Report a problem short-term rental
A vacation rental next door is a house like any other as far as the county and the towns are concerned: there is no rental office to call and no registry that says who runs it. What there is, is the ordinary set of rules about noise, trash, parking, and land use, each with an office that enforces it. This page sorts a complaint by what is actually happening.
Something happening right now — a party out of control, a fight, anyone in danger: call 911. For a disturbance that needs an officer but isn’t an emergency, call the non-emergency line for wherever the house is. Waynesville, Canton, and Maggie Valley each have one below. Everywhere else in the county, including Clyde outside office hours, the Sheriff’s dispatch line answers around the clock. Give the dispatcher the address and what’s happening.
Noise, night after night: see noise complaint. Outside the towns, the county rule names loud music or TV between 10 PM and 7 AM specifically. One loud night rarely gets enforcement; a pattern does, so keep the dates.
Trash, overflowing bins, junk in the yard, an overgrown lot: that’s code enforcement, and it’s the property owner’s responsibility, not the guests’. In Waynesville, Development Services takes complaints by phone, email, or in person; you don’t have to give your name, but you do have to give the address and what’s wrong. In Maggie Valley, code enforcement sits in the Planning Department and works complaint by complaint: fill out the Town’s complaint form and send it to the planners. In Canton, code enforcement runs out of Town Hall. In Clyde, start with Town Hall. Outside the towns, the county’s trash-and-nuisance ordinance is enforced by Environmental Health. For what counts, see junk vehicle or overgrown lot and illegal dumping.
Cars: blocking the road or a driveway is a call to the police or Sheriff’s line above. Vehicles left sitting in the yard fall under the junk-vehicle rules on the page linked above.
More people than the house should hold, or a house that seems to have become a business: whether a rental is allowed at a given address is a zoning question, and each town answers it differently — see short-term rental rules, town by town. The planning office for the town is the one to ask; outside the towns there is no zoning to ask about. A house on a septic system is permitted for a set number of bedrooms, and Environmental Health is who permits septic systems, so a rental that is regularly full beyond that is a question for them, and sewage surfacing in the yard is a call to them the same day (see well and septic questions).
Why there’s no registry to check. State law (G.S. 160D-1207) stops any town or county from requiring rental owners to register or get a permit to rent, except for an individual property with more than four verified violations in a rolling twelve months, two or more in a rolling thirty days, or one that lands in the top ten percent of properties for crime or disorder under a local ordinance. That is the mechanism: a property gets treated differently only once violations are on the record. A complaint that ends in a written finding by code enforcement or a police report is a record; a review left on the listing site is not.
What helps: the address, dates and times, photos of what you’re reporting, and the listing itself if you can find it. Each neighbour’s report is its own record.
What to expect: an inspector or officer comes out, looks, and either finds a violation or doesn’t. If they do, the owner gets time to fix it before penalties. If nothing changes over months, the place to raise it is your town’s board, where rental rules get written.
Who to call
10 offices can be the right one, depending on the details above.
Waynesville Police Department
- Non-emergency: 828-456-5363
9 South Main Street, Suite 100, Waynesville, NC 28786
The number for anything inside Waynesville town limits that needs an officer but isn't an emergency: a loud party at midnight, cars blocking a street, a dispute at a neighbouring house. For an emergency, dial 911. The department's page lists the non-emergency line only; no separate dispatch or records number is published there.
Canton Police Department
- Non-emergency: 828-648-2376
105 Summer Street, Canton, NC 28716 (temporary location, per the Town's page)
The number for anything inside Canton town limits that needs an officer but isn't an emergency. For an emergency, dial 911. The Town's page says the department is temporarily located at 105 Summer Street; it doesn't say for how long, so check the page before driving there.
Maggie Valley Police Department
- Non-emergency: 828-926-0867
61 Summit Drive, Maggie Valley, NC 28751
The Town's page says to dial this number for non-emergency police matters inside Maggie Valley town limits. For an emergency, dial 911. Code and zoning complaints (not police matters) go to the Planning Department instead; see Maggie Valley Town Hall.
Haywood County Sheriff's Office
- Dispatch (non-emergency): 828-452-6666
- Front Office: 828-452-6768
1620 Brown Avenue, Waynesville, NC 28786
For a life-threatening emergency, call 911. The Haywood County 9-1-1 Communications Center answers both emergency and non-emergency calls for service 24 hours a day at the dispatch number above.
