Bulletin - Birmingham, AL News Today
Birmingham, Alabama: Committee backs licensing, insurance and 30-minute responder rules, while zoning limits remain unscheduled.
Birmingham Advances Short-Term Rental Permit Ordinance to Full Council Vote on Oct. 27
Committee backs licensing, insurance and 30-minute responder rules, while zoning limits remain unscheduled
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Birmingham's City Council Committee of the Whole voted 4-1 on September 30 to advance a short-term rental ordinance to the full council, which is scheduled to take it up on October 27. The measure would require hosts to hold a city permit, a business license, and liability insurance. However, it does not decide where short-term rentals may operate and nothing takes effect until the council votes.
What the Ordinance Would Require
The city had no rules specific to short-term rentals as of last December so the proposal would create a permitting system from scratch. Operators would need a business license and a short-term rental permit and they would also have to provide proof of liability insurance and certify compliance with homeowners association rules. The city would inspect properties and enforce occupancy and safety requirements. Every rental would need a local responsible party who can reach the property within 30 minutes when police or code enforcement ask and that contact would be entered into the city's dispatch system so officers can confirm an address is permitted. The permit-plus-license structure follows the framework city staff presented in 2024, which placed the rules in Title 12, Chapter 23 of the city code.
WBHM news discusses Birmingham, AL and their upcoming October 27 vote to regulate STRs.
Who Is Affected
The rules apply to individual hosts, property managers, and owners of multi-unit buildings who list on platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo. Police told councilors they recorded 231 calls from short-term rental properties between January 1 and September 27, mostly about noise, parking, welfare checks, and disturbances. The deputy chief cited a gas-leak evacuation where officers could not reach people tied to some units. The reporting reviewed did not state a permit fee, an insurance minimum, or a fine schedule so none are confirmed here.
Erin Montoya
Enforcement and Open Questions
The proposal lets the city act on regulatory violations, criminal activity, false permit information, and public nuisance. Councilors want a more specific violation matrix, and one example discussed was whether three noise complaints within 12 months should trigger action though that threshold is not final. Staff are still working on the matrix with police and on how to treat operators with many units, including whether an entity with about 125 units needs a permit for each one or could hold an enterprise license. Councilors also removed accessory dwelling units from the list of structures barred from short-term rental use.
Virginia Martin
Zoning Is a Separate Track
Staff said zoning changes would be a separate process that could take several months and the mayor said the administration could not give a timeline. Councilor Josh Vasa raised concern that passing the ordinance first leaves no limits on where rentals can locate. An earlier draft would have banned rentals in single-family districts, capped them at 1% of residential units in most other districts and required 1,000 feet of spacing. Whether any of those provisions appear in the version going to the council has not been confirmed.
⦾ Status: Advanced by committee 4-1; not yet enacted.
⦾ Permits and licenses: City business license plus short-term rental permit.
⦾ Insurance and HOA: Proof of liability insurance and HOA compliance certification.
⦾ Responder: Local responsible party able to reach the property within 30 minutes.
⦾ Inspections: City inspections and occupancy and safety rules.
⦾ Fees, fines, effective date: Not announced.
In case you missed it:
Carla Almendral
Jas Albatana
Jas Albatana
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