Clark County Short-Term Rental Rules and the Insurance You Need

If you own a house in the Las Vegas valley and rent it by the night, you're answering to two sets of rules: the local government's and your insurance policy's. Over the past year the first set has been blocked in federal court, partly upheld on appeal, and rewritten by the County Commission. The second hasn't moved at all, and it decides who pays when a guest gets hurt. Here's where things stand as of November 2026.

Why Clark County has to regulate at all

Nevada's AB 363, signed June 4, 2021, requires any county of 700,000 or more people (Clark County) and any city of 25,000 or more inside it to adopt a short-term rental ordinance. The statute sets the framework. Every operator needs a local authorization and a state business license, and both numbers must appear in every listing. Owner-occupied homes carry a one-night minimum stay and other homes two nights. Occupancy is capped at 16 people, and local governments can't ban short-term rentals outright.

Two parts of the law matter for insurance. Each local ordinance must set a minimum liability coverage amount, and every operator must carry insurance that identifies the property as used for transient lodging.

What the county code requires in unincorporated Clark County

Clark County's rules live mainly in Title 7, Chapter 7.100, first adopted in 2022, with the location limits in the county's zoning code:

• Insurance. General liability of at least $500,000 per occurrence. An umbrella or excess policy may be used on top to reach the minimum. Before you operate, you file a certificate of insurance, and it must identify the home as used for transient lodging.
• Spacing. No license within 1,000 feet of another short-term rental or 2,500 feet of a resort hotel. Apartment buildings, mobile homes, and HOA communities whose documents don't expressly allow it are out.
• Occupancy and stays. The lesser of two guests per bedroom or ten per home, with a two-night minimum and one booking at a time.
• Noise and quiet hours. Noise monitors at the front and rear property lines and near any pool or spa, with real-time alerts. Pools, spas, barbecues, and firepits are off-limits from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., and parties are prohibited.
• Listings. Every ad must show the county license number, state business license number, maximum occupancy, minimum stay, and a no-party notice.
• Fines. Operating without a license is fined $1,000 to $10,000 per day. Other violations run the nightly rental value or $500 for the first and $1,000 after that, whichever is greater.

The court fight and the November 3 rewrite

• December 17, 2025: Judge Miranda Du of the U.S. District Court for Nevada granted a preliminary injunction for the Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association and other operators. It blocked enforcement of the county's license requirement and related fine provisions.
• October 7, 2026: The Ninth Circuit affirmed that the operators were entitled to an injunction, because the licensing portal had opened for only a single window between 2022 and 2023. It also ruled the order "unnecessarily broad" because it effectively let anyone run unlicensed, including people who had never applied. It sent the case back to narrow the injunction. The decision is an unpublished memorandum.
• November 3, 2026: Commissioners unanimously replaced the lottery with rolling, in-person applications by appointment. They also swapped the old area-by-area limit for a single countywide cap of 1% of housing units in unincorporated Clark County. Local reporting puts the first day to book an appointment at December 15, with appointments starting January 5, 2027.

At this writing, the narrowed order is the piece to watch. Once it's in place, expect the county to enforce licensing against anyone who hasn't applied.

Las Vegas and Henderson play by their own rules

The federal case is about Clark County. The cities have their own codes.

• City of Las Vegas: A new license requires the home to be owner-occupied throughout the rental period, with no more than three bedrooms. It must sit at least 660 feet from another short-term rental and 2,500 feet from a resort hotel, and HOA permission is required where it applies. The license application calls for $500,000 in liability coverage. Short-term rentals are prohibited in several master-planned areas, including Summerlin.
• City of Henderson: Owners register every year under the city's development code. Owner occupancy isn't required, but rentals must be 1,000 feet from another registered rental and 2,500 feet from a resort hotel. HOA documents must expressly allow it.

What your homeowners or landlord policy actually does

Standard homeowners forms are built for a home you live in. Their rental carve-backs are narrow, mainly occasional rental of a home used as a residence. Regular paid stays look like a business, and the business exclusions follow. The standard form also excludes theft from the part of the home you rent out.

Insurers have tightened this further. ISO's 2017 Home-Sharing Host Activities Amendatory Endorsement (HO 06 53) wrote home-sharing into the definition of business and excluded liability arising from it, guest-related theft and vandalism, and lost rental value. In ISO's 2022 homeowners edition, that language moved into the base form itself, so a current policy carries it whether or not an endorsement is attached. The optional Broadened Home-Sharing Host Activities Coverage (HO 06 63) buys back some of that coverage at limits you need to read. A landlord or dwelling policy written for long-term tenants is a different form, and many aren't written for transient guests.

The coverage a short-term rental owner actually needs

• Guest injury liability. This covers a slip on the pool deck or a fall down the stairs, at a limit at least as high as your local minimum. It's the coverage that has to appear on the certificate you file.
• The building and contents. You want coverage that doesn't drop out because a paying guest was inside, including guest-caused damage and theft.
• Loss of rental income. This replaces the bookings you lose while a covered loss is repaired.
• An umbrella. Liability limits above the primary policy matter for a pool, a party house, or several properties.

For whole-home, non-owner-occupied rentals, that usually means a dedicated short-term rental or commercial policy, not a patched homeowners form.

Platform host programs aren't a substitute. They run on the platform's own terms, caps, and exclusions, and they generally cover only bookings made through that platform. At least one major platform says plainly that its damage program isn't an insurance policy. None of them is a policy issued in your name.

The gotcha: the court paused the county, not your policy

The injunction stopped the county from enforcing its license requirement. It did nothing to your insurance policy's business exclusion. Owners who kept renting through the pause on an ordinary homeowners policy may have stayed clear of the county and still had no liability coverage when a guest got hurt. And fines are generally uninsurable, so no policy pays a county citation. Talk to your attorney about where your property stands on licensing.

Our approach

We start with how you operate: owner-occupied or whole-home, county or city, how many properties, pool or not. For one home, we look at short-term rental insurance built for transient guests. If you run several as a business, we structure short-term rental business insurance. If a property moves back to long-term tenants, residential rental property insurance fits better.

We add an umbrella or excess liability policy where the exposure calls for it. Our guide to how umbrella and excess liability work explains how the layers stack. If a manager runs your rentals, their own property management insurance should be in place too. If you lease the property to an operator instead of hosting yourself, the coverage looks more like lessor's risk insurance. Larger portfolios, see insurance for apartment and property owners. Either way, we make sure the certificate you file says what the county requires.

Frequently Asked

This article is general information for business owners, not insurance or legal advice, and does not bind or alter coverage. Policy terms, eligibility, and pricing vary by carrier and state — confirm specifics with our licensed team before making decisions.