How to Find a Parking Spot for Your Tiny Home on Wheels - and I don’t mean RV Parks

“Where do I park my tiny home on wheels?” seems to be the most common question floating around the tiny living community. If you have ever watched the YouTube show “Living Big in a Tiny House” you know that the question the hosts asks every single person in each episode is “AMAZING parking spot!! How did you find it?”

A really nice parking spot.

Everyone sees gorgeous photos of tiny homes online, tons of tiny homes on wheels popping up on Airbnb and other rental platforms, and even tiny home communities and people living full time in their tiny homes on stunning pieces of property. But no one seems to answer the question of HOW they are able to get away with it?

For people interested in going tiny, the biggest headache can be finding somewhere to live once they make the move to downsize their home. Zoning regulations, permits, codes, ordinances, HOA’s, and county/city folk telling you you can’t have a tiny house….how are we supposed to make sense of it all?!

Well, here’s the thing you have to understand. Tiny houses on wheels are a gray area. They don’t fall into any of the categories that county or city officials are used to, so if you are asking the wrong questions, you may be getting an answer that is actually misinformation.

Everyone knows that you can park your tiny home on wheels in places like RV parks, tiny home communities that are zoned as RV parks, or mobile home parks. But not everyone wants to live in those settings. Maybe you want to live in a tiny home full time on a beautiful piece of property surrounded by nature, or maybe you want to park a tiny home in your backyard as a guest house for visitors. Perhaps you want a tiny home for your elderly parents or parents-in-law to live in, or to start an Airbnb to have passive income.

Here are some things you need to know when you are looking for a parking spot for your tiny home on wheels:

1. There is a difference between a “tiny home” and a “THOW"/Tiny home on wheels."

Okay, this seems obvious. But it is actually a key (if not THE KEY) aspect to point out when doing your research on your parking spot. If you call up a county or city hall and ask them if you can have a “tiny home” on your property, their answer is going to be different than if you ask them about a “tiny home on wheels”.

Let me explain why. Any structure built on a foundation falls under the jurisdiction of your local county or city officials. It is their job to make sure your structure is up to building code, has the appropriate permits, has gone through inspections, and that you have provided engineered design drawings for it. The minute you put that structure on wheels, it suddenly has nothing to do with them. Anything on wheels falls under the jurisdiction of the DMV. Now, your city or county may require you to register your “vehicle” or “trailer” with the DMV in order to store it or park it on your property, but they will not inspect it, there is no building code that applies to it, and you (most likely) don’t need a permit to store it (unless you happen to be in an HOA with more strict rules on what you store on your property).

2. Start by doing the research yourself.

In my experience, most city and county officials don’t have their code memorized, and even if they do, they probably don’t get asked about tiny houses on wheels too often. In fact, it may be the first time they are ever hearing of such a thing! They may give you an answer they think is accurate, but it’s possible they may give you misinformation. Also, you may run into people that don’t like the idea of tiny homes, have a negative idea of what tiny homes are, or simply don’t want tiny homes in their town. In this case, they might give you trouble, but if the code allows you to have and live in your tiny home, there’s really nothing they can do. So, how do you look up codes?

https://library.municode.com/

Municode Library! It is simple to navigate, and here is how you can find your code for anywhere in the United States:

First, you need may need some information about your property you are looking up. Determine whether the property is within city limits, or if it is “unincorporated” which means it falls into the county. If it is in city limits, you’ll look up your city code book, if it is “unincorporated” you’ll look up the county code book. Determine what the zoning of your property is. It may be residential, agricultural, commercial, or something else. There are different codes for each one.

After you have this information about your property, go to https://library.municode.com/ and click on your state on the map. Then, click either your city or county (whichever you determined has the jurisdiction over your property.

Municode Library states map. 

In the search bar at the top of the page where it says “Search or jump to”, type “recreational vehicle”. Now, here is the thing: if you type “tiny home” or “tiny house” here, you may occasionally find that a city or county has codes on tiny homes. However, unless it specifies tiny homes on wheels, all that code applies to are foundation built homes smaller than a certain square footage. You can search “tiny home” or “tiny house” first to see what comes up, and see if they specify anything about wheels. If nothing comes up, or they don’t specify, then search “recreational vehicle”.

Here is where it get’s a little tricky, because each code is written with slight differences. You’re looking for something that references the parking and storage of recreational vehicles in a residential area. For example, below you see the search results for Sarasota County, FL. In the search results, I found the title that said “Off-street parking and loading.”, clicked it, and then did ctrl + F to search recreational vehicle again. Then, I read through the results. Here you can see in the highlighted area that Sarasota County does not allow recreational vehicles for sleeping in, and that they cannot be connected to utilities for any reason. And therefore, you would not be able to live in a tiny house on wheels on a residential property in Sarasota County. If your land is zoned agricultural or commercial, this code would not apply to you. I find it a little harder to find the codes for agricultural and commercially zoned properties.

Sarasota County Municode Search for “Recreational Vehicle”

Now, let’s look at another example, Austin, TX. When searching for “recreational vehicle” in the code book for Austin, TX, I don’t see anything that comes up for storage, but I did find this - “Accessory Uses for a Principal Residential Use”. That sounded like something of interest, so upon clicking that link, I read into it deeper..

