaces) with instructions for guests; the Town treats blocked access to shared maneuvering areas or guest parking outside designated spaces as violations.

Sec. 8.34.080(e) requires operators of short-term rentals to ensure payment of Transient Occupancy Tax in accordance with Chapter 3.24 of the Municipal Code. The rate and filing rules sit in Chapter 3.24, which was not fetched, so they are not shown on this page. California Revenue and Taxation Code section 7280 lets cities levy such a tax (see the California section).

Sec. 8.34.080(f): operators who violate Chapter 8.34 are subject to the penalty provisions in Section 8.34.060, are considered a public nuisance, and are subject to other judicial and administrative penalties and remedies available to the Town under Chapter 6.30 or state law. An operator may be issued an administrative fine of two times the rental value for the first night's violation, three times for the second night's violation, four times for the third night's violation, and continuing at the same ratio for each additional night's violation. Section 8.34.060 was not fetched.

California Revenue and Taxation Code section 7280 lets the legislative body of any city, county, or city and county levy a tax on the privilege of occupying a room or other living space in a hotel, inn, tourist home or house, motel or other lodging, unless the stay is longer than 30 days. A county's tax applies only in its unincorporated areas. The rate, registration and filing rules are set by each city or county, so the local tax is shown in the city's own section of this page.

Government Code sections 50990 to 50996 (Senate Bill 346, 2025) apply only in a city or county that adopts an ordinance making them apply. Where they apply, a booking platform must, on the local agency's request, report the physical address with nine-digit ZIP code of each short-term rental it facilitated (no more often than every 3 months, or monthly if the local tax is remitted monthly), and must include in each listing any applicable local license number and any transient occupancy tax certification issued by the local agency. The local agency may fine a platform that does not report. The act does not stop a city or county from regulating short-term rentals, platforms or tax collection in other ways.

Government Code section 66333(g) requires a city's junior accessory dwelling unit ordinance to require that a rental of a junior ADU be for a term longer than 30 days (as amended by Assembly Bill 1154, in force January 1, 2026). Section 66323(e) requires a city to require that a rental of an ADU created under that section (the ministerial, by-right approvals) be for a term longer than 30 days. For other ADUs on a lot with a single-family home, section 66315 bars standards beyond section 66314, including owner occupancy, except that a city may require that the property be used for rentals of terms 30 days or longer. Cities can be stricter in their own codes; see the city section.

Civil Code section 4741 says an owner in a common interest development is not subject to a governing-document provision that prohibits, has the effect of prohibiting, or unreasonably restricts renting or leasing a separate interest, ADU or junior ADU, and an association may not cap rentals below 25 percent of the separate interests. The same section says it does not prohibit an association from adopting and enforcing a provision that prohibits transient or short-term rental of a separate property interest for 30 days or less. Check your association's governing documents.

Civil Code section 1940 applies the chapter on hiring of real property (Civil Code sections 1940 to 1954.071) to tenants, lessees, boarders, lodgers and others who hire dwelling units, but excludes a person in transient occupancy in a hotel, motel, residence club or other facility when the stay is or would be subject to a transient occupancy tax under Revenue and Taxation Code section 7280 (stays of 30 days or less). Stays longer than that are not covered by this exclusion.

In a December 6, 2016 letter to coastal cities and counties, the California Coastal Commission said that regulating short-term or vacation rentals in the coastal zone must happen within the local coastal program or under a coastal development permit, because it changes the intensity of use and access to the shoreline and so counts as development under the Coastal Act. The Commission said it does not believe outright bans adopted outside that process are legally enforceable in the coastal zone, that it has not historically supported blanket bans, and that it has supported limits such as caps on numbers by area, limits on days, occupancy limits, 24-hour response, parking, noise and signage rules and payment of transient occupancy tax. This applies only to places inside the coastal zone.