Short-term rentals in Fowler, explained properly.

Sec. 5-25.03(D): while a dwelling is rented, the owner or host must be reachable by telephone 24/7 about complaints, and must be at the rental within 45 minutes of contact by an enforcement officer or the City's Police Department to correct the problem. Failing to respond in a timely and appropriate way is grounds for penalties under the chapter or Chapter 8 of Title 1. Sec. 5-25.03(K) separately treats failure to respond to an officer's request within 45 minutes as a violation, and says an owner or host is not expected to act as a peace officer or enter an at-risk situation. A "host" is the owner or the owner's designated agent (Sec. 5-25.02).

Sec. 5-25.03(A): the owner must mail or deliver in writing the name and telephone number of the person available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to the owners and occupants of properties contiguous to and directly across the street (or alley or other right-of-way) from the rental. Within 30 days of issuance of the license the owner must send the City Manager a dated certification under penalty of perjury that this was done, and must promptly update neighbors and the City if the information changes.

Sec. 5-25.03(L) bars musical instruments, loudspeakers, amplified or reproduced sound and similar devices outside or audible from outside the unit between 10:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. Sec. 5-25.03(M) bars lodgers' outdoor activities that use swimming pools, hot tubs, spas, tennis and paddleboard courts, play equipment and similar improvements in those hours, and treats them as quiet time when activities are conducted inside the unit. Sec. 5-25.03(O) makes loud, unnecessary or unusual noise that disturbs neighbors unlawful, and refers to Chapter 21 of Title 5.

Sec. 5-25.03(E): short-term rental units are to be used only for overnight lodging accommodations, and at no time for weddings, receptions, parties, commercial functions, advertised conferences or other similar assemblies that are separate from the purpose of lodging.

Sec. 5-25.03(I) applies to every short-term rental unit under the chapter. Vehicles of lodgers may be parked only in an approved driveway or garage on the unit. The number of vehicles is limited to the number of available off-street parking spaces, and the property must have at least two off-street spaces. The owner must give access to the garage if it counts toward the spaces. Landscaped areas, sidewalks, parkways, walkways, alleys, and blocking the driveway or the street in front do not count as off-street parking.

Sec. 5-25.03(F): all advertising in any written publication or on any website must include the City-issued business license number. Sec. 5-25.03(H): any advertisement must state the maximum number of occupants. Sec. 5-25.03(J): no on-site exterior signs may advertise the availability of the dwelling as a short-term rental. Sec. 5-25.03(Q): a sign inside the unit must tell lodgers all the rules and operational standards that apply to them.

Sec. 5-25.03(G). The chapter defines a dwelling as the habitable portions of a building designed for or occupied as a residence by one family or individual, and the short-term rental unit as the habitable interior space (or any portion) being rented (Sec. 5-25.02).

Sec. 5-25.05. The register shows all dates on which lodging was provided for compensation, the number of lodgers on each date, and the rent paid for each night. For rentals that are not the permittee's primary residence, an updated copy goes to the City Manager each January and July.

Sec. 5-25.03(N): trash and refuse may not be stored in public view except in proper containers for collection, containers go to the curb on pickup day and are removed by noon the following day, the owner must provide enough trash containers and service for the lodgers, and the property must be free of debris on site and in the adjacent street. Sec. 5-25.03(P): the owner and host must make sure occupants do not create unreasonable noise or disturbances or violate the Code or state law on noise, disorderly conduct, overcrowding, alcohol or illegal drugs, and must take any measures needed to abate disturbances.

Sec. 5-25.03(R): all short-term rentals are subject to the City's transient occupancy tax under Chapter 6 of Title 3. Sec. 5-25.06(B) treats a hosting platform as an operator for the limited purposes of collecting and remitting the tax for a booking transaction and keeping records. The tax rate and filing rules are in Title 3, Chapter 6, which was not fetched for this page, so no City rate or combined tax total is shown here.

Sec. 5-25.06(A). Under Sec. 5-25.06(B) a hosting platform also has the responsibilities of an operator for collecting and remitting the City transient occupancy tax on a booking and keeping and preserving records for City inspection.

Sec. 5-25.03(D) makes a failure of the owner or host to respond to calls or complaints in a timely and appropriate manner grounds for penalties "as set forth in this chapter and/or Chapter 8, of Title 1". The penalty amounts and procedures are in Title 1, Chapter 8, which was not fetched for this page.

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.