What are Torrance's short-term rental rules under TMC 92.43 in 2026?

Published July 15, 2026

Torrance requires a permit, limits residential STRs to hosted home-share, and charges an 11% occupancy tax.

Torrance requires every short term rental to get a city permit and business license before taking a booking, under Torrance Municipal Code section 92.43. In residential zones only a hosted home share is allowed, meaning the owner lives on site during the rental. Commercial zoned properties can operate hosted or unhosted. Every operator also owes the city's 11 percent transient occupancy tax, and each day an unpermitted rental runs is treated as a separate public nuisance violation.

The permit is the gate, not a formality

Torrance built its short term rental rules through Ordinance O-3861 in 2019 and amended them with Ordinance O-3890 in 2021, both now codified at TMC section 92.43. No one can legally list a property in Torrance, on Airbnb, Vrbo, or anywhere else, without a valid short term rental permit and a business license on file with the city. The permit application runs through the Community Development Department, with a filing fee in the low hundreds of dollars, and it is a one time registration rather than an annual renewal, though the city can still revoke it for violations.

Hosted versus unhosted depends entirely on zoning

This is the part owners get wrong most often. In residential zones, Torrance only permits home sharing, meaning the host actually lives at the property and is present while guests stay there as an incidental use of the home. A residential owner cannot buy a house, never live in it, and run it purely as a short term rental. In commercial zones, the rules relax: a property can operate as a short term rental with a host on site or as a fully unhosted rental with no owner presence required. If your property sits in a coastal commercial parcel, check the zoning designation before assuming which model applies, because the wrong assumption here is what triggers most enforcement complaints.

The Coastal Zone has its own layer

Torrance includes stretches of coastline covered by the California Coastal Act, and short term rentals there are also governed by Coastal Development Permit 5-20-0031, approved by the California Coastal Commission in 2020, which is what allowed the city to apply its short term rental ordinance inside the Coastal Zone in the first place. If your unit sits within the Coastal Zone boundary, both the municipal permit and the coastal approval apply together, not as substitutes for each other.

Every unpermitted day is its own violation

TMC section 92.43.090 declares operating an unpermitted short term rental a public nuisance, and the way the code is written, each day of unpermitted operation is treated as a separate offense. That is a materially different exposure than a single fine. A property running unpermitted for a month is not one violation, it can be evaluated as many, which is how the city's enforcement leverage adds up quickly once a complaint is filed.

Taxes are owed regardless of permit status

Short term rental income in Torrance is subject to the city's Uniform Occupancy Tax under Municipal Code Chapter 22, currently 11 percent of the rent charged to the guest. This is collected from the guest and remitted to the city, similar to a hotel tax. Whether a booking platform collects and remits this automatically or the host has to file it directly depends on the platform's local tax agreements, so do not assume Airbnb or Vrbo has this handled for every listing type. Confirm your specific registration status with the city's Revenue Division.

What this means for you

If you are considering a short term rental in Torrance, the permit and the zoning rule come before the tax rate or the listing photos. Confirm your zoning designation, confirm whether the ordinance requires you to live on site, and get the permit and business license in hand before the first guest checks in. Retrofitting compliance after a neighbor complaint or a code enforcement visit is far more expensive than doing it in the right order up front.

If sorting out zoning, permits, and tax remittance for a short term unit is more than you want to manage yourself, that is the kind of detail work we take off an owner's plate.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm with a licensed professional before you act.

Sources

1. City of Torrance, Short Term Rentals, Planning Division
2. Torrance Municipal Code, Division 9, Land Use
3. Torrance Municipal Code, Chapter 22, Uniform Occupancy Tax
4. Torrance Municipal Code, ordinance list, O-3861 and O-3890
5. California Coastal Commission, Coastal Development Permit process

Last verified: July 2026.

Topics: compliance, short-term rentals, Torrance, TMC 92.43, coastal zone

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