Regulation & Licensing · 2026
What the Law Requires in Asbury Park & Manasquan
Start with the state, because New Jersey taxes the stay while each town writes its own rental rules. The tax rules changed on August 9, 2019: from then on, the state's sales tax and State Occupancy Fee apply to a short-term rental only if the guest books it through a transient space marketplace, Airbnb being the obvious example and travel agencies now counting too, or if it's a professionally managed unit, meaning the person who owns or controls it offers three or more units for rent during the year. An owner with one or two units who takes a booking directly generally charges neither, and the state also leaves out a private home rented with no maid, linen or other hotel service when a broker licensed by the New Jersey Real Estate Commission executes the rental and gives the tenant the keys at the broker's own office. On its bookings, Airbnb charges the 6.625 percent sales tax plus the 5 percent fee, cleaning fees included, for certain listing types on stays of up to 89 nights, and its New Jersey page adds that every locally imposed occupancy tax is collected too. State law lets a town that permits short-term rentals levy a municipal occupancy tax of no more than 3 percent, and a marketplace has to collect it on the bookings it handles. On the Division of Taxation's list, dated October 5, 2026, that tax covers transient accommodations in Asbury Park from February 1, 2021, Lake Como from December 1, 2023 and Spring Lake Heights from July 1, 2026, while the 3 percent listed for Spring Lake and Neptune Township applies to hotel and motel rooms. An April 7, 2026 notice from the Division of Local Government Services reminded towns that state law lets them license rentals shorter than 175 consecutive days to people with a permanent home elsewhere, and it pointed to the FIFA World Cup and America's 250th anniversary as reasons to let residents join in.
Asbury Park ties short stays to an owner who lives on the property. Its short-term rental ordinance, in Chapter 13 of the city code, covers any stay of 30 days or less, with no more than 180 such days in total in a calendar year, and the city's June 2024 FAQ lists the five kinds of property that qualify: a condominium unit that is the owner's principal residence, where the association and its bylaws allow short-term rentals; a single-family home that is the owner's principal residence; up to two units of a two-family house where the owner lives in one of them; no more than two units in a multifamily building where the owner lives in another unit; and up to two bedrooms in a single-family home whose owner lives in the rest and shares the kitchen and bathroom. Principal residence has a three-part test: an owner spends most of their non-working time there, it's clearly the center of their domestic life, and its address appears on their driver's license or state ID, their most recent 1040 and a bank statement from the past three months. The permit application also refers to an exemption from the principal-residence requirement written into the ordinance, so ask the city whether your property qualifies before you assume either way. A property outside those classes may still rent for 31 days or more, a whole summer for example, with a certificate of occupancy for every change of occupants. The short-term rental permit starts with zoning compliance, at $20, followed by a $500 first-year fee that covers the permit and its inspections and $100 a year to renew, plus $85 when a 21-day conditional certificate of inspection is needed; it lasts 12 months or until the property is transferred, whichever comes first. You can't advertise until it's issued, and its number must appear in every listing, ideally at the top. Each time occupants change, the owner files a form giving the name, age and gender of every occupant. The renter must be at least 21 and must be the person who actually stays, vehicles are limited to one for every two occupants, the application asks for proof of liability insurance, and a responsible party who lives locally must answer the phone around the clock and be able to reach the property in person within an hour. Fines reach $2,000 per violation, each day of rental counts as a separate violation, and the city uses enforcement software to find unpermitted listings.
Neptune Township, which includes Ocean Grove, treats any rental shorter than 365 days as a short-term seasonal rental and handles it through a short-term seasonal rental certificate of inspection in two periods: summer, from May 23 to September 30, at $500 for the first application, and winter, from October 1 to May 22, at $250, with an inspection before the first occupancy of each season. Each new lease is filed as an update before the tenants arrive, with its dates and the names of all occupants, at $100 per update; review takes five business days, or less with a $50 rush fee. The township's application guide sets a two-night minimum, says neither the owner nor anyone other than the renters may stay in the house during a rental period, and doesn't allow rooms or sections of an occupied home to be rented separately. Every rental property also needs a mercantile registration renewed each year, and occupying a house before its certificate is issued can bring a fine of up to $1,250. Bradley Beach is stricter. Chapter 365 of its code requires a landlord registration certificate before any rental, at $100 a year for a property of four or fewer units, an updated registration before each change of tenants on top of the certificate of occupancy for that change, and an agent who lives in Monmouth County and can accept notices. Only the people named on the registration may stay, and the code sets a minimum rental of six and a half days, or 156 hours, so nightly and weekend stays aren't an option. A unit rented to tenants with children aged 6 to 17 for any part of September 15 to May 15 can't be rented again until the third day after the last day of the Bradley Beach Elementary School year. Bradley Beach also levies its own 3 percent occupancy tax, added in February 2025 and revised by Ordinance 2026-12 on March 3, 2026: the owner reports and pays by March 31 for the year before, with a sworn statement of gross rent and tax collected, or settles the year with a flat $500 payment, an option that closes once the borough has given written notice of an audit or enforcement for that year. The code keeps that duty with the owner even when a marketplace collects or remits the tax, unless the borough agrees otherwise in writing. Minimum fines start at $250 for a first registration violation and $1,000 for a third within a year, and at $500 and $2,000 for occupancy tax violations. For Avon-by-the-Sea, the next borough south, we found no short-term rental ordinance among the documents we were able to open, and the borough isn't on the state's municipal occupancy tax list, so ask the borough clerk what certificate applies before you list there.
