STR Explainers · Updated July 26, 2026

Primary-Residence STR Rules: What “Owner-Occupied” Actually Means (2026)

Last verified: July 27, 2026. Residency rules and the documents that prove them change often, and several of the cities below rewrote theirs in the last 18 months. Confirm every threshold with the agency that issues the licence before you rely on it. This page is research, not legal advice.

The short answer

A “primary-residence” or “owner-occupied” short-term rental rule means the city will only licence the home somebody actually lives in — and in most of these cities that somebody does not have to be the owner. San Diego will licence a tenant who supplies a “Right to Occupy Document.” Orlando will register a renter who supplies notarised permission from the landlord. What the city is really buying with the rule is a resident on the premises, not a name on the deed.

The second thing hosts get wrong is that “primary residence” is not one definition. It is at least four, written by four different authorities, with four different tests — a municipal day count, a parish or county property-tax exemption, and two separate federal income-tax definitions that do not match either. A property can be your primary residence for one of them and not for another, in the same tax year, legally.

This page pulls the actual tests out of the primary sources and out of our own city database, so you can see which one applies to you.

“Owner-occupied” usually does not mean you have to own it

The phrase is a misnomer in most of the ordinances that use it. The operative requirement is occupancy; ownership is a separate question the city handles with paperwork.

San Diego is the clearest published example. Its Short-Term Residential Occupancy (STRO) programme requires that, if the Host is not the property owner, the applicant obtain a Business Tax Certificate and provide a “Right to Occupy Document” — which the City Treasurer describes as “a document that shows the host can legally occupy the dwelling unit and can sublease for less than a month per guest stay.” The city names two acceptable forms: “A lease agreement that includes a clause allowing the host to occupy and operate STRO for less than one month,” or “A written statement from the property owner confirming the host’s right to occupy, including the owner’s and host’s signatures.”

The city goes further in its own FAQ. Asked what happens if a homeowner rents to college students during the school year and wants to short-term rent in summer, San Diego answers that the owner would need a Tier 3 or Tier 4 whole-home licence — but that “If the college student met the requirements of a Host, the college student could apply as the Host. In this case, a Tier 2 license would apply if the college student resided onsite at least 275 days per year.” The tenant, not the owner, holds the licence.

Orlando is the same shape with a price signal attached. Its Home Sharing registration requires that “The resident must live on site and be present when hosting guests,” and that “If registrant is not the property owner, they must provide notarized permission from the landlord or owner to operate.” The annual fee then splits: first year $275, and after that $100 “if owner lives on the property” or $125 “if non-owner occupied property.” Orlando charges a renter more to home-share — but it lets them. See our full breakdown on the Orlando and Kissimmee rules page.

Austin handles it with documents rather than a separate category: the mail-in licence packet asks for “Proof of tenancy, if applicable,” and “If the applicant is not the property owner, a completed, notarized Agent Authorization Form” completed by the owner. More on the types in our Austin licence guide.

The exceptions matter, though. Two markets in our database tie the permit to ownership, not just occupancy. Our New Orleans page records that a residential (NSTR) permit is available only on a property carrying a homestead exemption — which is a property-tax status only an owner-occupier can hold, so a tenant is structurally excluded. Our Nashville page records that an owner-occupied (Type 1) permit requires the owner to permanently reside at the property and to be a natural person, so LLCs, corporations, trusts and partnerships cannot hold one. Both of those city pages carry their own last-verified dates, and both cities’ own websites block automated verification from our infrastructure (see Sources below) — so treat them as our recorded findings and confirm with the city.

Four different “primary residences,” four different tests

This is the distinction no host is warned about: the word is doing four unrelated jobs.

Which “primary residence”	Who decides	The actual test
STR licence — occupancy tier (San Diego Tier 2)	City Treasurer	Host resides onsite and is “absent from the permanent residence during the whole home STRO for up to 90 days per calendar year”; the city’s FAQ states the equivalent as occupying the unit “no less than 275 days per year”
STR licence — day count (Denver)	City licensing agency	You may licence only the home you live in; our Denver page records the threshold as at least 183 days per year (see hedge below)
STR licence — presence test (Orlando Home Share)	City Planning	Resident must “live on site and be present when hosting guests,” and supply “two forms of proof of residence to establish primary residency”
Property-tax homestead (New Orleans NSTR eligibility)	Parish or county assessor	The property carries a homestead exemption — an owner-occupier status granted for property-tax purposes, not a rental rule at all
Federal income tax — “use as residence”	IRS, 26 U.S.C. § 280A(d)(1)	You use the unit “for personal purposes for a number of days which exceeds the greater of— (A) 14 days, or (B) 10 percent of the number of days during such year for which such unit is rented at a fair rental”
Federal capital gains — “principal residence”	IRS, 26 U.S.C. § 121(a)	The property was “owned and used by the taxpayer as the taxpayer’s principal residence for periods aggregating 2 years or more” during the 5-year period ending on the sale

