Fulton County, Georgia Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Fulton County, Georgia and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that almost nowhere in the county is it flat-out banned, and Georgia has never passed a preemption law that decides the question one way or the other for its cities. The odd news, and the thing that trips up anyone hunting for "the Fulton County ordinance," is that Fulton County itself won't be the government you deal with, because the county has been carved into fifteen cities and every one of them writes its own short-term rental rulebook.

Fulton County's own finance department puts it in one line, saying it licenses businesses in the Fulton Industrial District only, and that "All other businesses are licensed by their city." So a single county holds Atlanta, where a license runs $150 a year and covers your home plus one more unit. Hapeville, by contrast, licenses you only as a resident with a homestead exemption and charges $1,000 for a second property, while Johns Creek defines a dwelling as occupancy for more than 30 consecutive days, which quietly takes the business off the table.

So let's walk through what it takes to do this properly in 2026: which government licenses you, what each city charges, the three layers of tax that attach to a stay, how hard any of it gets enforced, and who to call when a question doesn't fit neatly into one of those boxes. Every figure below comes from a county, city or state page I opened myself in July 2026, and where a city's own site refused to load I've said so rather than papering over the hole. Before you commit to a Fulton address, though, run the numbers through BNBCalc first, because the answer to "am I allowed" changes from one side of a city line to the other.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Fulton County, Georgia?

That split between the county and its cities is the whole regulatory story here, so it's worth understanding how Fulton ended up this way. Until July 3, 2017 the county ran a Department of Planning and Community Services that handled zoning and permits across the unincorporated area. When the City of South Fulton incorporated that day, all of those functions passed to the new city except for the Fulton Industrial Business District, which Public Works has looked after ever since. Unless your property sits inside a warehouse corridor off I-20, the county has no planning authority over it and never will.

Georgia's legislature hasn't stepped in to fill that gap either. There's no statewide short-term rental preemption statute, so zoning, occupancy caps, registration and permitting are set entirely by the individual city, and they vary a lot even inside one county. One narrow provision, O.C.G.A. § 36-74-30, says a local government may not require the registration of residential rental property under the Local Government Code Enforcement Boards Act, but it sits in the code-enforcement chapter rather than the general licensing one and hasn't stopped a single Georgia city from running a permit system. Nobody has tested it against a short-term rental ordinance, so don't treat it as a shield.

What that leaves is nine or so distinct municipal regimes, and here's where the ones I could verify stand:

City	Short-term rental permit or license	Annual cost I could confirm
Atlanta	Short-Term Rental License from the Department of City Planning	$150
East Point	Short-Term Lodging permit, homestay or whole house	$75 or $150
Hapeville	STR permit, residents holding a homestead exemption only	$250, or $1,000 for a second dwelling
Sandy Springs	City permit plus an owner-occupancy test written into the zoning code	not published on a page I could open
Roswell	Business registration plus an annual fire marshal inspection	not published on a page I could open
Alpharetta	Annual license, capped at 5% of the homes in a neighborhood	not published on a page I could open
Chattahoochee Hills	STR permit and business license, with a fire inspection	set by council resolution, not in the ordinance
South Fulton	STR permit application filed under oath	$200 as of 2019 reporting
Johns Creek	None exists; the zoning code doesn't allow the use	not applicable

That leaves Milton, College Park, Union City, Fairburn, Palmetto and Mountain Park, and I'm going to be straight with you: I couldn't open a short-term rental page for any of the six, so I'm not going to tell you what they permit. Call them before you buy.

A few county functions do still reach you, mind you, even though the county can't license you. The Board of Health runs tourist accommodation permits, and its own page says every tourist accommodation needs one to operate in Fulton County. It describes those as hotels and motels of "two or more rooms, or dwelling units, connected or separated, on a common piece of property," while the state rule behind it reaches wider, to any facility of two or more rooms lodging the general public, inspected at least twice a year. Where one detached house on Airbnb sits in all that, nothing Fulton publishes says. So if you're turning a duplex into nightly lodging, call Environmental Health rather than guessing.

