Indiana Just Limited How Towns Can Restrict Rentals. Why Long Beach's Ban Survived

"HB1210 saves the town's no short-term rental ordinance because our ordinance was grandfathered in since it was prior to 2018."

That line comes from the Long Beach Town Council minutes for March 9, 2026. It was part of a short report on the town's lobbyist's work, read just before the meeting adjourned at 8:16 PM. Three days later, Indiana's governor signed House Bill 1210, which became Public Law 157. One section of that law generally bars Indiana towns from restricting how owners rent out residential property. Long Beach's rule against rentals under 30 days is one of the few that the statute's own text leaves in place. For a buyer who wants a Lake Shore Drive cottage to earn some income, a zoning vote from March 2017 now matters more than any comparable sale.

What a Long Beach Lease Requires

Long Beach Code § 154.020 defines "daily rental use" as renting a dwelling, or any part of a zoning lot, for less than 30 consecutive days. Section 154.049(D) bans that use in residential districts, and the ban covers bed-and-breakfast and home-stay lodging too. Leases of 30 days or longer are allowed. When an owner leases a single-family home, the town code requires the owner to:

1. File a complete copy of the lease, plus any amendments or extensions, with the Clerk-Treasurer. Financial terms may be blacked out.
2. Fill out a Long Beach Rental Form and keep it on file at the Police Station. The form lists contact information for the owner and tenant, along with the lease start and end dates.
3. Tell the Clerk-Treasurer in writing if the lease ends before its original end date.
4. Give the tenant a copy of the lease to keep at the house and show to the Police Department on reasonable request.
5. Keep the property under no more than one lease at a time.

Item 3 has a catch that surprises buyers who planned on a few month-long summer tenants. Under the code, a lease that ends within its first 30 days counts as a daily rental and violates the ban. A family that signs for a month and leaves after two weeks has turned a legal lease into an illegal one. The one-lease rule also blocks the common workaround of splitting a house into separate units for separate tenants.

The fines are large enough to matter. Ordinance 2017-01 sets $100 to $2,500 for a first violation and $500 to $7,500 for each violation after that, and every day a violation continues counts as a separate offense. The Building Commission and the Police Chief or Town Marshal enforce the code and refer violations to the Town Attorney. The code also allows court injunctions, nuisance treatment, and recovery of attorney fees in qualifying cases.

Why a 2017 Vote Outranks a 2026 Statute

The new state rule is Indiana Code 36-1-20-3.6, added by HEA 1210 and effective July 1, 2026. It says a local unit "may not adopt or enforce" any ordinance or policy that prohibits or restricts an owner from renting out privately owned residential property, or that has that effect. Towns can still enforce health and safety rules, building and fire codes, reasonable occupancy standards, and registration or inspection requirements, as long as those don't work as a cap.

Subsection d is the part that protects Long Beach. A unit that adopted a short-term rental ordinance before January 1, 2018, in compliance with Indiana's 2018 short-term rental law, "is exempt from this section." That 2018 law, HEA 1035, became Public Law 73 on March 14, 2018. It already used the same date. Under IC 36-1-24-1, the short-term rental chapter does not apply to a unit that adopted an ordinance before January 1, 2018 that "prohibits, regulates, or restricts short term rentals in any manner."

Long Beach's restriction started well before that cutoff. The code history traces § 154.049 to Ordinance 0203, passed June 10, 2002, and amended by Ordinance 2017-01 on March 13, 2017. The 2017 amendment, which dealt with short-term rentals directly, passed about nine and a half months before the cutoff. One clerical oddity: the signature block on the official PDF of Ordinance 2017-01 reads "March ___, 2016," while the codified history says March 13, 2017. The ordinance number and the code history both point to 2017.

Under the 2018 law, towns without that early start get a different set of rules. An owner-occupied short-term rental is a permitted residential use wherever homes are allowed. Towns may require special-use approval or variances for other short-term rentals but may not use them to prohibit or unreasonably restrict the rentals. Local short-term rental rules there are limited to listed purposes such as safety, nuisance and property maintenance, and getting an emergency contact.

