West Virginia HOA Short-Term Rentals

Quick-Reference Table

Last verified: July 17, 2026

Section 1: Overview — Can an HOA restrict short-term rentals in West Virginia?

A West Virginia condominium or planned community restricts short-term rentals through its recorded declaration operating within the West Virginia Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, the single unified statute that governs common interest communities in the state.² WVUCIOA, W. Va. Code § 36B-1-101 et seq., is a unified Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act statute that governs condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives created on or after July 1, 1986; condominiums created before that date remain under the older Unit Property Act, W. Va. Code § 36A-1-1 et seq., with enumerated WVUCIOA provisions reaching back to preexisting communities.⁶⁷ WVUCIOA is based on the 1982 version of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, so it does not contain the 2008 rental owner-protection provision found in later versions; grandfathering therefore runs through the statute, the declaration, and West Virginia common law rather than a statutory shield.⁵ West Virginia has no comprehensive statewide short-term-rental statute; regulation sits at the local level, concentrated in the mountain and resort markets such as Snowshoe in Pocahontas County, the New River Gorge area around Fayetteville, and the eastern panhandle, and that local layer governs the owner-to-government relationship without expanding or shrinking association authority.³ Contested enforcement moves through the West Virginia Circuit Court, then to the Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia (which opened July 1, 2022), and then, on discretionary review, to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.¹⁹ The sections below detail the statutory framework, the amendment and grandfathering analysis, the tax and local layer, and the operational mechanics of enforcement.

Section 2: The legal framework for HOA short-term rental restrictions

2A. The Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act as a unified statute

West Virginia is one of a small group of states that enacted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act.⁵ WVUCIOA, codified at W. Va. Code § 36B-1-101 et seq. and organized into four articles (general provisions, creation and termination, management, and protection of purchasers), is a single unified statute governing condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives.¹ It applies to common interest communities created in the state on or after the act's effective date of July 1, 1986.⁶ This unified structure is a defining feature: the same statute reaches a slope-side condominium at Snowshoe and a lot-based planned community in the eastern panhandle, with type-specific provisions applied where the text calls for them.

Condominiums created before July 1, 1986 remain governed by the older Unit Property Act, W. Va. Code § 36A-1-1 et seq., a 1963 statute.⁷ WVUCIOA does not wholly displace those communities; instead, enumerated sections reach back to preexisting communities under W. Va. Code § 36B-1-204, and § 36B-1-206 addresses how amendments to older governing instruments may be made under the newer act.⁸

West Virginia enacted the 1982 version of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act and has not adopted the 2008 amendments.⁵ That version choice matters for rentals. The 1982 act does not contain the 2008 owner-protection provision that shields existing owners from later rental restrictions, so the statute is silent on rentals as such. Within that framework, the declaration is the source of rental authority.² WVUCIOA supplies default rules for governance, assessments, and enforcement, but whether short-term or transient rental is permitted, restricted, or prohibited depends on the declaration's use covenants. A useful distinction for boards is between long-term leasing (a tenancy) and short-term or transient rental (nightly or weekly occupancy resembling lodging); a covenant drafted for one does not automatically capture the other, and West Virginia courts construe restrictive covenants strictly against the party seeking to enforce them.²⁰

2B. Restricting rentals, amendments, and grandfathering

An association that wants to add or strengthen a short-term-rental restriction generally does so by amending the declaration. Under W. Va. Code § 36B-2-117(a), the declaration may be amended only by a vote or agreement of unit owners holding at least 67 percent of the votes in the association, or any larger majority the declaration specifies. The declaration may set a smaller number only where all units are restricted to nonresidential use.¹⁰ The board must also follow the declaration's own amendment clause, and any recorded amendment must be filed in every county where the community sits. WVUCIOA also imposes a one-year limitations period: no action challenging the validity of an amendment adopted under this section may be brought more than one year after the amendment is recorded (§ 36B-2-117(b)).¹⁰

Because WVUCIOA follows the 1982 act, it does not provide the 2008-style owner-protection provision that exempts owners who bought before a rental amendment.⁵ Whether a newly adopted restriction binds an owner who purchased earlier therefore turns on three things: the WVUCIOA amendment mechanism, the declaration's terms, and West Virginia common law on restrictive covenants. West Virginia does not supply a Florida-style or California-style statutory grandfathering shield, and boards and counsel should not assume one exists. The conservative course is to treat grandfathering as an open, fact-specific question resolved by the governing documents and general covenant law rather than by statute.