Read those two federal rows again, because they invert the intuition. Under § 280A a home counts as your “residence” after only 14 days of personal use — a threshold you cross on one holiday — while your city may demand 275. And § 121 is the only one of the six that actually requires ownership. A host who says “it’s my primary residence” is making a claim that is true under one definition and false under another, and the licensing office does not care which one you meant.

There is a live consequence: § 280A(g) provides that if a dwelling unit is used by the taxpayer as a residence “and such dwelling unit is actually rented for less than 15 days during the taxable year,” no deduction for the rental use is allowed — and the rental income is excluded. That is the origin of the “14-day rule” you see repeated on host forums. It is a federal income-tax provision. It has nothing to do with whether your city will licence you, and it does not create a 14-day licence exemption anywhere.

What the city actually accepts as proof

The published proof lists are narrower and stranger than hosts expect. San Diego’s is the most specific we have found in any of our markets. The City Treasurer states it “may require proof that my dwelling unit is the host’s primary residence for a Tier 2 Homeshare license,” and that acceptable proof “may be any of the following, provided that it shows the host name and dwelling unit address as the Host mailing address: mailing label from a magazine, DMV registration, payment coupon (return portion) from any of the following SDG&E, phone, cable, water and sewer bill, etc.”

Note what that list is doing: every item is a piece of third-party mail addressed to you at that unit. It is a mail-delivery test, not a residency affidavit. A host who runs all correspondence through a mailbox service or an accountant’s address can occupy a home 300 days a year and still fail it.

Orlando asks for “two forms of proof of residence to establish primary residency” without publishing a list, so ask the Planning Division what they will take before you pay. Our Denver page records the proof set as driver’s licence, voter or vehicle registration, tax-return address and utility bills.

Practical rule

Before you apply, redirect at least two recurring pieces of real mail — a utility account and a vehicle or voter registration — to the rental address, and give them a billing cycle to arrive. Every proof regime we have read is satisfied by documents that take weeks to generate and cannot be produced retroactively.

Absence: the number that decides whether you can rent the whole house

The most valuable figure in a primary-residence ordinance is usually not the residency threshold. It is the absence allowance — how long you may be away while still counting as the resident. That number is what converts a room-rental permit into a limited whole-home permit.

San Diego publishes this plainly for Tier 2: the Host “may be absent from the permanent residence during the whole home STRO for up to 90 days per calendar year.” The city’s FAQ works the example directly — a host planning roughly 70 nights of whole-home rental who is not a permanent resident is told that “STRO of 21 to 89 days per year is not allowed under the STRO Ordinance,” but that “if the dwelling unit is the Host’s primary residence that they occupy for no less than 275 days per year, then a Tier 2 license could be obtained while still allowing 70 days of whole-home STRO.”

And San Diego runs the same logic in reverse for investors, which almost no guide mentions. Whole-home Tier 3 and Tier 4 licences carry a minimum utilisation duty: the city notes that “The ordinance requires STRO utilization for a minimum of 90 days each year during the term of the license in order to maintain a Tier 3 or Tier 4 license (§510.0107(c)),” enforced through quarterly reports, with the city stating the ordinance “does not include any exceptions to this requirement” even for cancellations outside the host’s control. A residency rule caps how much you may rent; a utilisation rule punishes you for renting too little. Both are occupancy tests.

The one-licence ceiling

Primary-residence rules come bundled with a portfolio ceiling that is easy to miss. San Diego states that “A Host may only hold one license and may not operate more than one dwelling unit for STRO at a time; licenses are not transferrable between ownership or location/dwelling unit.” Read together with the residency tiers, that is the actual policy: one person, one home, the one they live in.