Two more county threads run through the city ordinances. Sandy Springs and Hapeville both use the Fulton County homestead exemption on your property tax record as the proof that you live where you say you live, which means your county tax file quietly becomes part of a city licensing decision. And when a city denies or revokes your license, the appeal ends up in the Superior Court of Fulton County: Atlanta routes it there by certiorari after the Chief Operating Officer rules, and Chattahoochee Hills sends it to the superior court of whichever county the unit sits in.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Fulton County

Since the county hands the decision to your city, the first job still isn't paperwork. It's finding out which city you're in, and that's less obvious than it sounds where annexations have moved lines repeatedly and an Atlanta mailing address can sit in a different municipality. Fulton County's own guidance is to check your address against the Property Map Viewer first, and the county will certify the zoning of a parcel in unincorporated Fulton for $40, returned in three to five business days. Everywhere else, your city planning office answers.

Once you know the city, then the regimes sort into three shapes, and the shape matters more than the fee.

The first is license-and-go, so Atlanta, East Point, Hapeville, Chattahoochee Hills and South Fulton all let you apply, pay and operate, with no cap on how many licenses the city hands out overall. The second is licensed but rationed. Alpharetta adopted its ordinance on January 6, 2025 by a 6-0 vote, with Councilman Brian Wills abstaining, and it holds short-term rentals to no more than 5% of the homes in any one neighborhood, so a popular subdivision can fill up and close before you ever apply. The third shape is closed. Johns Creek's zoning ordinance defines a "Dwelling" as a building used for residential purposes "for periods of more than 30 consecutive days", and its residential districts list permitted uses exhaustively, so a nightly rental isn't banned by name. It's excluded by definition, which is harder to argue with.

Then there's the owner-occupancy question, and this is where most investor plans die. Atlanta grants a license to an owner or long-term tenant for their primary residence and one additional dwelling unit, and you can only have one primary residence, so two properties per person is the ceiling. Sandy Springs requires a single-family house, townhouse or condominium to be owner-occupied, "as demonstrated by proof of Fulton County Homestead Exemption on property taxes". Hapeville goes further still and requires the applicant to be a Hapeville resident with a current Fulton County homestead exemption. East Point splits the difference by licensing homestay lodging only in a host's principal residence, while allowing a separate whole-house license.

Unfortunately for anyone picturing a portfolio of furnished units across north Fulton, that combination is doing real work. You can build a two-property operation in Atlanta, add a whole-house permit in East Point or South Fulton, and go no further without moving house. Owners comparing this against neighboring counties usually end up reading the DeKalb County short-term rental guide next, since Atlanta straddles the Fulton and DeKalb line, and the Cobb County guide for the western side of the metro.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirements in Fulton County

Assuming your city does issue a license and you're able to qualify, the application is then where the real differences show up. Atlanta's is the one most Fulton hosts will file, so take that as the reference point and read the others against it.

The City of Atlanta Short-Term Rental Ordinance, 20-O-1656, adopted March 15, 2021, is Part 20 of the Land Development Code, and under it a short-term rental means lodging provided for compensation for no more than 30 consecutive days. Nobody may rent all or part of a dwelling unit that way without a Short-Term Rental License first, and the city's own short-term rental page puts the fee at $150, due when you submit and non-refundable, with a determination in up to ten business days and a license valid 12 months from issue. You'll get an email reminder 30 days before it expires, though don't rely on that arriving. Occupancy is capped at two adults per bedroom, and before you apply you have to notify every adjacent property by certified US mail, giving the unit address and your agent's contact details.

That agent is not a formality. Every Atlanta license names a short-term rental agent, which can be you, and the agent has to stay reachable, post emergency contact numbers inside the unit, accept service of violation notices, monitor the property for compliance, and put the license number on every online listing. Skip the license entirely and the city doesn't only fine you: failure to obtain one brings citations plus a mandatory one-year waiting period before any future application will even be considered.

The other cities each attach their own conditions on top of a similar core:

• East Point issues a Homestay Lodging License at $75 and a Whole-house Lodging License at $150, both renewed annually through the BS&A portal, per the city's Application for Short-Term Lodging. A whole-house rental is capped at two guests per room and ten guests in total, parties and events are prohibited outright, and a local agent has to be available 24 hours a day and live within 30 miles.
• Hapeville charges $250 for a primary dwelling and $1,000 for a second short-term rental dwelling, under an ordinance adopted October 4, 2022. The license runs January to December and renews by December 31, and the application has to be notarized before it's filed.
• Roswell requires business registration through the Finance Department, an annual fire marshal inspection, a local agent who can be there within two hours, occupancy of two guests per bedroom plus two more up to a maximum of 12, and no on-site signage advertising the rental. The rules took effect June 9, 2025 and enforcement began at the end of January 2026.
• Sandy Springs layers zoning standards on top of its permit. No more than four unrelated adults, all parking on the lot, no supplemental services, one rental per 24-hour period unless the owner is present for both, and a hard ceiling of 180 calendar days a year for any one individual, family or group.
• Chattahoochee Hills has run a licensing regime since July 1, 2021 that caps a unit at five bedrooms and twelve overnight guests, requires a fire marshal inspection before renewal, sets on-site parking at one space per four occupants, and demands a local contact who can reach the property within 60 minutes.

