Short-term rentals in Vista, explained properly.

The City's page says the Vista STR ordinance excludes any accessory dwelling unit, and quotes the definition: short-term rentals exclude any ADU permitted under Chapter 18.31 of the Development Code, any trailer coach, and any oversized recreational vehicle. It adds that under state law rentals of ADUs must be for terms longer than 30 days. The quoted definition comes from the ordinance as the City reproduces it on its page; we haven't reviewed the code text itself.

The City runs a paperless online system for the STR Program. The application must be submitted by the property owner(s) or authorized agent, and the application is not saved unless it is completed and payment is submitted at the final step. Information needed: STR property address, number of bedrooms, number of on-site parking spaces, whether the unit is hosted or non-hosted, the number of fire extinguishers, smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms, and the name and contact information of all owners on the deed (an authorized agent applies for entities such as partnerships and corporations). Required uploads: a copy of the application and all other forms renters complete, a copy of the house rules given to renters, and a copy of current government-issued photo ID. Planning Department staff review the packet; once fees are collected, Business License staff email a single certificate covering the Business License, TOT Certificate and STR Permit. Fee amounts are not shown on the page.

The City's page lists the 24/7 local contact person with the owner(s) and agent(s) who must review VMC Chapter 8.34, and tells complainants to report issues to the 24/7 Local Designated Contact, found on the portal map or list. The response time and duties of the contact are not shown on the page, and we haven't reviewed Chapter 8.34.

The City's page says to report the issue to the 24/7 Local Designated Contact, found by zooming in on the portal map and selecting a property or by clicking List in the portal, and then to submit a complaint through the online portal or by phone at 760.650.3758.

The City's page says failure to comply with VMC Chapter 8.34 may result in Code Enforcement action against the unit, which includes and is not limited to fines, suspension and/or revocation of the Short-Term Rental Permit. Fine amounts and procedures are in the code, which we haven't reviewed yet.

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.