For reference, San Diego’s current fee schedule — approved by City Council as of March 1, 2025 — is Tier 1 $33 application plus $193 licence; Tier 2 $33 plus $284; Tier 3 and Tier 4 $41 plus $1,129, all non-refundable, with licences expiring two years from issuance under section 510.0106(d). The residency tiers are an order of magnitude cheaper than the whole-home tiers. Details on our San Diego STRO page.

Where there is no primary-residence rule at all — and why

In several of our markets the rule is not merely absent; a state legislature has taken it off the table.

Arizona is the cleanest case. A.R.S. § 9-500.39 opens: “A city or town may not prohibit vacation rentals or short-term rentals.” Subsection (B) is the one that kills owner-occupancy mandates: “A city or town may not restrict the use of or regulate vacation rentals or short-term rentals based on their classification, use or occupancy except as provided in this section.” An owner-occupancy requirement is a regulation based on occupancy, and the section’s list of what cities may do does not include one. That is why Scottsdale can demand a licence, insurance, an emergency contact and guest sex-offender checks but cannot ask whether you live there — see our Scottsdale page and the Arizona state overview.

Florida restricts its cities differently. Fla. Stat. § 509.032(7)(b) provides that “A local law, ordinance, or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals,” but adds that “This paragraph does not apply to any local law, ordinance, or regulation adopted on or before June 1, 2011.” So Florida splits in two, as our Florida state overview explains. Post-2011 regimes live in the registration-and-inspection lane: Panama City Beach, whose current ordinance took effect in 2024, imposes no owner-occupancy requirement, no minimum stay and no zoning restriction — the binding constraint there is a fire inspection. Grandfathered pre-2011 cities have far more room, which is how Miami Beach sustains outright bans in most residential districts. Whether a post-2011 Florida city could lawfully impose an owner-occupancy requirement has not, as far as we can establish from the statute alone, been squarely settled — we are not asserting either way.

Elsewhere the gatekeeper is simply zoning rather than residency: neither Myrtle Beach nor Gatlinburg asks who lives in the house — they ask what district it sits in.

Where primary-residence rules bite in our database

Market	Residency rule?	Can a non-owner hold it?
San Diego, CA	Tier 2 only — host resides onsite, absent up to 90 days/yr; Tier 1 requires no residency; Tiers 3–4 are whole-home	Yes — with a Right to Occupy Document
Denver, CO	Yes, strict — primary residence only; investor STRs barred (threshold recorded as 183 days/yr)	Confirm with Excise & Licenses
Austin, TX	Type 1 is the owner-occupied type; Type 2 exists for non-owner-occupied whole homes	Yes — proof of tenancy plus notarised agent authorisation
Nashville, TN	Type 1 requires the owner to permanently reside there and be a natural person	No — ownership is required for Type 1
New Orleans, LA	Residential (NSTR) permits limited to homestead-exemption properties	No — homestead exemption implies owner-occupancy
Orlando, FL (city limits)	Home Share only — resident lives on site and is present while hosting; half the bedrooms maximum	Yes — notarised owner permission; $125 renewal instead of $100
Scottsdale, AZ	None — preempted by A.R.S. § 9-500.39(B)	n/a
Panama City Beach, FL	None — post-2011 regime, registration and inspection only	n/a
Myrtle Beach, SC	None — zoning district decides	n/a
Gatlinburg, TN	None — zoning district decides	n/a

Every row links to the page that sources it, and each of those pages carries its own last-verified date, because these rules move independently of one another.

What breaks your status

Moving out. The licence attaches to you at that unit. San Diego’s licences are “not transferrable between ownership or location/dwelling unit,” so selling or relocating ends it rather than transferring it.
Overshooting the absence allowance. A Tier 2-style permit is a residency claim renewed by your continued presence; the absence cap is the enforceable edge of it.
Retitling into an entity. Where the ordinance names a natural person — Nashville’s Type 1, per our page — moving the deed into an LLC can disqualify the permit even though nobody moved out.
Losing the underlying tax status. Where eligibility runs through a homestead exemption, as our New Orleans page records for NSTRs, an assessor’s decision about property tax silently decides your rental permit.

FAQ

Do I have to own the property to get an owner-occupied STR permit?

Often no. San Diego, Orlando and Austin all publish a documented path for a tenant or non-owner operator. New Orleans (homestead exemption) and Nashville Type 1 (natural-person owner residing there) are the ownership-required cases in our database.

How many days a year do I have to live there?