Alpharetta is the gap in that list, and I'd rather flag it than fill it with a number I haven't seen. Its short-term rental page and its license packet both refused to load for me, and the Internet Archive was unreachable all session, so the fee and application steps quoted elsewhere are not ones I read on an official page. Do check them with the city directly.

Required Documents for Fulton County Short-Term Rentals

Because those fees are non-refundable almost everywhere, the paperwork is worth getting right the first time. Atlanta's packet is the heaviest, and most of the weight sits in notarized affidavits: one for a primary residence homeowner, one for a long-term tenant, one for an additional dwelling unit, entity-ownership versions of those, an agent authorization, and a renewal affidavit when the year is up. Since the city publishes each of them alongside a required document summary and a sample adjacent property notification letter, there's no guesswork about the wording, and it explains how to pull your deed if you don't have a copy.

Beyond Atlanta the common thread is proof of three things: that you own the property, that you live in it where the city requires that, and that somebody local answers the phone. Keep in mind that "proof of residence" has a specific meaning in this county rather than a general one. Sandy Springs and Hapeville both want the Fulton County homestead exemption on your tax record, which is granted by the Fulton County Board of Assessors, so a utility bill or a driver's license won't substitute.

The rest of what gets asked for varies by city, and it's worth assembling all of it before you start any application:

• Proof of liability insurance, kept in force the whole time the unit is let. East Point requires this of homestay and whole-house licensees alike.
• The name, address and 24-hour phone number of your local agent, plus evidence they can reach the property inside the city's response window.
• A passed inspection. Roswell and Chattahoochee Hills both make a fire marshal sign-off a condition of renewal, not only of first issue.
• Proof that local hotel-motel taxes have been paid, which Chattahoochee Hills asks for at renewal, quietly making your tax filings part of your license.
• Records you keep rather than file. East Point wants a log of rental dates and lodger counts for the previous 365 days, produced on request.
• An in-unit posting. East Point specifies the host's name and phone, the address, maximum overnight occupancy, garbage day, the police non-emergency number 404-761-2177 and the license itself.

Fulton County Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all of that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and three separate charges stack on a single Fulton County night. Two of them belong to the state and one to your city, which is why the total looks different in Atlanta than it does five miles up the road.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Combined state and local sales tax	7.75% in most of Fulton, 8.9% in Atlanta, 8.75% in Hapeville, College Park and East Point	Georgia Department of Revenue
State hotel-motel fee	$5.00 per night, first 30 nights	Georgia Department of Revenue
Local hotel-motel excise tax	3% to 8%, set by your city	your city's revenue office

That sales tax split is a Fulton peculiarity worth knowing about. The Georgia Department of Revenue's rate chart effective July 1, 2026 sets the state rate at 4%, then breaks Fulton into separate jurisdictions: code 060 covers "Fulton County outside of Atlanta, Hapeville, College Park, and East Point" at 7.75%, code 060A covers Atlanta at 8.9%, and Hapeville, College Park and East Point each get their own at 8.75%. Five codes, one county, so the same guest pays a different sales tax depending on which side of the East Point line they sleep on.

The local hotel-motel excise tax varies more still. Georgia's Department of Community Affairs publishes every jurisdiction's rate and its statutory authorization, updated August 8, 2025, and in Fulton County the spread runs from nothing to the statutory ceiling. Atlanta, Alpharetta, Roswell, East Point, College Park, Hapeville, South Fulton and Chattahoochee Hills all sit at 8%, while Sandy Springs and Johns Creek charge 7%, Union City 5%, and Milton and Fairburn 3%. Palmetto and Mountain Park have no hotel-motel tax on file at all. Fulton County itself has a 7% rate on file, though under O.C.G.A. § 48-13-51 a county levies only within the special district inside its own boundaries, and no jurisdiction may run two of these taxes at once, so it's the city rate that reaches a city address.

