A controversial effort to further limit local governments’ ability to regulate and inspect vacation rental properties is advancing in the Florida Senate, as the proposal’s sponsor on Tuesday assured critics that the legislation is “a starting point.”
As online platforms such as Airbnb have grown in popularity, regulation of short-term rental properties has become a perennial fight in the Legislature. It is of special interest to Flagler County and its local government, which last decade initiated the movement that led to the 2014 law granting local governments the power to regulate short-term rentals up to a point.
Flagler’s vacation rentals initially drew attention in the Hammock, where property owners after the housing bust tried to save their properties from foreclosure by turning them into such rentals. Vacationers embraced the opportunity not to stay in hotels. Neighbors of vacation rentals didn’t like the noise and activity the rentals generated. They protested, gained county commissioners’ and legislators’ attention, and got a law and a local ordinance passed.
Flagler’s ordinance became a model for numerous other counties and cities. But the short-term rental industry has been trying to scrap the law since. For a few years Flagler’s commissioners and their attorney fought pitched battles in the Legislature, shuttling from Bunnell to Tallahassee to defend the law and keeping the law’s preservation among their annual legislative priorities.
In the last few years, however, commissioners have lost heart for the time-consuming trips, leaving it to their lobbyist to fight the battle.
Two other factors have dulled the edge of the opposition to deregulation: vacation rentals generate significant tourist-tax revenue, and since the coronavirus pandemic have–especially in Flagler–proven to be an unexpected tourism bright spot: Leery of braving the risks of infection at high-traffic hotels and motels, tourists have taken to the more autonomous and therefore safer alternative of short-term home rentals. Naturally, the industry has obliged, as have local governments, if more tacitly. Flagler cannot afford to undermine its tourism-tax revenue because the government is making enormous demands on it to pay for its beach-renourishment efforts.
On a parallel course, much of the last few years’ industry push for deregulation has been led by Airbnb, whose rentals are more spread out through communities and can be quite effectively self-policed: Airbnb participants thrive on public approbation and sink from public criticism.
The lobby-leaden short-term rental industry meanwhile has been playing the long game, fighting a war of attrition and thinking each year that it may be the year.
State law already bans local governments from passing ordinances to outlaw vacation rentals, which have raised the ire of residents who complain of investor-owned, noisy “party houses” in neighborhoods. Other critics maintain that owners of some rental properties are failing to properly submit state and local taxes.
But proponents contend that the short-term rental properties are used to supplement the incomes of retirees and families. They argue that vacation-rental owners are entitled to the same rights as their neighbors and shouldn’t be regulated differently.
The measure approved Tuesday by the Senate Regulated Industries Committee would, for the first time, require online platforms to collect and remit taxes on vacation rental properties, ensure that only properly licensed rentals are advertised and provide the state with specific information about the rentals.
In exchange, regulation would be “preempted” to the state, largely preventing local governments from licensing or inspecting the rentals. Local governments could only regulate the rentals in the same way as other properties in neighborhoods, a restriction that cities and counties strenuously oppose.
“The beauty of this is, although on the surface there’s a lot of noise and conversation about the removal of local ordinances, it really does not remove the local ordinances that are in place or can be put in place,” bill sponsor Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah, told the Senate panel before Tuesday’s 6-3 vote.
The proposal would do away with ordinances regulating short-term rentals adopted after June 1, 2011, which opponents said would be problematic for areas that have worked in recent years to develop local regulations.
Local ordinances, such as those restricting the number of cars in a driveway or limiting the number of occupants in a dwelling, would be permitted so long as the regulation “applies uniformly to all residential properties without regard to whether the property is used as a vacation rental,” as defined by state law.
“They’re not restricted from passing ordinances, going forward. The ordinances just have to apply to all the properties in either the jurisdiction of the municipality or a section. I know in some communities there may be sections that are more inclined to have these types of establishments, so they can pass ordinances going forward. They just have to apply to all properties,” Diaz said.
But Sen. Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater, said he could not support the measure.
“Just philosophically, I’m just not a fan of preemption to the state. Just, nothing,” Hooper said. “It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth to try to tell local folks in their community that we think that we can better dictate to you what works best.”
Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, said he agrees “the issue should be locally controlled.”
“People are literally building these commercial structures in the middle of neighborhoods, and it’s disrupting various neighborhoods and it’s making a big difference,” Gruters, who also serves as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said.
“I’m going to support it … but I hope it will be much better by the time it hits the (Senate) floor.”
The Senate committee approved an amendment Tuesday that aligned Diaz’s proposal with a House measure (HB 219) that received initial approval by a House panel last week.
Speaking against the Senate bill Tuesday, Florida League of Cities lobbyist Tara Taggart agreed that property owners are entitled to certain rights.
“My neighbor and I have the same amount of property rights. But the moment that their actions impede on my property rights, that’s where governments are supposed to step in,” she said.
But Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican slated to take over as Senate president in 2022, said her stance on the vacation-rental preemption has changed.
“When we started this journey several years ago, I was dead set against this concept because I heard so many complaints from people in my community about unregulated vacation rentals,” she said. “This practice is going to happen, whether we regulate it or not. And you can’t have a hodgepodge of ordinances. … So, if the state undertakes a uniform scheme of regulation, and if we do it right, I think this would be better for all of our residents.”
Under the proposal, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation would be responsible for addressing complaints about vacation rentals. Diaz’s proposal does not include an appropriation to beef up staff at the state agency.