There is no national number. San Diego’s published figures are residency onsite with absence of no more than 90 days per calendar year, which its FAQ expresses as occupying the unit no less than 275 days per year. Our Denver page records at least 183 days. Orlando’s test is not a day count at all — you must be present while hosting.

Does the IRS 14-day rule mean I can rent 14 days without a permit?

No. 26 U.S.C. § 280A(g) is a federal income-tax provision about deductions and income exclusion when a residence is rented fewer than 15 days in a year. It creates no municipal licensing exemption. Some cities do have a low-volume tier — San Diego’s Tier 1 covers rentals of 20 days or less per year and requires no onsite residency — but that is the city’s rule, not the IRS’s.

Can I hold permits on two homes if I live in both?

Not in San Diego: “A Host may only hold one license and may not operate more than one dwelling unit for STRO at a time.” One-permit ceilings are common alongside residency rules; check yours before buying a second property on that assumption.

Can a city require owner-occupancy anywhere?

No. Arizona has preempted it outright under A.R.S. § 9-500.39(B), which bars cities from regulating short-term rentals “based on their classification, use or occupancy” beyond what the statute permits.

Is a primary-residence permit proof my rental is legal?

It is one of the layers. You may still need a business licence, a lodging-tax account and a zoning check — and a tax account is never itself proof of legality. See our transient occupancy tax explainer for the tax layer.

Sources & verification

Every quoted sentence below was retrieved and matched in the fetched page body on July 27, 2026 — not taken from a search summary.

City of San Diego, Office of the City Treasurer — Short-Term Residential Occupancy: sandiego.gov/treasurer/short-term-residential-occupancy (HTTP 200). Source of the tier definitions, the 90-day absence allowance, the 275-day FAQ figure, the proof-of-residence list, the Right to Occupy Document requirement, the one-licence rule, § 510.0107(c) minimum utilisation, § 510.0106(d) two-year term, and the fee schedule approved as of March 1, 2025.
City of Orlando — Home Sharing Registration: orlando.gov/homeshare (HTTP 200). Source of the live-on-site and present-while-hosting requirement, the two-forms-of-proof requirement, the notarised landlord permission requirement, and the $275 / $100 / $125 fee split.
City of Austin — Short-Term Rentals: austintexas.gov/development-services/short-term-rentals (HTTP 200). Source of the Type 1 / Type 2 / Type 3 application set, proof of tenancy and the notarised Agent Authorization Form.
A.R.S. § 9-500.39 via the Arizona Legislature: azleg.gov (HTTP 200). Subsections (A) and (B) quoted verbatim.
Fla. Stat. § 509.032(7)(b) via the Florida Senate: flsenate.gov (HTTP 200). Preemption and the June 1, 2011 carve-out quoted verbatim.
26 U.S.C. § 280A(d)(1) and (g) and 26 U.S.C. § 121(a) via Cornell Legal Information Institute: § 280A, § 121 (HTTP 200 each). Statutory text quoted verbatim.

Hedged, not asserted. Three of the figures on this page could not be re-verified against the issuing agency’s own text from our infrastructure this week, and are presented as findings recorded on our own city pages rather than as fresh primary confirmations:

Denver’s 183-day threshold and proof list — denvergov.org returned a 537-byte placeholder to our tooling rather than page text, and denver.municipal.codes returned 403. Our Denver page records both from earlier verification; confirm with Denver Excise & Licenses before relying on the day count.
Nashville’s natural-person and permanent-residence requirement — nashville.gov blocks automated requests domain-wide (the page is live in a browser). Recorded on our Nashville page.
New Orleans’ homestead-exemption condition for NSTRs — the current nola.gov Short-Term Rental Administration pages we could read do not restate it. Recorded on our New Orleans page from earlier verification against the city; confirm with the Department of Safety and Permits.

We also did not assert whether a post-June-2011 Florida city may lawfully impose an owner-occupancy requirement; § 509.032(7)(b) speaks to prohibition, duration and frequency, and we could not settle the occupancy question from the statute alone.

Compare

Last verified: July 27, 2026. Residency thresholds, absence allowances, accepted proof documents and fees change without much notice, and several of the ordinances above were amended in 2024–2026. Confirm your own city’s current rule with the agency that issues the licence. Nothing here is legal or tax advice. Found something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it. How we research and verify: our editorial and sourcing policy.