So who hands the money over? Airbnb's own Georgia tax page says it collects and remits the 4% state sales tax and the county or local sales tax of 2% to 5% on reservations of 89 nights and shorter, the $5-per-night hotel-motel fee for the first 30 days, and local occupancy taxes "typically 0%-8%" for the same window. That last line does a lot of unnamed work, because Airbnb publishes no city-by-city list for Georgia, so I'd confirm with your city revenue office whether your 8% arrives from the platform or lands on you. East Point tells its licensees plainly that they pay an 8% monthly hotel/motel tax, due the 20th of the month following, and the 20th is the standard Georgia filing date across the board.

Before you model any of that, the Georgia market data on BNBCalc Markets shows what a night is worth here, and the Georgia statewide regulation guide covers the layers sitting above every county in the state.

Georgia-Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

Since the state sets those tax layers, it's fair to ask what else Georgia does to a short-term rental, and the honest answer for most of the last decade was "collect and stay out of it." That changed on July 1, 2026.

SB 570, the Georgia Human Trafficking Prevention Training Act, took effect that day as Act 519, and it applies to "every operator of a short-term rental property" in the state, which the enrolled bill defines as a residential unit offered for tourist or transient use through a hosting platform. That means you, in every one of Fulton's fifteen cities. The new O.C.G.A. § 43-21-16 requires approved human-trafficking awareness training within 60 days of starting to operate and annually after that, plus a written procedure for reporting suspected trafficking, compliance with the posting requirement in O.C.G.A. § 16-5-47, and training records kept for three years. Willful violations draw penalties of $500, then $1,000, then $2,000. Make sure you have this in hand, because it's the one statewide duty that no city license process will remind you about.

The tax side is more familiar. Georgia's marketplace-innkeeper rule means a platform facilitating $100,000 or more in combined Georgia sales collects the state sales tax and the state hotel-motel fee itself, which Airbnb and Vrbo both clear comfortably. Advertise independently instead, on your own site or a classified listing, and you're on the hook for state sales tax personally through a Georgia Tax Center account, with a return due for every assigned period even when you have nothing to report.

One bill that would've added a layer didn't make it, mind you. HB 374 in the 2025-2026 session would've let local governments build "housing management databases" of residential rental property, but it was withdrawn and recommitted in the House in April 2025 without advancing. So the statewide picture in 2026 comes down to preemption-free zoning, two state charges, and one brand-new training duty, while neighboring counties handle the local half differently again. That's why the Gwinnett County guide reads so unlike this one despite sitting under identical state law.

Does Fulton County Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Following on from that, the enforcement answer has the same shape as the licensing answer, since the county enforces no short-term rental rules of its own and the cities range from aggressive to absent, which is why anyone who tells you "Fulton County doesn't enforce" has answered a question nobody asked.

Sandy Springs is the sharp end, and it will take an unlicensed host all the way to court. An Ohio company ran a house on Kenstone Court with neither a business license nor a short-term rental permit, drew a code enforcement notice on December 31, 2024, and then failed to appear at two municipal court hearings, so the city escalated. On August 28, 2025 Fulton County Superior Court ordered the company to stop operating and advertising the rental and awarded the city $7,800 in attorney fees. That's a shutdown, not a fine. Hapeville reaches the same place automatically, telling applicants outright that it uses Granicus to identify short-term rental properties and run inspections, so be aware that listing-scanning software makes "nobody will notice" a poor plan in both cities.

Atlanta's model is split between two departments, and the split is worth knowing before you file a complaint or receive one. Complaints go to [email protected] or [email protected], and from there the Atlanta Police Department investigates violations at units holding an active license while Zoning Enforcement handles units operating with none at all. Fully adjudicated violations carry a $500 penalty each, every day a continuing violation runs counts as a separate offense, and three violations on one property revokes the license and blocks any new application for that property for 12 consecutive months. Other properties on the same license survive, which is a deliberate piece of drafting.

East Point publishes the widest range, since violating its short-term lodging chapter draws a fine of not less than $50 and not more than $1,000 per offense with each day counted separately, and three final determinations on a property inside a rolling 365 days terminates the license outright. Chattahoochee Hills suspends a permit immediately if a life-safety issue flagged by the Fire Chief isn't fixed within 30 days, or if officers cite occupants of the same unit three times in a year. Roswell, by contrast, only started enforcing at the end of January 2026, so its record is barely six months old.

