Metro Nashville requires you to name a responsible party, which the Code expressly allows to be either a person or a business, residing or located within 25 miles of your short-term rental, responsible for addressing all maintenance and safety concerns, and answering calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during every guest stay. The application requires their name, phone number, address, and email, and their name and phone number must be posted inside the unit. Metro does not require them to hold a license or a particular credential but it does require them to actually be reachable, continuously.
The practical question isn't "who is technically allowed." It's "who can sustain this obligation for years without failing." Those are very different bars, and most permit problems come from clearing the first and not the second.
In this article:
What Metro requires of a responsible party
What Metro requires
Three requirements govern the role, under Metropolitan Code of Laws § 6.28.030:
Proximity — person or business. The Code requires a "person or business" residing or located within twenty-five miles of the property. The application requires their name, telephone number, address, and email address. § 6.28.030.A.3.b.i / B.3.b.i
Continuous availability. Metro's operating requirements state the responsible party must answer calls twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for the duration of each short-term rental period, to address problems associated with the unit.
Public disclosure. Their name and phone number are posted conspicuously inside the unit, and their contact details are on file with Metro Codes.
Two things follow from this that owners routinely miss.
First, this is an ongoing operating condition, not an application formality. It is not satisfied by naming someone once. It's satisfied (or breached) every night a guest is in your property.
Second, the role carries real exposure for the person named. They are the publicly posted point of contact for complaints. Their name sits on a municipal record tied to a property they may have no stake in. That's a meaningful thing to ask of someone casually.
Separately, note that if you want a third party to apply for or operate the permit on your behalf, Metro requires a notarized owner authorization. That's a distinct question from who serves as responsible party — don't conflate the two.
Who commonly serves in this role
Allowed? Yes, assuming they meet the proximity requirement.
Does it hold up? This is the most common arrangement and the most common failure point.
The arrangement is free, which is exactly why it's fragile — you have no mechanism to enforce it. There's no contract, no backup when they're unreachable, no escalation path, and no documentation trail. It generally works fine for months, then meets one of the following:
The first 1 a.m. call, and the realization that this is a real obligation
The risk isn't that they refuse. It's that the arrangement degrades silently, and you discover it through a complaint or a renewal problem rather than a conversation. Your permit's validity is resting on a favor.
Allowed? Yes. Local contact coverage is typically bundled into the service.
Does it hold up? Operationally, yes — this is a real, contracted solution with staff behind it.
The question is what you're paying for it. Short-term rental management commonly runs 15–30% of gross revenue, because you're buying guest communication, cleaning coordination, dynamic pricing, and listing management alongside the compliance coverage. If you want the full service, that's a fair trade. If you're already self-managing well, you're paying a full-service rate to solve one line item. The math is in Property Manager vs. Local Contact: The Real Cost for a Nashville STR.
Allowed? Yes — and explicitly so. The Code names "a person or business" as eligible to serve, and permits that party to be residing or located within twenty-five miles. A company retained for this purpose fits the ordinance's own language.
Does it hold up? This is the model built specifically for the problem. A named local agent within 25 miles, contractually obligated rather than doing you a favor, with 24/7 answering infrastructure behind the number and a backup pool so availability doesn't depend on one person's phone. You keep self-managing everything else.
This is what HostDelegate does, and it's the only thing we do.
Allowed? Only if you live within 25 miles and can genuinely answer 24/7.
For out-of-state owners, this is the wall. It's the reason this requirement drives so much of the decision-making covered in How to Self-Manage a Nashville Airbnb From Out of State.
Whoever you name, pressure-test the arrangement against the situations that actually occur:
People move, relationships change, and arrangements end. If your responsible party is no longer valid, update the information on file with Metro Codes.
The failure mode to avoid is drift: the named person stops answering, you never formally change anything, and the permit now lists a contact who isn't functioning. On paper you're compliant. In an enforcement situation, you're not — and the posted name inside your unit is the first thing anyone looks at.
Treat responsible party changes with the same seriousness as your annual renewal. Nashville sends no reminders for either.
We serve as your named local contact of record:
We are not a property manager. No bookings, no guest messaging, no pricing, no cleaning coordination, no day-to-day operations. You keep self-managing. We're the compliance requirement, solved — flat annual fee, not a percentage of your revenue.
Does the responsible party need a license or certification?
Metro does not impose a licensing requirement for the role. The binding requirements are proximity, 24/7 availability, and public posting.
Can my cleaner or handyman be my responsible party?
If they're within 25 miles and genuinely willing to answer 24/7, they can be named. Consider whether someone whose income depends on other work can realistically sustain a continuous overnight obligation — and whether you want your service vendor to also be your compliance contact.
Do I have to pay my responsible party?
Metro doesn't require compensation. But an unpaid arrangement is an unenforceable one, which is why informal setups degrade.
Can one person be the responsible party for multiple properties?
Nothing in the proximity or availability requirements limits this by itself. The practical question is whether one phone can genuinely cover several properties simultaneously at 2 a.m.
What if my responsible party doesn't answer a call?
The requirement is that calls are answered. An unanswered complaint call is a compliance problem, and enforcement history attaches to the property.
→ Download the free Nashville STR Compliance Checklist — every permit requirement in order, including exactly what responsible party information you'll need to submit.
→ Join the Nashville waitlist. HostDelegate is launching in Nashville soon. Waitlist members get early-access pricing and first availability.
Governing law: Metropolitan Code of Laws § 6.28.030, amended through Ordinance BL2024-478 (2024). This article is general information as of July 2026 and is not legal or tax advice. Requirements change and individual properties vary — confirm current rules with the Metro Codes Department before acting.