Three citations could shut down a rental before a ruling. Planners want edits.

Three citations could suspend a short-term rental’s permit and business license in Charleston, South Carolina, before the cases are decided—a proposed enforcement rule commissioners flagged as they sent the rental rewrite to City Council on Oct. 21.⁠[1][2][3][4][5]

The Planning Commission’s chair announced seven votes in favor of forwarding the proposal with four listed issues to be clarified. The exact replacement language remains unconfirmed in the records reviewed. This was not enactment of new rental rules; City Council has the final say.⁠[3][4][6]

The draft distinguishes accusations from convictions, but both carry consequences. A third violation issued within a year would automatically suspend the operational permit and associated business license pending adjudication. Three convictions within a year would trigger revocation for at least a year. A public speaker objected to suspension based on citations being issued rather than upheld; a commissioner later called for edits to the suspension provision.⁠[1][2][7]

The city’s response was that fines can become a cost of doing business for corporate permit holders. A city presenter said the enforcement language drew on the late-night establishment ordinance. The rental draft also includes a one-citation-per-unit-per-day limit and an appeal route for suspensions and revocations through the business license committee.⁠[1][8][9]

The hearing also revealed a mismatch in what people had been reviewing. Subsection G would prohibit advertising more than one rental or bed-and-breakfast unit in a single advertisement. A city presenter acknowledged that it had been absent from the September draft available online for the preceding month, although it appeared in the October meeting’s backup materials. The presenter apologized and suggested commissioners consider not recommending that provision.⁠[1][10]

The disagreement goes beyond wording. One opponent argued that advertising separately permitted units together does not add bedrooms or increase any individual unit’s permitted occupancy. The city’s explanation was that grouping units in one ad can circumvent the intent of single-unit occupancy limits.⁠[11][12]

Nor is the rewrite simply a tightening of rental rules. For off-peninsula residential rentals, it would replace a four-adult limit with a Fire Marshal bedroom-size calculation capped at eight guests total. Simmons Young, who introduced himself as an Old Windermere resident and neighborhood association president, said the association opposed increasing occupancy to eight unrelated people. He said the neighborhood had only recently learned the proposal affected its Category 3 rentals and wanted more time to understand it.⁠[1][13][14]

We previously reported on the eight-guest cap’s exception for larger overlay units. The draft would limit newly converted commercial rentals to four bedrooms, while already-permitted overlay units with more than four bedrooms could retain occupancy governed by the International Property Maintenance Code on renewal. Written commenters asked for that protection to cover smaller permitted units, too.⁠[1][15]

A city presenter defended the occupancy ceiling as a neighborhood-livability measure. Staff said the proposal was slated for a City Council public hearing and first reading on Oct. 27—the next opportunity for those competing concerns to reach the body that can change the rules.⁠[6][16][17]