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President’s Message

his month’s focus is on Vacation Rentals, a source of many complaints in our
community. First, some background. In 2011, the State of Florida enacted
Tlegislation pre-empting municipalities from regulating short term vacation
rentals. The law “grandfathered” any existing ordinances regulating vacation rentals
that were passed prior to June 1, 2011.
Certain cities, such as Coral Gables, had ordinances regulating vacation rentals
in place prior to the June 1, 2011 deadline. Others, such as Fort Lauderdale,
did not. According to Flagler County Attorney Al Hadeed, “The preemption
allowed investors and investment groups to purchase property to convert them
into vacation rentals. The greatest impact was on single family neighborhoods.
Incompatibilities with single family neighborhoods include nuisances (excessive
trash and noise), blocking emergency ingress and egress, backed up traffic at entry
gates, and constant turnover of occupants, materially affecting the character of the
neighborhood. Occupancies for these establishments skyrocketed. Some became
‘mini-hotels’.” Melbourne Beach Mayor Alison Dennington, called short-term rentals
“an existential threat” to single-family zoning.

According to a report by the Florida League of Cities, “In 2014, the Legislature
amended the law and restored some authority back to local governments so they
could address many of the problems they were seeing in their communities relating
to parking, noise, trash, and life-safety issues. This legislation left in place existing
statutory language stating that cities cannot “prohibit” short-term rentals or regulate
the duration or frequency of the rental.”
In response to many complaints about the proliferation of vacation rentals in single
family neighborhoods, the City of Fort Lauderdale in 2016 adopted an ordinance
(full ordinance link can be found here: https://www.fortlauderdale.gov/home/
showpublisheddocument/19983/636622454433330000) requiring vacation
rental registration and imposing standards related to the management and
operation of vacation rentals. On September 19, 2023, the City of Fort Lauderdale
Commission approved an amendment to the Vacation Rental ordinance requiring
“each vacation rental be equipped with a noise level detection device alerting
the property owner/responsible party and transient occupants to noise emanating
from the vacation rental, and all data produced by this device will be retained for
a period of one hundred eighty (180) days and made available to the City upon
request. The amendment:
• increased the amount of the civil penalty for each uncontested violation from
$200 to $250 and each contested violation from $275 to $325.
• added language specifying the maximum penalty for operating a vacation rental
during a suspension to be $5,000 per day for repeat violations and up to $15,000
per day if the special magistrate finds the violation to be irreparable or irreversible
in nature.
• Removed of language limiting certificate of compliance suspension time frames to
a maximum period of twelve (12) months.
Since the 2014 State amendment, there have been attempts to both repeal the
pre-emption and loosen it further. Just last year (2024) the legislature passed SB
280, which would have given the State, not localities, the power to control vacation
CORAL R DGE rentals. However this bill was vetoed by Governor DeSantis, who said, “Beyond
COUNTRY CLUB ESTATES creating new bureaucratic red tape that locals must comply with, SB 280 prevents
C OMMUNIT Y ASSOCIA TION

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