Screen a rental, STR or ADU deal for covenant restrictions
Published October 19, 2026. Updated October 30, 2026.
What tools check HOA rental and ADU restrictions before I make an offer?
Setback reads the covenants recorded against a parcel and shows the rules that affect an investment: leasing limits, minimum lease terms, short-term rental bans, ADU and second-unit rules, parking, and home business limits. Search one address, or on the Pro plan screen a list of parcels at once and filter the map by rule. It fits when your deals sit in a county we cover. It does not fit for an uncovered county, for condos whose rules live with a management company, or for how an association enforces a rule, which the recorded text does not answer.
As of October 30, 2026: 2 counties covered, 1,260 recorded covenants read, 23,608 rules, 13,652 parcels. Updated every night.
What you get
- Leasing, short-term rental, ADU, parking and business-use rules for each parcel, with the recorded clause behind each one.
- A map you can filter by rule, so you see which covered parcels allow what before you look at listings.
- Batch screening on the Pro plan: upload a list of parcel numbers and get a rule summary for each.
- API access on the Pro plan for your own tools.
What the report shows
The report starts with the recorded documents for the parcel, with recording numbers and dates, so you know whether an amendment added a rental limit after the original declaration. Amendments are where most short-term rental bans and minimum lease terms arrive, often years later.
Each rule that touches a deal gets its own row: leasing allowed or not, minimum lease term, short-term rental limits, ADU and second-unit rules, RV and boat parking, home business limits. Beside the plain-English reading sits the sentence from the recorded page, with its page number, so a partner or an underwriter can check the source.
The map search filters covered parcels by these same rules, so you can start from the rule and find the lots, not the other way round. The preview shows the documents on record and the first three rules with no account. On the Pro plan a CSV of parcel numbers returns a rule summary for each, and the API returns the same data for your own screening tools. A rule we could not read with confidence is marked uncertain.
How it works
- Search the parcel, or filter the map by the rules that matter to the deal. Open the search
- Open the preview to confirm the covenants on record and the first three rules.
- On the Pro plan, read every rule, screen a list of parcels, or pull the data through the API.
Where it works
| County | Covenants read | Rules | Parcels |
|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas County, WA | 769 | 15,013 | 4,878 |
| Franklin County, WA | 491 | 8,595 | 8,774 |
Next: Chelan, Pend Oreille.
Pricing
Base is $29 a month and Pro is $59 a month. Payments open soon. See the plans
Questions
- Can I check many parcels at once?
- Yes, on the Pro plan. Upload a CSV of parcel numbers and get a summary for each.
- Do you show whether short-term rentals are allowed?
- Yes, when the recorded covenants say so. Many declarations set a minimum lease term or ban transient use; we show the clause.
- Do you cover city zoning?
- No. Setback reads recorded private covenants. Zoning comes from the city or county planning office.
- How current is the data?
- A nightly job reads new recordings in each covered county. Each county shows its last update date.
- Is there an API?
- Yes, on the Pro plan. The API docs describe every endpoint.