Belmar and Lake Como license summer rentals under the state's 175-day rule. Belmar's Chapter 26 requires a Summer Rental License before anyone moves into a home rented for less than 175 consecutive days by a person whose permanent home is elsewhere: one license for each unit, valid for the lease term up to 174 days, with a $100 application fee. An owner who plans rentals of 31 days or less to different tenants can ask for a Special License covering the whole period, so a change of guests doesn't require a new license. Each license states the maximum occupancy the code official has calculated for the unit and must be posted inside near the main entrance, along with the borough's Summer Rental Poster; failing to post the poster costs $100 for each party responsible, and an overcrowding summons costs each tenant $265 for a first violation. Inspections are scheduled within five business days for applications filed before May 1 and within ten business days after, and never while another tenant is in the unit. Belmar's code also carries what it calls its Animal House provisions, under which further substantiated complaints after a decision against a property can leave the landlord owing the borough money damages. Lake Como's Chapter 11 applies the same 175-day test to its Summer Rental License but requires a new license whenever any tenant or occupant changes, with no conditional certificates or licenses allowed. Its fees are $120 per unit for the inspection and license plus a $100 tourism fee, and $75 plus a $50 tourism fee for each change of occupancy. Lake Como's 3 percent occupancy tax on rentals booked through a marketplace came in with Ordinance 2022-974 in May 2022, and two substantiated complaints within 24 months can bring a bond of $500 to $5,000 that stays in force for four years.
Spring Lake limits how many times a house can be rented rather than for how long. Every tenancy needs a rental certificate of occupancy, for summer, winter and annual leases alike and whether the house is let through an agent or a platform such as Airbnb or Vrbo, and Ordinance 2025-006, passed on December 2, 2025, allows no more than four of those certificates per rental structure or unit in a calendar year. Ordinance 2026-003, passed on March 10, 2026, raised the inspection fees; the borough's March 30, 2026 procedures list $150 for a house of up to four bedrooms and $200 for a larger one, $25 for a reinspection and $50 for a re-rental within three months of the first certificate. Each application needs a lease signed by both parties that shows the dates, the maximum number of occupants and the tenants' names, proof of liability insurance and, for homes built before 1978 on terms of 180 days or more, a lead-safe certificate. Inspections need 48 hours' notice and aren't scheduled until the fee is paid. The inspector can handle all of one house's summer certificates on a single day, before the first tenants move in, but doesn't go back inside between rentals, so checking the smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors and extinguishers between tenants is the owner's job. Occupying a rental without a certificate costs $2,000 a day, and two complaints of disorderly or noisy conduct within 12 months, substantiated in court, can lead the council to require a bond. Spring Lake Heights licenses short-term rentals, meaning stays of less than 175 consecutive days by someone other than the owner or a permanent resident, under Ordinance 2025-17, which the mayor signed on December 15, 2025. Its rules are tight: every rental must run at least seven consecutive days, every ad has to state that minimum, a unit can host no more than eight sets of occupants in a calendar year, and the primary tenant must be at least 21 and present for the whole stay. The $100 short-term rental license runs for the calendar year it's issued in. The application asks for the bedroom count, the maximum number of occupants, whether there's a pool, a certificate of inspection and proof of at least $500,000 in liability insurance per occurrence, the ordinance adds each proposed tenant's name, permanent address and identification, and the borough confirms the on-site parking and that property taxes and water and sewer bills are current. The license hangs on the back of the front door with the police, fire and code numbers, trash days, parking limits and maximum occupancy; two convictions over tenant violations within 24 months are grounds to suspend or revoke it, and fines run from $100 to $1,000. On May 18, 2026 the council adopted Ordinance 2026-08, which restates the 3 percent tax in the state's model language so the Division of Taxation can collect it. Sea Girt requires an annual property rental permit, $250, before any tenancy, a rental certificate of occupancy applied for no later than four days after a lease is signed, and notice of any change of tenants within ten days, at $25 a change. It caps the number of adults at the occupancy the code official calculates, each tenant in an overcrowded rental faces a $265 summons, and we found no minimum rental term in its rental chapter.
Manasquan's Chapter 15 defines a seasonal rental as any lease of less than a year that includes part of May 15 to September 15. The owner applies for a rental permit within ten days of signing a lease and files the lease, or a verified abstract, with each tenant's name, permanent address and phone number; the code official inspects within ten days, a summer permit runs from May 1 to September 30, a lease between October 1 and May 1 needs a permit of its own, and the rental certificate of occupancy posted inside the unit states how many people may stay. Three complaints substantiated by conviction within a year can lead to a bond of $500 to $5,000 for up to four years, and we found no minimum stay or short-term rental ban in the chapter. Brielle's code didn't surface a short-term rental chapter in what we could open either, and like Manasquan, Sea Girt, Belmar, Avon and Bradley Beach, Brielle isn't on the state's municipal occupancy tax list, so ask the Brielle clerk what certificate or license applies before you list there. Condominium and homeowners associations anywhere on this coast can be stricter than the borough, and Asbury Park lets a condo rent short-term only where the association permits it. Use this section for orientation only; it isn't legal advice. Check the current rules with each borough's clerk or code office, the Division of Taxation and your association before listing. Cavmir's part is the marketing, while permits, inspections and tax filings remain your responsibility and that of the professionals you hire locally.