How we verify — and what happens when a rule changes

A legality site that guesses is worse than none. This page is the discipline the dataset runs on.

Run the free checker

Primary sources only

Every market cell — the definition, the permit, the fee, the cap, the fine — is read from the municipal code or the administering program's own pages. The citations print on every market page and inside every verdict. Secondary roundups (including ones that still teach Austin's repealed Type 1/2/3 system, or Washington notice periods from two laws ago) are treated as leads, never as sources.

Two-source rule for thresholds

Numbers that can make a host illegal — night caps, density percentages, fine schedules — are confirmed in two places: the ordinance text and the program that enforces it. Where the two disagree, the narrower reading ships and the disagreement is noted in the market's quirks.

Freeze-on-change

Regimes move: Austin repealed and rebuilt its system effective October 2025; Nashville rewrote its caps in 2024; Indiana preempted its cities in 2026; Houston adopted its first registration effective January 1, 2026. When we detect a change in a covered market, that market's verdict freezes to a fresh-check notice until the new rules are read from the source and the dataset is re-stamped. Nothing ships on a stale cell knowingly.

Upkeep and kill lines

The dataset carries a standing upkeep budget of 6–10 hours per quarter — the heaviest in our portfolio, because 15–30% of covered markets change materially in a year. Two stale-city errors in a quarter freezes kit sales until a full re-check passes. Any single market whose rules we cannot keep current is frozen individually rather than left to rot.

What this site is not

Not legal advice, and not a law firm. A verdict is a careful reading of public rules for the facts you typed, with the citations attached so you — or your attorney — can check our work. Rules checked October 2026.