Short-term rentals in Hoover, explained properly.

Sec. 6-51 defines a short-term rental as the rental of any short-term rental unit, or any part of it, to a transient for overnight occupancy for a period of less than thirty consecutive calendar days, counting portions of calendar days as full days. A transient is a person or group who resides in, possesses or inhabits a short-term rental unit for less than thirty consecutive calendar days. A short-term rental unit is any building, structure or portion of one used for short-term rentals, but not a structure in a district where short-term rentals are not permitted under the Zoning Ordinance (unless the article otherwise permits it), and not a hotel, motel, boarding house or rooming house. Sec. 6-50(a) says the article applies to all rentals of short-term rental units within the city.

Sec. 6-51 defines an operator as a person or enterprise that owns or is the proprietor of a short-term rental unit, in any capacity (owner, lessee, sublessee, mortgagee in possession, licensee, managing agency, rental agent or other), and that wants to rent the unit to a transient. To be eligible as an operator, a person or enterprise must be the owner or proprietor of the property or be designated in writing by the owner as the owner's agent. Where the operator works through a managing agency or rental agent, that agency or agent has the same duties as the operator. A managing agency or rental agent also includes a person or enterprise that owns more than one short-term rental unit.

Sec. 6-55 requires an application on the planning and zoning department's form with the operator's name and contact information, the property address, an emergency contact, a list of the hosting platforms that will advertise the property, and a sworn statement acknowledging receipt of the article and attesting that: smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms are installed as the adopted fire and building codes and the fire marshal or department require; emergency contact information and a floor plan showing fire exits and escape routes are posted in a prominent place in the unit; the unit complies with the minimum property maintenance, building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing codes; the property complies with the zoning ordinance; the operator has made best efforts to notify the immediately adjacent properties of the application; the operator has signed an acknowledgement of the Chapter; and the property has no outstanding taxes or municipal code violations. Documents required with the application are a driver's license or government-issued ID, a deed or other instrument showing the right to possess the property, a list of the platforms to be used, a survey showing the number and location of parking spaces, a floorplan showing the bedrooms to be used for guests, and a certificate of insurance showing either a homeowner's policy rider that expressly covers short-term rentals or a commercial policy covering short-term rentals at the permitted address, each with at least $1,000,000 of liability and personal injury coverage. The insurance must indicate that the policy will not end before the permit period is complete without 30 days' written notice to the City Clerk. Fraud, misrepresentation or false statements in the application materials are grounds for immediate suspension or revocation of the permit by the City Council.

The Sec. 6-55 application must name an emergency contact for the operator who is able to respond on premises to complaints at any time during the day or night when the property is occupied by a transient, with the contact's primary physical mailing address, cell phone number and email address. The permit issued by the City must show the operator's contact information (name, cell phone and email) for complaints by guests or neighbors, and that person must be available at any time to respond to on-premises complaints.

Sec. 6-57 says no short-term rental unit may exceed a maximum guest occupancy of two persons per bedroom or such other occupancy number as the fire marshal determines. Subject to the limits of parking availability within the property, one parking space per bedroom is required at each unit for guests. Guests must park all vehicles in designated parking areas of the rental property, and overnight street parking by transients is strictly prohibited.

Sec. 6-52 makes it unlawful to rent a short-term rental unit to a transient without complying with the article, and says the article does not supersede the prohibition of short-term rentals by a homeowner's association, by a controlling entity, or by other covenants agreed upon by the owner of a property. A City permit therefore does not override a private prohibition.

Sec. 6-56 lets an operator, in lieu of obtaining an annual short-term rental permit, rent a unit for seven consecutive days in a calendar year for a special event held in the City regardless of the zoning classification of the unit. The operator must still obtain a short-term rental permit for each property and comply with Sec. 6-55's permit provisions except as Sec. 6-56 provides, and must obtain a business license for each short-term rental unit location. Each special-event application carries a nonrefundable fee of $300 to help defray the City's processing costs and to cover the payment of any lodging taxes owed for that rental period. The section was adopted by Ordinance 23-2592 (February 6, 2023) and amended by Ordinance 23-2596 (March 20, 2023).

Sec. 6-58 says that if the city police receive three valid and substantiated complaints within a twelve-month period about a short-term rental property, the planning and zoning department must suspend the operator's permit for that property for no less than six months. If the permit is suspended a second time within two consecutive years, the suspension for the second consecutive year is for no less than twelve months. A third suspension within three consecutive years revokes the permit permanently. The operator may appeal a suspension or revocation to the City Council by written notice to the City Clerk within seven days; the appeal is heard no later than thirty days after, at the next regularly scheduled Council meeting. Separately, Sec. 6-55(f) makes fraud, misrepresentation or false statements in the application materials grounds for immediate suspension or revocation by the City Council.

Sec. 6-59 says a person who violates or continues to violate the article is guilty of a violation, and each act and each day of violation is a separate offense. On finding a violation the building official or a designee issues a written notice by first class mail or hand delivery that identifies the violation, orders a correction and gives a time to comply; if the violation is not corrected in that time, a citation or notice to appear in municipal court may be issued. On a guilty finding the court may impose a fine or imprisonment or both in accordance with Secs. 1-5 and 1-6 of the Code, which were not read for this page, so no amount is stated here. Sec. 6-60 says a violation of any part of the article is a public nuisance per se and that the City may bring equitable or injunctive proceedings to abate prohibited uses. Sec. 6-61 preserves the City's other remedies under its Code and state and federal law.

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.