Politically, Atlanta has been arguing about tightening the rules for two years without landing anywhere dramatic. The Council approved a ban on new short-term rentals in the Home Park neighborhood near Georgia Tech in 2025, then voted 7-6 against a wider ban across District 7 covering parts of Buckhead, Brookhaven and Lindbergh on November 18, 2025. There's still no citywide ban, and a neighborhood-level one has passed exactly once.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Fulton County

Given how much of that depends on which line your property falls behind, the order below saves the most time and money. The early steps decide whether the later ones are worth taking at all.

1. Confirm your city before anything else. Check the address against Fulton County's Property Map Viewer, because an "Atlanta, GA" envelope can land in Sandy Springs, Hapeville or somewhere else entirely.
2. Find out whether that city licenses short-term rentals at all. In Johns Creek the answer is no and no fee fixes it, while in Alpharetta it's yes but subject to a 5% neighborhood cap that may already be full on your street.
3. Test yourself against the occupancy rule. Atlanta wants a primary residence plus at most one more unit, and Sandy Springs and Hapeville want a Fulton County homestead exemption in your name. Sort that out before you spend anything, since these fees don't come back.
4. Read your HOA covenants and your lease. No Fulton city ordinance overrides a private covenant that bars nightly rentals, and several say so explicitly.
5. Line up your local agent. Roswell wants a two-hour response, Chattahoochee Hills 60 minutes, East Point someone living within 30 miles, so pick a person who can meet the standard rather than a name on a form.
6. Book the inspection early, since a fire marshal sign-off gates the license and every renewal after it.
7. Apply, pay, and get the license number onto every listing. Atlanta, East Point and Chattahoochee Hills all require it in your advertising, and Chattahoochee Hills wants maximum occupancy and inspection expiry there too.
8. Open your tax accounts before the first guest, registering with the Georgia Tax Center if you'll owe state charges directly, then set a monthly reminder for the 20th.
9. Complete the SB 570 training inside 60 days, adopt the reporting policy, put up the required notice and start the three-year record file.
10. Diarize the renewal. Atlanta runs 12 months from issue and Hapeville expires December 31, and a lapsed license in East Point terminates the use rather than pausing it.

Who to Contact in Fulton County about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever of those steps you get stuck on, the office that owns the answer depends on the same city question. Here are the numbers I verified on official pages, county first.

Fulton County offices

• Planning, Zoning and Permitting (Public Works), for the Fulton Industrial Business District and zoning certifications: 141 Pryor Street, Atlanta, GA 30303, 404-612-7400. A zoning certification costs $40 and comes back in three to five business days by first class mail. No published office hours or division email.
• Business Licenses (Finance), Fulton Industrial District only: 141 Pryor St SW, Atlanta, GA 30303, 404-612-7722. Certificates run the calendar year and renew by March 31.
• Board of Health, Environmental Health Services, for tourist accommodation permits and hotel inspections: [email protected]. Three offices, all Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.: 10 Park Place S.E., Atlanta, GA 30303 (770-520-7500); 1920 John Wesley Avenue, College Park, GA 30337 (770-520-7201); 4700 North Point Parkway, Alpharetta, GA 30022 (770-520-7241).
• Board of Assessors, for the homestead exemption two cities rely on: 235 Peachtree St. NE, Suite 1400, Atlanta, GA 30303, 404-612-6440, [email protected]. There's a South Fulton Service Center at 5600 Stonewall Tell Road, Suite 224, open 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

City offices

• Atlanta, Department of City Planning: [email protected] for licensing questions and [email protected] for complaints. Atlanta City Hall, 55 Trinity Ave SW, Atlanta, GA 30303, open Monday to Friday 8:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• East Point, Planning and Community Development: [email protected], 404-669-4399, 2757 East Point Street, East Point, GA 30344, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Code violations run through 404-559-6270 and there's a 24/7 complaint hotline on 404-777-4846.
• Hapeville: 3468 North Fulton Avenue, Hapeville, GA 30354, 404-669-2100, Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Applications go to the Occupational Tax Permit Clerk and must be paid in full before the signed license issues.
• Sandy Springs, Revenue Division: 1 Galambos Way, Sandy Springs, GA 30328, 770-730-5600, [email protected].

I'd normally list the same detail for Alpharetta, Roswell, Milton, College Park, South Fulton, Union City, Fairburn, Palmetto, Mountain Park and Chattahoochee Hills. Their sites blocked every automated request from this session and the Internet Archive was down alongside them, though, so rather than print a number I never saw on an official page, those need to come from the city's own website.