No WVUCIOA provision limits an association's authority to restrict rentals. This distinguishes West Virginia from states that have legislated in the area, such as California (Civil Code § 4741) and Arizona (A.R.S. § 33-1806.01), which cap or channel association rental authority. West Virginia has enacted no comparable limit, so within the bounds of the declaration and general covenant law, an association's power to restrict rentals is broad. Small communities can be an exception to WVUCIOA coverage rather than to rental authority: a planned community with no more than twelve units and no development rights is subject only to a few enumerated sections unless its declaration opts into the full act (§ 36B-1-203).²¹

2C. State law, tax, and the local layer

West Virginia has no comprehensive statewide short-term-rental statute and does not preempt local regulation.³ Short-term-rental rules are set locally, and they cluster in the tourism regions. Pocahontas County, home to Snowshoe, requires each short-term rental to hold an annual health permit issued by the county health department under the state sanitation rule; the permit runs July 1 to July 31 and carries a non-refundable $125.00 fee.¹¹ Fayette County, at the New River Gorge, requires a similar annual health permit valid January 1 to December 31, with a fee based on the number of bedrooms.²² Morgan County, in the eastern panhandle near Berkeley Springs, licenses short-term rentals through its county code.¹² Many other West Virginia communities have little or no short-term-rental regulation at all. Where local rules do exist, they govern the owner-to-government relationship only.

Lodging is taxed. West Virginia imposes its consumers sales and service tax, generally 6 percent, on lodging rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days; a daily or weekly rental that extends beyond 30 days falls outside the sales tax (W. Va. Code § 11-15 et seq.).⁹¹⁴ On top of that, counties and municipalities may impose a local hotel occupancy tax; the statutory base rate is 3 percent, which a county or municipality may raise by ordinance to no more than 6 percent (W. Va. Code § 7-18-2; § 8-13-3).¹⁵ The hotel occupancy tax is administered locally, not by the state; the State Tax Division administers the sales tax, and effective January 1, 2022 marketplace facilitators such as Airbnb and Vrbo must collect and remit the local hotel occupancy tax where they meet the $100,000-in-sales or 200-transaction threshold (§ 7-18-4(b)).¹⁵ West Virginia clearly has a sales tax, so operators should not treat the state as a no-sales-tax jurisdiction. A host renting for short stays must register with the State Tax Division and collect the applicable taxes.¹³

The critical point for boards and managers is that these layers are independent. Local regulation and the lodging taxes restrain local governments and owners; they neither grant nor remove association authority. An owner who obtains every local permit and remits every lodging tax dollar can still violate a declaration covenant that limits or bars short-term rental, and an association's enforcement action does not depend on the owner's tax or permit status. The reverse also holds: satisfying the declaration does not excuse an owner from local permitting and tax duties.

Section 3: Operational mechanics and enforcement

A. Adopting a valid restriction (the tools)

The most common and most defensible restriction is a minimum-lease-term covenant, which sets a floor (for example, no lease for fewer than 30 days) rather than attempting to police the purpose of an occupancy. Because WVUCIOA is silent on rentals, the covenant must live in the declaration, and adding or tightening it requires the 67 percent amendment vote of W. Va. Code § 36B-2-117(a) plus compliance with the declaration's own amendment clause.¹⁰ Rental caps, which limit the number or percentage of units that may be rented at one time, are likewise not addressed by WVUCIOA; they are permissible only if grounded in the declaration, and a cap adopted by amendment carries the same vote threshold and the same grandfathering questions discussed above. Associations may also impose internal administrative requirements, such as registering rentals with the board, filing lease copies, or providing tenant and owner contact information, through the rulemaking power in W. Va. Code § 36B-3-102(a)(1), provided the declaration or bylaws support the rule.¹⁶ These internal requirements are distinct from local government registration and do not substitute for it.

