Short-term rentals in Salisbury, explained properly.

A Rental Owner's License is issued by the HCDD director to an individual or legal entity that owns a majority interest in one or more dwelling units and authorizes it to register units as standard rentals or short-term rentals. A new owner of a rental dwelling unit must obtain the license within 60 days of becoming a new owner. The annual fee is set by ordinance (no amount shown on the chapter page). Renewal is due on or before March 1 each year with Finance; invoices are sent on or before January 15, by mail or electronically through the City's license and registration software.

The owner must provide documentation and a signed declaration of compliance attesting to compliance with the conditions listed in the registration clause, including compliance with all applicable city, state, and federal laws, working alarms, posted information, a guest registry, the license number on listings, payment of local taxes and fees, and written association confirmation where one applies.

The alarms must meet state and local law.

The information must be posted in a conspicuous place within each dwelling unit used as a short-term rental.

The registry is a minimum content list and must be kept available for inspection.

The requirement is to post a valid rental license number on every listing advertising the unit.

The confirmation must come from any applicable homeowners' association or condominium association and is submitted as part of registration.

A City tax rate is not shown here. We haven't reviewed the City's lodging tax provisions yet.

Failing to renew the Rental Owner's License or register a unit on or before March 1 makes the owner or unit noncompliant and brings a noncompliant fee, set by ordinance, if completed on or before July 1. If the license is not renewed by July 1 the owner is designated delinquent and the license is revoked, and the notice says all rental dwelling units are to be vacated within 60 days. A unit not registered by July 1 is a delinquent rental dwelling unit, and the owner is told to vacate any tenant within 60 days. A delinquent owner pays a delinquent fee, set by ordinance, with the current year's fee; registering a delinquent unit brings an inside and outside HCDD inspection and all violations must be corrected first. Fee amounts are not shown on the chapter page.

If HCDD finds that a short-term rental unit or its owner fails to comply with the licensing or registration standards, it starts an action and mails a notice. The director will deny, refuse to renew, revoke or suspend unless the owner appeals within 21 days after receipt of the notice. Sec. 15.26.110 says the unit is to be vacated within 60 days after denial, nonrenewal, revocation or suspension. Sec. 15.26.130 says that for a short-term rental dwelling unit the unit must be vacated within 48 hours. The two timeframes are both in the chapter and are not reconciled in the text reviewed here, so confirm with HCDD which applies.

The fine applies to any person found in violation of the chapter, and each further day can bring an additional citation and fine.

Section 11-101 of the Tax-General Article defines a short-term rental as the temporary use of a short-term rental unit (a residential dwelling unit or part of one, including a house, apartment, condominium or cooperative) to provide accommodation to transient guests for lodging purposes in exchange for consideration, and lists both an accommodation (a right to occupy a room or lodgings as a transient guest) and a short-term rental as tangible personal property. Section 11-104(a) sets the general sales and use tax rate at 6 cents for each exact dollar of the taxable price. The Comptroller of Maryland's 2016 tax alert on accommodations says that individuals who rent out their homes or rooms are accommodations providers who must register with the Comptroller and collect the tax, that the tax does not apply to monthly or permanent residents, and that all rentals in resort areas for terms of 4 months or less are subject to the tax. Local room or hotel taxes are shown on each place's page.

Section 11-101 defines a short-term rental platform as an Internet-based digital entity that advertises short-term rental units and is paid for facilitating reservations or processing booking transactions for the owner, operator or manager, and lists a short-term rental platform as a vendor. Section 11-403(a)(5) says sales include a booking transaction made through a short-term rental platform, and 11-403(b) requires a vendor to collect the sales and use tax from the buyer. Under 11-101(l)(5), when a platform facilitates a stay, the taxable price is the full amount the guest pays, not counting any tax remitted to a taxing authority; a commission paid by the host after the booking is not included. The Comptroller's 2016 alert says hosting platforms that collect payments on behalf of an owner must register and collect the tax, and that an owner's duty to collect is waived only when the platform gives the owner a resale certificate. A 2025 law (Chapter 638) rewrites these definitions from July 1, 2027 so that an accommodations intermediary includes a short-term rental platform. The sources read do not say whether a host who books through a platform that collects must still file returns; check with the Comptroller.

Chapter 9 of the 2026 Laws of Maryland (House Bill 1221) added Public Safety Article sections 9-1101 to 9-1106, effective October 1, 2026. They apply only to a short-term rental unit offered for less than 30 consecutive days. The host must conspicuously post an evacuation diagram identifying all exits and a list of emergency numbers for police and fire rescue, and provide a working fire extinguisher and working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Booking services must electronically notify hosts of these requirements and require each host to provide the inspection confirmation for each unit. By July 1, 2028, each county and Baltimore City must, by local law or regulation, require annual inspections of all short-term rental units for these requirements (this does not apply to a county that prohibits short-term rentals) and may charge an inspection fee. The law does not require a county or Baltimore City to allow short-term rentals and does not preempt other local measures. In the 2026 session, House Bill 993 (local rules on short-term rentals run by tenants) passed the House; its last action shown, on April 13, 2026, was Second Reading Passed in the Senate, and it has no chapter number.