What Do Airbnb Hosts in Fulton County on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Those enforcement gaps shape how hosts talk about this county, and the conversation splits along city lines the way everything else here does. What follows is my read of the recurring themes rather than a survey, so weigh it accordingly.

The loudest complaint about Atlanta has always been that the city wrote rules it didn't enforce. On BiggerPockets, a 2023 thread asking whether the two-property limit was real drew a January 2024 update from an Atlanta agent saying flatly that "as of January 2024, they haven't written a single ticket or enforced their STR rules in any way," with other posters describing operators running ten or more units untroubled. That was two and a half years ago and Atlanta has moved since, though I couldn't find an official count of licenses issued or citations written on any city page, which is part of why the argument keeps going.

Investors comparing Fulton cities tend to sort them the way the fee table does, so Atlanta reads as workable if you're licensing your own home and awkward if you wanted a portfolio, while the south Fulton cities read as the affordable entry point with real requirements attached. North Fulton is where the door closed most recently, since Alpharetta and Roswell both went from unregulated to licensed inside eighteen months, and Johns Creek was never open at all.

One live development is worth tracking if you own in Atlanta, because Councilmember Byron Amos introduced legislation on January 25, 2026 that would create a dedicated Office of Short-Term Rentals and restrict licenses to a home the host occupies at least 275 days a year, with unhosted stays capped at 90 nights. Platforms, meanwhile, would carry their own permits, $1 million in cover, a 30-day listing check and $1,000 per listing per day for violations. It went to committee in January, and I couldn't open the Council's own pages to see what happened after that. So don't plan around it, though don't assume it died either.

A county that governs almost nothing is an unusual thing to write a regulation guide about, and Fulton is a preview of where plenty of American metros are heading as suburbs incorporate and counties hollow out. The practical lesson generalizes past Georgia, because when you're buying for nightly rental, the boundary that decides your business isn't the one printed on the listing or the one your mail goes to. Find the line that governs, then check which side of it your front door sits on.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Fulton County, Georgia in 2026?

In most of the county, yes, though the permission comes from your city rather than from Fulton County. The county licenses businesses only in the Fulton Industrial District and states that all other businesses are licensed by their city. Atlanta, East Point, Hapeville, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Alpharetta, South Fulton and Chattahoochee Hills all run their own permit systems with different fees and conditions. Johns Creek is the notable exception, since its zoning code defines a dwelling as residential occupancy of more than 30 consecutive days.

How much does a short-term rental license cost in Fulton County?

There's no single county fee, because there's no county license. Atlanta charges $150 a year, non-refundable, for a license covering a primary residence plus one additional dwelling unit. East Point charges $75 for a homestay license and $150 for a whole house. Hapeville charges $250 for a primary dwelling and $1,000 for a second one. South Fulton's fee was reported at $200 when its ordinance passed in 2019. Several other Fulton cities don't publish a fee on a page that loads.

What taxes do you pay on a short-term rental in Fulton County?

Three charges stack. Combined state and local sales tax is 7.75% across most of Fulton County, 8.9% inside Atlanta, and 8.75% in Hapeville, College Park and East Point. Georgia's state hotel-motel fee adds a flat $5.00 per night for the first 30 nights. Then your city's own hotel-motel excise tax runs from 3% in Milton and Fairburn to 8% in Atlanta, Alpharetta, Roswell, East Point, College Park, Hapeville, South Fulton and Chattahoochee Hills.

Does Fulton County require a permit for short-term rentals?

Not for residential property, no. Since July 2017 the county's planning and permitting authority has covered only the Fulton Industrial Business District, and its business licensing is limited to the same area. The county functions that touch a host are indirect: the Board of Health permits tourist accommodations, the Board of Assessors grants the homestead exemption Sandy Springs and Hapeville require as proof of residence, and license appeals from city decisions end up in the Superior Court of Fulton County.

What is the new Georgia training requirement for short-term rental operators?

SB 570, the Georgia Human Trafficking Prevention Training Act, took effect on July 1, 2026 and covers every operator of a short-term rental property in the state. It requires approved human-trafficking awareness training within 60 days of starting to operate and annually after that, a written procedure for reporting suspected trafficking, compliance with the posting requirement in O.C.G.A. § 16-5-47, and three years of training records. Willful violations carry penalties of $500, $1,000 and $2,000.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.