New Orleans City Code § 26-624 Departmental authority.
Sec. 26-624. - Departmental authority.
(a) Receive short-term rental applications. The department shall receive and process all short-term rental permit applications and determine applicant eligibility.
(b) Issue eligible short-term rental permits. The department shall issue permits only to eligible applicants, as determined by the department.
(c) Inspections.
(1) The director of the department or a duly authorized representative shall have the power to inspect any short-term rental to determine compliance with this article.
(2) Inspection may occur at any reasonable time, upon the production of proper identification by a representative of the department, whenever the director of the department has a reasonable belief that a dwelling unit or a short-term rental is in violation of any of the provisions of this article, the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, or the Building Code as provided in City Code section 26-14 et seq.
(3) Prior to any inspection of an occupied dwelling unit, the department shall present credentials to the owner, operator, or guest and request entry. If the short-term rental is unoccupied, the department shall attempt to locate the owner or operator and request entry. If the department does not obtain timely consent to enter a dwelling unit, it may attempt to secure entry as provided in subsection (4), below.
(4) Warrant for inspection. If the owner or operator of the short-term rental refuses within 72 hours of department's request, admittance to the director of the department or his/her duly authorized representative for the purpose of making an inspection or examination of the premises, the director or his representative may present an affidavit to any judge of the municipal court stating that he has cause to believe that an inspection of the designated premises will reveal designated violations of this article.
(i) The affidavit alleging probable cause shall identify the factual basis for the belief that the short-term rental is not in compliance with this article, or correlating provisions in the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance.
(ii) Upon receiving the affidavit, the judge may issue a warrant authorizing the director or his representative to search the premises. The scope of the search authorized by the warrant shall be limited to a search for those designated, alleged violations.
(5) An owner may avoid an inspection authorized by this section by voluntarily forfeiting his or her short-term rental owner's permit, in which case the permit shall be deemed revoked. Nothing herein shall limit the authority of a law enforcement body to secure a search warrant in connection with criminal activity at a dwelling unit unrelated to compliance with this article or the authority of the department to conduct lawful inspections of a dwelling unit unrelated to compliance with this article.
(d) Rescission of permits. The department is authorized to cancel and rescind a permit issued under this article whenever a permit so issued is in error, was issued on the basis of inaccurate or misleading information, or contravenes this article or the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance.
(e) Suspension of permits where life safety issues are present. The department may suspend a short-term rental owner permit issued under this article whenever the property it corresponds to is the subject of a violation of building code that may endanger the life or safety of persons on the property. This suspension shall end automatically when the director or their designee determines that the violation has been abated.
(f) Identification of exempt lodging business rentals offered on platforms. The department shall issue, at no charge to businesses, an identification number to any exempt lodging business that uses a platform to facilitate booking transactions. To obtain this identification number, the exempt lodging business must provide the department with the following information:
(1) The name of the business;
(2) The business address; and
(3) The business's occupational license.
(g) Enforcement.
(1) The department shall prioritize the enforcement and adjudication of violations of section 26-618(b)(1)—(7) and (17) and section 26-620(b)(1)—(7), (15) and (17) and take all available steps to adjudicate said violations immediately upon receiving evidence of the violation from a platform or otherwise.
(2) The department shall not be responsible for the enforcement of correlating taxation provisions dictated by Chapter 150 of the Code of the City of New Orleans.
(h) Records. The department shall maintain a registry of all permit types and correlating permit numbers issued to owners, operators, and platforms pursuant to this article.
(i) Rules and regulations. The department may issue rules and regulations related to the issuance of short-term rental licenses and enforcement of short-term rental laws.
(j) Dashboard. The department shall establish a public facing dashboard listing all short-term rental applications; owner and operator permits with photo ID cards; the addresses of properties the department has delisted from any platform, if available; and all addresses with open, pending, and adjudicated violations. The dashboard shall further indicate the number of adjudications per week and the dispensation of any adjudicated violation. In addition, the dashboard shall list all lots subject to the five-year permit revocation contained in section 26-628(f). The public facing dashboard shall be updated on weekly basis.
(k) Electronic verification system. The department shall establish an electronic verification system to be used by platforms to verify the legal eligibility of a property for rental before facilitating a booking transaction. The electronic verification system must be able to:
(1) Confirm that the provided address is licensed for short-term rentals or is an exempt lodging business;
(2) Confirm that the party seeking to rent the property through the platform is the licensed owner or operator of the short-term rental or exempt lodging business;
(3) Confirm that the license is current and will not expire before the rental being facilitated will occur;
(4) Provide a unique confirmation code that the verification has occurred; and
(5) Retain all information related to these verifications, including but not limited to the following:
(i) Platform's unique identifier for the property and/or URL of the listing;
(ii) Address of the property being rented;
(iii) Identity of the operator or owner offering the property for rental;
(iv) Confirmation code issued to the platform for the verification.
(M.C.S., Ord. No. 28157, § 1, 8-8-19, eff. 12-1-19; M.C.S., Ord. No. 29381, § 1, 3-23-23, eff. 7-1-23; M.C.S., Ord. No. 30074, § 1, 10-10-24, eff. 8-1-25; M.C.S., Ord. No. 30244, § 1, 3-13-25; M.C.S., Ord. No. 30319, § 1, 4-24-25; M.C.S., Ord. No. 30376, § 1, 6-26-25)