The Built-In Reason the Rule Stays

A grandfathered rule could in theory be undone by a future council. The statute makes that costly. Long Beach may amend or delete any part of its pre-2018 ordinance without becoming subject to the state chapter. If it repeals the ordinance outright, it "concurrently becomes subject to this chapter."

So a council can tune the rule but can't swap it for something new without giving up its exemption. Once the rule is repealed, Long Beach would fall under the same state limits as its neighbors, and it could never get back to a full ban. The exemption gives each future council a reason to keep the ordinance on the books. A buyer looking five or ten years out should plan around a 30-day minimum. No source indicates the town is considering anything else. The council's March report, coming just as a statewide preemption law was being finalized, treated keeping the ordinance as the goal.

The Same Shoreline Under Different Rules

The towns next to Long Beach adopted their rules after the 2018 cutoff, and their rules look different as a result. Here is what each town's current code or ordinance says.

A few details complicate the table. Michiana Shores requires an owner to hold the property for at least six months before applying for a short-term rental permit. It also requires an owner or local agent within 30 miles or 45 minutes who can respond in person. Michiana, Michigan puts applicants on a first-come waitlist once its 40 permits are taken, with a $100 nonrefundable annual waitlist fee. Michigan City set its permit fee at $0 when it adopted the ordinance. The city's current building-permit page sends applications to its Cloudpermit portal and doesn't list a fee, so confirm the current amount with the city.

The 2028 Date in the New Statute

The Indiana towns in that table share one more date. Section 3.6 says that a unit with a noncompliant ordinance adopted before January 1, 2026, other than a pre-2018 short-term rental ordinance like Long Beach's, is exempt from the section "until January 1, 2028, at which time" it must comply. How that applies to Pottawattamie Park's 180-day rule, Michiana Shores' 25-permit cap, or Michigan City's permit system is for those towns and their attorneys to settle. No source reviewed for this post has settled it. The text does set a date for the newer Indiana rules and no date for Long Beach's.

That difference in timing is what a buyer is really comparing across the town line. In Long Beach, the rental rule has a fixed shape and a structural reason to stay that way. In the neighboring Indiana towns, the statute names a 2028 compliance date for rules adopted in 2021 and 2023. On the Michigan side, the rules are local for now. Michigan House Bills 6026 and 6027, which would create a short-term rental registry and clarify a ban on total short-term rental bans, were introduced and referred to the House Government Operations committee on June 2, 2026. Their histories show no action after that referral.

HEA 1210 also reaches homeowners associations. Starting when that subsection took effect, only HOA members who use their property as a homestead may vote on whether to prohibit or restrict renting. A buyer considering an Indiana property in an association should ask who votes on rental rules there.

What Changes in the Math

A Long Beach purchase can still earn income. It does so on a monthly schedule. A summer budget built on nightly rates doesn't work here. One that assumes a single tenant on a 30-day-or-longer lease, with paperwork filed at Town Hall and the Police Station, does. Home-stay and bed-and-breakfast use are also off the table. In return, an owner gets a residential area where the nightly-rental question has an answer that state law leaves alone.

Quick Answers

Can I rent my Long Beach house for one month in July? Yes, if the lease runs 30 days or longer, is filed with the Clerk-Treasurer, and has a matching Rental Form at the Police Station. If the tenant leaves within the first 30 days, the lease counts as a daily rental under the code.

Does living in the house myself change anything? The Long Beach ban has no exception for owners who live there. Owner-occupied short-term rentals are a permitted use in Indiana towns that fall under the 2018 state chapter, and Long Beach doesn't.

Could the town drop the ban later? It can amend or delete parts of the ordinance and keep its exemption. Repealing the ordinance outright would place the town under the state chapter.

Is this legal advice? No. This summarizes what the ordinance and statute texts say as of October 2026. Before relying on rental income, confirm with the Town of Long Beach and an Indiana attorney.

If you're comparing Long Beach with Michiana Shores, Michiana, or New Buffalo and the rental rules will affect your budget, the Choose Chad Team can walk you through each town's ordinance before you write an offer. Let's Connect.