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The Fort Worth City Council on Tuesday approved a registration ordinance for legal short-term rentals in Fort Worth.
A short-term rental, sometimes referred to as a “vacation rental,” is a residential property available for rent for guest lodging for a period ranging from one to 29 days.
Legal short-term rental property owners must register by June 1. Registration cost is $150 for the initial year and $100 per year for renewals.
Registration applies only to properties properly zoned to operate a legal short-term rental. Owners of properties not properly zoned can request a zoning change for short-term rental or change to legal long-term rental (30-plus days).
In addition to registration, provisions of the approved ordinance include:
- Registrations are nontransferable.
- Collection of hotel occupancy tax for the property.
- Minimum stay is one night.
- A local responsible party must be available 24/7 to respond to concerns at the property. The local responsible party may be the property owner or an operator working on behalf of the owner.
- No more than one group is allowed to inhabit the property at a time.
- Rentals are limited to two persons per bedroom, plus two additional persons, with a maximum of 12 people staying in the property at one time.
- Only on-premise parking is allowed.
- No events or parties are allowed.
- The host is required to provide instructions to comply with noise, trash, parking and curfew ordinances.
- Advertising and operation of short-term rentals without registration are be prohibited.
- Registration may be revoked based on violations.
Last summer, city staff selected a firm to identify short-term rentals currently operating in the city.
Deckard Technologies Inc. identified 68 legal short-term rental properties and 565 properties where potential illegal short-term rental use is occurring. Over the past year, there have been 814 properties that operated as short-term rentals, with more than 2,400 listings.