B. Enforcement and the appellate path

Before an association may fine an owner for a rental violation, WVUCIOA requires process: the association may levy reasonable fines only after notice and an opportunity to be heard (W. Va. Code § 36B-3-102(a)(11)).¹⁶ Skipping that step is the most common enforcement error. Once a fine is validly imposed, it becomes enforceable as an assessment and gives rise to a lien on the unit for the fine and related charges (§ 36B-3-116).¹⁷ Beyond fines and liens, the association may sue in its own name (§ 36B-3-102(a)(4)),¹⁶ and the customary remedy for an ongoing covenant breach is injunctive relief ordering the owner to stop renting. WVUCIOA further authorizes any adversely affected person to bring a claim for appropriate relief, with attorney's fees available in an appropriate case and punitive damages for a willful failure to comply (§ 36B-4-117).¹⁸ These rules may be supplemented but not diminished by the declaration where the statute is mandatory.

A contested enforcement action begins in the West Virginia Circuit Court, the trial court of general jurisdiction. A final civil judgment entered after June 30, 2022 is appealed to the Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia, which opened July 1, 2022 and issues a written decision in every properly filed appeal. From there, review lies with the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, which takes appeals from the Intermediate Court by petition and at its discretion.¹⁹ Association enforcement runs on this track independently of any local-government enforcement of a permit or tax ordinance, which proceeds through the relevant county or municipal process; the two can run in parallel against the same owner without either displacing the other.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in the past 24 months changed WVUCIOA's treatment of rentals, altered association rental authority, or created a statewide short-term-rental regime. West Virginia's recent legislative attention to Chapter 36B has centered on developer-driven applicability proposals and discriminatory-covenant cleanup rather than on rental restrictions, and none of those efforts produced an enacted change to association rental authority within the window.²³ Boards should treat the declaration and general covenant law, not a recent statute, as the operative source.

B. Recent rulings

No West Virginia appellate decision from the Intermediate Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of Appeals has squarely addressed a short-term-rental or transient-use covenant. The two decisions above are the closest recent guidance and both concern covenant and declaration enforceability under WVUCIOA generally.

C. Active legislative or local debates

Fayetteville, at the New River Gorge, has been developing a short-term-rental permitting ordinance under which owners would obtain a state business license and a town permit meeting standards such as smoke detectors and occupancy limits, with a point-based enforcement system that could suspend or revoke permits for violations.²⁶ These local actions touch the owner-to-government relationship in association-heavy markets like Snowshoe and the eastern panhandle but do not alter association authority.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

West Virginia sits among the states that adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it did so in the 1982 form: WVUCIOA governs condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives in one statute, leaves rental authority to the declaration, and lacks the 2008 owner-protection provision.⁵ Unlike Florida and Arizona, West Virginia does not preempt local short-term-rental regulation, and unlike California and Arizona, it does not limit HOA rental authority directly. The local ordinances and the state and local lodging taxes restrain local governments and owners, not associations, which draw their authority from the recorded declaration. For a multi-state operator entering West Virginia, the practical takeaways are a single unified governing statute, a short-term-rental market concentrated in the mountain and resort regions, and a court system that added an intermediate appellate court in 2022.

HOA Weekly updates its West Virginia Short-Term Rentals coverage quarterly as the Legislature, the Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia and the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, and local governments act. Federal frameworks including the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD also apply to West Virginia associations regardless of the state framework.