Austin, TX Municode Search for “recreational vehicle”

Interestingly, this is a list of permitted accessory uses for a vehicle in a residential area. They do limit the number of recreational vehicles allowed to two, and they specify that they must be stored in an enclosed building OR screened from public view with a solid wood or masonry fence at least 6ft high, and that the storage cannot be a health hazard (ie. take care of your plumbing properly.)

Austin, TX definition of permitted RVs

Then, the code goes on to define the permitted uses of these “vehicles”! It defines that you can use them for recreational activities by the residents of the main house, you can host religious study groups or meetings, use them as playhouses, patios, cabanas, etc., storage, home occupations (a great use for tiny homes is a home office!), and more. You can also use it as a single accessory apartment, which they define as being an apartment for persons 60 years or older - making tiny homes a great mother-in-law-suite! It also says they can be used as a guest house by occasional, nonpaying guests. So, you could not run an Airbnb out of your tiny house, but you can use it for friends and family to visit.

Austin, TX permitted uses for RVs on a residential property

So there you have it! In unincorporated Sarasota County, no one can use tiny homes on wheels to sleep in for any length of time, and you can’t hook them up to utilities, but in Austin, TX you can have a tiny house on wheels as a home office, a guest house for visitors, or even a permanent home for your mother in law!

By using this website, you can potentially search every county and city in the United States, and find their codes in relation to tiny homes on wheels, because almost all counties and cities will consider your tiny home on wheels as an RV, unless they have specifically defined it otherwise in their code book. It does take a little getting-used-to to know what you are looking for in the code book, but once you start to read a few areas of them, it becomes more clear.

3. Call your city/county to clarify what you have read.

Your next step after doing your own research, could be to call up the county or city. Now that you have some knowledge and know what to ask, you will likely get a more accurate answer from them. For example, you could call Sarasota County and say “I noticed in your code book it says I am not permitted to use an RV as a guest house on my property, but could I use one as a home office?”. Or, you could call Austin, TX city hall and say “I saw in your code book that I am allowed to use an RV as a guest house for visitors, is that true?”. By having some of your own research done, and coming up with specific, informed, questions, you will be able to pinpoint the information you need. At this point, you could tell the city official that actually you want a tiny home on wheels, and ask them if they do consider that the same as an RV, and if not, what is it considered?

You can also start to ask if there is any difference between the permitted uses of an RV on a residential property vs. an agriculturally zoned property (if you are living in a rural area). Usually, the codes for agricultural properties are more lenient and even when tiny homes on wheels are not allowed in residential areas, they may be allowed with agricultural zoning.

If you are still shopping around for land, you could ask the county or city officials to share with you if there are ANY zoning that does allow someone to live in a tiny home on wheels, so that you know what to look for. If you already have an exact piece of land, you can give them the parcel number so that they can be absolutely sure what is allowed on your specific lot.

4. Get specific.

Now that you know what type of property you have, or are looking for, and have a general idea of whether or not tiny homes on wheels can be parked there and what they can be used for, you want to make sure to ask a few more questions to avoid unseen roadblocks later on. One important question to ask is whether or not your property has to have a “permanent residence” on the property first, before you can have your tiny home on wheels. Many areas WILL require this. So if you are thinking to just put a tiny home on wheels on an empty lot, you will definitely want to ask that question before making a purchase of the land or the tiny home. There are areas that do allow for people to live in an RV (or tiny home on wheels) as their permanent residence. These are mostly rural areas, in “unincorporated” or county regulated land, and zoned as agricultural land. To get even trickier - even if it checks all those boxes, it may have to be a “buildable lot” (not just farming land). So these are the kind of questions you want to ask to be sure you have all the information you need before making your purchase.

5. Finally, know the requirements your tiny home on wheels has to meet.

Often times, as I said above, the county or city will just consider your tiny home on wheels an RV and they won’t require anything else from you. In other cases, they may have requirements for your tiny home on wheels, such as it having RVIA certification (or being a “Certified RV”). They may require certain types of plumbing (connection to sewage or septic, not a compostable toilet). It’s also possible that they may require some sort of insurance on your tiny home on wheels in order for you to live in it. So once you get the go-ahead that you found a piece of property and you are allowed to have a tiny home on wheels on that property, make sure you ask if your tiny home has to meet any specific requirements.

Phew. That was a lot! The process to figure out where to put your tiny home on wheels can be daunting, and it may feel discouraging when people keep telling you “no,” when they could even be misinformed (or biased!). It may seem like there is a lot of resistance against tiny homes on wheels, but actually, as they become more popular, more and more counties and cities are beginning to adopt codes that allow for tiny homes and tiny homes on wheels for by-right uses (meaning, without a permit or approval). By taking the research into your own hands, you can inform yourself about what the regulations are around your tiny homes on wheels, and when you do find that perfect property, you will find yourself with the freedom you were desiring when you first thought of having a tiny home on wheels!

a backyard parking spot.

Are you looking for a parking spot for your tiny home on wheels to start an Airbnb or live in, but don’t know where to start? We have partnered with land owners across the country through our STAY TINY program who are willing to rent out a piece of their property to host a tiny home on! Get in touch with us!

On the flip side - if you are a land owner and want to host tiny homes on your property, fill out an application HERE. We will help walk you through the process of verifying that your land is permitted to have a tiny home on your property and what you can use it for!