Short-term rentals in Guntersville, explained properly.

Sec. 13-131(3) requires the owner to give the name, address and telephone number of an emergency contact with the STR permit application. The contact must respond within one (1) hour to complaints about the condition or operation of the STR or conduct of renters or their guests, must be able to respond on-site within twelve (12) hours if requested by the city, and must answer calls twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week for the duration of each short-term rental period. Before any change to the emergency contact, the owner must submit the revised contact information to the city building official.

Sec. 13-131(5) requires all STR owners to obtain and maintain vacation rental property insurance that covers the lodging use of the site. Proof of insurance must be provided within thirty (30) days of the issuance of the STR permit and resubmitted each year for renewal of the STR permit.

Sec. 13-131(6) says the dwelling may not be rented to more than one (1) party simultaneously and that occupancy is limited to no more than two (2) persons plus two (2) persons per bedroom. To count as a bedroom, the room must meet the minimum requirements of the International Building Code adopted by the city. The city building official determines the number of bedrooms as part of the permit application process (Sec. 13-131(7)), and the owner must by written agreement with the renter limit overnight occupancy to the maximum occupancy approved with the permit (Sec. 13-131(8)).

Sec. 13-131(4) says the STR may only be rented for lodging use and may not be rented for weddings, parties, concerts or similar events or used for such events during any short-term rental period.

Sec. 13-131(9) provides that no on-premises signage legible from any right-of-way may advertise the STR.

Sec. 13-131(11) requires the STR to have adequate off-street parking to accommodate all occupant parking needs, and all occupant vehicles must park off the street and on the STR property. No recreational vehicles, buses, boats or trailers may be stored on the street or forward of the front property line of the STR property. Sec. 13-131(18) defines vehicles to include cars, trucks, motorcycles and off road vehicles. This applies to short-term rentals of dwellings in districts zoned residential.

Sec. 13-131(12) says no food may be prepared or served to rental occupants by the STR property owner.

Sec. 13-131(13) requires a copy of the article, the STR permit, emergency contact information and house rules that comply with the article to be posted in a conspicuous place in the STR. The STR rental party must sign a document indicating it received all of these documents. Under Sec. 13-131(14), on notification that a renter or guest has violated the article or any noise, garbage or other city provision, the owner or emergency contact must promptly notify the renter and take action needed to prevent a reoccurrence.

Sec. 13-131(15) requires each owner, upon issuance of an STR permit or upon changes to an existing permit, to give written notice to all owners of residentially zoned property who own property adjacent to the STR property. The notice includes the names and telephone numbers of the owner and emergency contact (if not the owner), the city telephone number by which members of the public may report violations, and the maximum number of renters permitted to stay in the unit. The permit application must include the name and address of all property owners who own residential property adjacent to the STR property.

Sec. 13-131(17) makes the property owner responsible for paying an additional rate, as set by the city, for any garbage containers exceeding two (2) thirty-two-gallon containers. All garbage containers must be stored out of sight of the street on the days not scheduled for garbage pickup by the city. The rate itself was not read. Sec. 13-131(10) also requires the owner and all occupants to comply with all applicable city ordinances, including building construction, fire safety, noise, mandatory recycling and garbage collection and disposal.

Sec. 13-132(2) provides that the city may in its discretion issue a warning if the person has not been previously warned or cited under the article. The first time a person is found to have violated a provision of the article the fine is five hundred dollars ($500.00); any second or subsequent time the fine is one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) for each subsequent violation. Before fines, the city notifies the owner in writing of the provisions violated, the corrective action and a compliance due date, and uses best efforts to contact the owner or emergency contact by telephone; violations by renters are considered violations by the property owner (Sec. 13-132(1)). Written notice of fines and hearings is delivered to the property owner by U.S. mail to the address on the permit application (Sec. 13-132(6)).

Under Sec. 13-132(3), if a building, fire safety or property maintenance violation has not been corrected by the compliance date, the city may cause the STR permit to be temporarily suspended; when a first time violation has been corrected, the permit is re-instated for the rest of its current approval period, and the city may extend the compliance date if substantial progress has been made. Under Sec. 13-132(4), when noise, occupancy, parking, trespass or other conduct violations occur more than once in the same license year or within any six-month period, or a fine is not paid within thirty (30) days of delivery of notice, the city may set a hearing before the city council for revocation of the permit. A permit holder who disagrees with a finding of violation may request a hearing before the city council (Sec. 13-132(5)); notice of hearings is given at least ten (10) days before the hearing, and any person who disagrees with the council's decision may appeal de novo to the Circuit Court of Marshall County, Alabama (Sec. 13-132(6)-(7)).

Section 40-26-1 of the Code of Alabama levies a privilege or license tax on every person in the business of renting or furnishing rooms, lodging or accommodations to transients in any hotel, motel, inn, tourist camp, tourist cabin or any other place in which rooms, lodgings or accommodations are regularly furnished to transients for a consideration. The rate is 5% of the charge in the 16 counties of the Alabama mountain lakes area (Blount, Cherokee, Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Etowah, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Morgan and Winston) and 4% in every other county, and the charge includes any charge for personal property and services furnished in the room. The tax does not apply to rooms, lodgings or accommodations supplied for 180 continuous days or more. The Alabama Department of Revenue says lodgings tax is collected through an account at My Alabama Taxes, and that counties and cities may add their own lodgings taxes of between 1% and 13%, some collected by the Department, some by third-party administrators and some by the local government itself. Local lodgings taxes are shown on each place's page.

Section 40-26-1.1 of the Code of Alabama (the Alabama Tourism Tax Protection Act of 2024, Act 2024-334) says an accommodations intermediary, meaning a business other than the owner that facilitates a lodging transaction and charges the guest a room or accommodations fee it keeps as compensation, must collect and remit the state lodgings tax and parallel local levies for transactions on or after January 1, 2025. The tax is charged on the room charge, the full retail price the guest pays including any fees. When the intermediary handles the booking for an accommodations provider (an owner with an active lodgings tax account who collects and remits the tax), the tax collected may be remitted to the provider if an executed written agreement says who remits it, and the intermediary is then not liable for tax the provider fails to remit. The intermediary must state the tax separately on the bill. Where the owner has hired a licensed professional property management company, that company is the merchant of record. The Department of Revenue's notice describes the same rules. Which local lodgings taxes a platform collects in a given place is not stated in these sources; check with the platform and the local tax office.

Section 40-26-1.1(g) requires every accommodations intermediary and accommodations provider to submit an annual report, in a form set by the Department of Revenue, listing the physical address of each accommodation rented or furnished for more than 14 days during the previous year; the report is confidential taxpayer information. Exempt are licensed professional property management companies that collect and remit the state lodgings tax (or manage homes leased for a month or more as the tenant's principal residence), hotels that collect and remit the tax, tourism marketing organizations funded by the tax, and marina, tent camping and RV providers that collect and remit it. The Department of Revenue's notice describes the same reporting rule and exemptions.