Who gets to regulate a Florida vacation rental, and who does not

Florida limits how far a local government can go in regulating vacation rentals. Local ordinances may not prohibit them outright, and may not regulate the duration or frequency of rental, if the ordinance was adopted after a cutoff date in 2011. Ordinances already in place before that date were grandfathered and remain enforceable. The result is a patchwork. Two cities a few miles apart can have entirely different rules because one of them had an ordinance on the books first. This is why a blanket answer about "is short-term rental allowed in Florida" is always wrong, and why the research is municipal. What local governments can still do is substantial: registration programmes, inspections, life safety requirements, noise, parking, occupancy limits and enforcement, applied in a way that does not single out vacation rentals. The layers above that are separate and cumulative. A vacation rental licence from the state. Sales tax and county tourist development tax, which platforms sometimes collect and sometimes do not, and the obligation remains the owner's. A local business tax receipt. And below all of it sits the layer that is not government at all: the condominium or homeowners association. A validly adopted restriction on rental terms in the governing documents binds the owner regardless of what the city allows. An investor who checks the city and not the declaration has checked the easier half. This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules change and every deal is different — check your own case with a licensed professional. Alberto Zaltzberg — Adonait · adonait.com