Waynesville Town Hall
- Main: 828-452-2491
- Building Inspections & Code Enforcement (Development Services): 828-456-8647
16 South Main Street, Waynesville, NC 28786
Covers Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Human Resources, and Town Clerk (Administration). Separate from Waynesville Public Works (129 Legion Drive — streets, water/sewer, electric), which has its own entry. Office hours were not published on the Town's contact or Administration pages, so they're omitted here rather than guessed. Waynesville is the one town Haywood County's own Inspections Department excludes from its jurisdiction — inside Waynesville town limits/ETJ, the Town's own Building Inspections Department (number above) issues building permits and handles property-maintenance/junk-vehicle code enforcement instead of the county.
Canton Town Hall
- Main: 828-648-2363
Monday–Friday, 7:30 AM–4:00 PM (closed office holidays)
85 Summer Street, Canton, NC 28716
Fax 828-646-3419. Town Hall, the Water & Sewer Department, and the Street & Sanitation Department all operate out of this same building and phone line — see Canton Public Works for department-specific numbers (after-hours emergency, water filter plant). Code enforcement runs out of this building: the Town's ordinances page gives [email protected] and the Main number for code questions and complaints.
Maggie Valley Town Hall
- Main: 828-926-0866
3987 Soco Road, Maggie Valley, NC 28751
Office hours were not published on the Town's own contact or department pages, so they're omitted here rather than guessed. Staff extensions: Town Manager ext. 103, Town Clerk ext. 105, Finance Director ext. 101, Planning Director ext. 104, Public Services Director ext. 112.
Clyde Town Hall
- Main: 828-627-2566
Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM–12:00 PM and 1:00 PM–5:00 PM
8437 Carolina Blvd, Clyde, NC 28721
Mailing address PO Box 386, Clyde, NC 28721. The municipal building also houses the Police Department. The Town's website footer lists 828-648-2376 as its "Emergency" number, which is the number Canton publishes for the Canton Police Department, alongside the Sheriff's Office dispatch line and 911; no separate Clyde police number is published, so after-hours calls go to the Sheriff's dispatch line (see the Sheriff's Office entry).
Haywood County Environmental Health
- Main: 828-452-6651
Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM–5:00 PM.
157 Paragon Parkway, Clyde, NC 28721
A division of the Haywood County Health & Human Services Agency (HHSA), at the same Paragon Parkway campus as Haywood County Public Health, with its own direct line separate from Public Health's Main number. Handles well and septic system permits and inspections, water-supply testing, and food/lodging/pool permitting and inspections, among other environmental-health duties.
Development Services
- Main: 828-452-6638
- Fire Marshal (burn permits, burn-day questions): 828-452-6717
157 Paragon Parkway, Suite 200, Clyde, NC 28721
The county doesn't have a standalone "Code Enforcement" office — Development Services handles building inspections, permits, planning, and zoning/erosion-control enforcement (fax 828-452-6791). Separately, the county's public-nuisance ordinance — Chapter 159, Public Health and Solid Waste Awareness and Compliance — is enforced by Environmental Health working in conjunction with the Planning Department and the Sheriff's Office, and it applies only in the unincorporated areas of the county. It covers accumulation of trash, objects that hold water and breed mosquitoes, and rodent harborages; the county's stated goal is voluntary compliance, with court action only when that fails. For nuisance calls, see Haywood County Environmental Health — the enforcing division, at the same Paragon Parkway campus, with its own direct line. Note that the county's Code Enforcement page itself lists only the agency-wide Health & Human Services front desk, which is the number carried under Haywood County Public Health: https://www.haywoodcountync.gov/456/Code-Enforcement. The county's Fire Marshal's Office is also organized under Development Services (site breadcrumb: Development Services > Building Inspections > Fire Marshal) — it handles burning-permit questions, whether burning is allowed on a given day, and burn bans; the actual permit itself is issued by the NC Forest Service's online system, not this office.
Related questions
Every office on one page
It happens: you call, and it turns out to be someone else's job. The cheat sheet puts every number on this site in one place, grouped by who runs it, so the next one to try is right there.