1. W. Va. Code Ch. 36B, Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (Articles 1–4), West Virginia Legislature ↩
2. W. Va. Code § 36B-1-101, Short title (Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act), West Virginia Legislature ↩
3. Hotel Occupancy Tax (locally administered), West Virginia Tax Division ↩
4. TSD-316, Sales and Use Tax for Lodging Rentals (noting county and municipal hotel occupancy taxes are administered locally), West Virginia Tax Division ↩
5. Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (identifying West Virginia among states that enacted the 1982 UCIOA version), Community Associations Institute ↩
6. W. Va. Code § 36B-1-201, Applicability to new common interest communities (effective date July 1, 1986), West Virginia Legislature ↩
7. W. Va. Code § 36A-1-1, Short title (Unit Property Act), West Virginia Legislature ↩
8. W. Va. Code § 36B-1-206, Amendments to governing instruments of preexisting communities (see also § 36B-1-204), West Virginia Legislature ↩
9. TSD-316, Sales and Use Tax for Lodging Rentals (rentals extending beyond 30 days not subject to sales tax; example of ski-resort condominium rented by day/week), West Virginia Tax Division ↩
10. W. Va. Code § 36B-2-117, Amendment of declaration (67 percent vote; one-year challenge limitation), West Virginia Legislature ↩
11. Health Department — Short-Term Rental Health Permit (Pocahontas County Health Department; annual permit, $125.00 fee, valid July 1–July 31), Snowshoe Mountain ↩
12. Morgan County Short-Term Rental Application and Title 8, Ch. 6, Art. 42G (short-term-rental licensing), Morgan County, West Virginia ↩
13. TSD-316, Sales and Use Tax for Lodging Rentals (persons providing lodging must register with the State Tax Division and obtain a business registration certificate), West Virginia Tax Division ↩
14. Sales and Use Tax (statewide rate of 6 percent), West Virginia Tax Division ↩
15. W. Va. Code § 7-18 et seq., Hotel Occupancy Tax (base 3 percent under § 7-18-2, raisable by ordinance to 6 percent; § 7-18-4 marketplace-facilitator collection; see also § 8-13-3 municipal tax), West Virginia Legislature ↩
16. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-102, Powers of unit owners' association (rulemaking; litigation in its own name; fines after notice and an opportunity to be heard), West Virginia Legislature ↩
17. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116, Lien for assessments (fines enforceable as assessments; lien on the unit), West Virginia Legislature ↩
18. W. Va. Code § 36B-4-117, Effect of violations on rights of action; attorney's fees (claim for appropriate relief; punitive damages for willful violation), West Virginia Legislature ↩
19. W. Va. Code § 51-11-1 et seq., West Virginia Appellate Reorganization Act (Intermediate Court of Appeals created; operable July 1, 2022; § 51-11-4 civil appellate jurisdiction after June 30, 2022), West Virginia Legislature ↩
20. Allemong v. Frendzel, 178 W. Va. 601, 363 S.E.2d 487 (1987) (restrictive covenants strictly construed because unrestricted use of property is favored in law), Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia ↩
21. W. Va. Code § 36B-1-203, Exception for small and limited expense liability planned communities (twelve units or fewer with no development rights), West Virginia Legislature ↩
22. Short-Term Rental Health Permit (annual permit valid January 1–December 31; fee based on number of bedrooms), Fayette County Health Department ↩
23. Bill Status, 2026 Regular Session (all bills), West Virginia Legislature ↩
24. Michael B. Wilber v. Locust Hill Unit Owner's Association, Inc., No. 25-ICA-280 (W. Va. Ct. App. June 11, 2026) (memorandum decision), Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia ↩
25. Harvey Bellomy and Nancy Bellomy v. Falcon Ridge Unit Owners' Association, Inc., No. 25-ICA-279 (W. Va. Ct. App. June 10, 2026) (signed opinion), Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia ↩
26. Council developing regulations for vacation, short-term rentals (Fayetteville permit standards and enforcement), Fayette Tribune ↩