Short-term rentals in Citrus Heights, explained properly.

Sec. 22-453(b), added by Ord. No. 2025-002 (5-28-2025), prohibits the use of accessory dwelling units constructed after January 1, 2020, inclusionary housing units and other income-restricted housing units as short-term rentals. The rule for accessory dwelling units built before that date is not shown here. California law on accessory dwelling units is covered in the state section of this page.

Sec. 22-452 defines a short-term rental as any residential dwelling located within the city that is rented in whole or in part on a short-term basis, and a short-term basis as 30 consecutive calendar days or less to the same person or entity, counting portions of calendar days as full days. A guest is a person who occupies for 30 consecutive calendar days or less and is treated as a transient until the 30 days expire, unless there is a written agreement between host and guest for a longer period. A minimum or maximum number of nights beyond this definition is not shown here.

Sec. 22-457 says the license expires one year from the date of issuance, or sooner when the licensee stops the authorized operation or the license is revoked. Renewal requires the host to acknowledge that all payments of the required transient occupancy tax for the rental have been remitted to the City as required by Sec. 86-107.

Sec. 22-458 says the short-term rental business license may not be transferred to another person or property and does not run with the land, and that it automatically expires upon sale or transfer of the property.

Sec. 22-455(c) says no person shall advertise any short-term rental without an issued short-term rental business license. Whether the license number must appear in the advertisement is not shown here.

Sec. 22-455(d) requires the host to fully comply with all the requirements of Chapter 86 (Transient Occupancy Tax) and any successor sections. Sec. 22-457(c) ties license renewal to an acknowledgement that the tax has been remitted (Sec. 86-107), and Sec. 22-459 allows revocation for failure to remit it. Chapter 86 was not among the pages read for this record, so the rate and filing schedule are not shown here, and this page gives no combined tax total.

Sec. 22-455(a) reads: short-term rentals shall not be used by more than two guests per bedroom plus two additional guests between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. The sentence can be read as limiting overnight use only or as a general occupancy cap with an overnight add-on; which reading applies is not shown here, so confirm with the City before relying on a number.

Sec. 22-455(b) sets this performance standard and requires the short-term rental activity to comply with all provisions of the City of Citrus Heights Municipal Code. Numeric quiet hours or noise limits are not shown here; other chapters of the Code not reviewed yet for this record may cover them.

Sec. 22-453(a) says the chapter does not grant any permission that invalidates or supersedes provisions regarding short-term rentals within properties subject to the rules of a homeowners or condominium association. California law on association rules is covered in the state section of this page.

Sec. 22-459 says the short-term rental business license may be revoked for failure to remit the transient occupancy tax required by Chapter 86, and that revocation occurs as outlined in Sec. 22-114 (Method of Revocation). Sec. 22-114 was not among the pages read for this record, so its notice and appeal steps are not shown here.

Sec. 22-460 says failure to comply with any provision of the chapter may constitute a violation. Sec. 22-456 adds an extra processing fee for late applications or late renewals. The penalty provisions of the Municipal Code that set fines were not among the pages read for this record.

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.