The Hialeah Republican acknowledged the disagreement over his bill. But he said the proposal approved by the committee on Tuesday is a “starting point.”
“I do think that this is a product that has the potential to get us to a place where we can resolve the issues and concerns and have this really be a thriving part of our tourist economy,” he said.
Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, made the vacation-rentals issue a priority before he took over as the Senate’s leader in November.
But Gov. Ron DeSantis nixed a similar plan during last year’s legislative session.
DeSantis told reporters last February that he hadn’t made up his mind but that he was “leaning against” the legislative efforts.
“We have 22 million people almost. We are a very diverse state. For us to be micromanaging vacation rentals, I am not sure that is the right thing to do,” the governor said at the time.
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–FlaglerLive and News Service of Florida
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Mark says
Our neighborhoods def need more of these vacation rentals. Its actually really nice to have new neighbors come and go instead of the same old people .
Homer says
Yes, why would anyone want to know their neighbors. Better to be in a strangerhood with someone new every week. Also nice to be where the neighbors (whom you don’t know) are in a partying mode. Adds so much joy to our lives.
Jimbo99 says
As long as they pay the taxes on that income. If disturbing the peace is an issue. The police will have to be more responsive to complaints by those that aren’t renting. Miami has illegal AirBnB issues in South Beach. That’s probably what DeSantis is really trying to find a solution for. For Flagler Beach, is it really an issue ?
HOMER says
That works out great to call the police. Unfortunately, the people that the police came out to admonish (maybe the police came and maybe they didn’t) are gone in a few days and replaced by a new group. There is never a learning curve.
ROGER CULLINANE says
FlaglerLive–for once you have really got it wrong. The story about people turning to short rentals to save themselves from foreclosure as well as the fiction that Mom & Pop are renting rooms in their homes to supplement their retirement incomes is all nonsense put forth by Airbnb and other rental management companies as they try to gut any local control over their businesses.
We have lived in the Hamock for 14 years, during which I was on our HOA board for four years. We know many, many of the Hammock residents. We do not know anyone renting rooms in their homes, nor do we know anyone that does short term rentals to hold off foreclosure. What we do know are many people who purchased or constructed properties solely for doing short term rentals. We had one owner with 18 properties in Ocean Hammock, and two others that built homes with 11 bedrooms, advertised to sleep 24. How many of your readers would want an 11 bedroom house with 24 ever changing vacationing strangers next door week after week.
By and large the short term rentals are rental businesses owned (largely) by nonresidents of our community. They are destroying our communities and driving out residents who moved here to enjoy living in a neighborhood by the ocean, and instead found their dreams dashed by their neighborhoods turned into strangerhoods.
The better answer is to designate areas where short term rentals are encouraged – a prime example would be Encore (near Orlando) where all the homes are being for short term rental – and get them out of our residential communities.
di says
i agree! the short term, illegal, unregulated, party-houses owned by out if staters are driving us long time residents out if our homes. they done comply with any ordinances that all if us have to comply with and if you complain they are unenforced. its a nightmare.
Jan says
Of course we don’t want to know our neighbors!
Of course we didn’t move into a community zoned single-family so we could meet people and make new friends.
Of course we like rotating groups of strangers every week, which is why we purchased in a community zoned single family.
Of course we are thrilled that our representatives are getting donations from the short-term rental industry (and that the bills can be written for them by ALEC -the American Legislative Exchange Council , and these exact same bills are seen in multiple states because of ALEC).
Of course we are thrilled that, like La Jolla has found, there may be a correlation between the proliferation of short-term rentals and decreasing school enrollments.
Of course we are happy, as has been reported, that investor-owned, whole-house rentals are responsible for more than 81% of Airbnb’s profits (and that was 2017 data – of course we are happy that that number is most assuredly higher now).
Of course we support the removal of Home Rule and want those legislators beholden to big business to be making these decisions for our community.
Ron says
Local municipalities can not lose the right to regulate vacation rental homes. DBPR does not have the resources to inspect for the Florida Fire Code minimum standards as stated in 69A. When Flagler County adopted their ordinance their inspections for fire and life safety reveled that over 98 percent of license vacation rental homes where in non compliance. They where operating with No extinguishers present, No emergency lighting, Missing and Non functioning Smoke Detectors, No CO detectors, No secondary means of egress, illegal alterations to accommodate additional occupants and lack of pool safety requirements. These vacation rental homes where in non compliance with American disability act in addition to owners falsely claiming homestead tax exemption and not paying the proper bed tax. Yes all of these violation was happening when the State was in charge in 2011.
Senator Diaz wants to turn back the clock. Back to the day when vacation rental homes where unregulated. When DBPR was in charge not one Vacation rental home in Flagler was inspected. DPBR did not respond to complaints. This bill does a disservice to Flagler county neighborhoods.
If you listen to the Gotoby interview of Steve Milo. He stated the vacation rental industry is booming. If it is booming why return regulations back to the state? Our ordinance has been vetted by all stake holders and have been upheld in court. Our ordinance protects the occupants inside these vacation dwellings and provides the public with an avenue to file complaints.
Let’s not forget how these vacation rentals exceeded occupancy limits prior to the Flagler County ordinance. There where four bedroom homes being occupied by 20 or more people. This public lodging establishment is the only one without standards for occupancy. As of now they are required to follow the same rules as other lodging establishments. Two people per legal bedroom. Let’s not go backwards.
For all of you that say it is my property right to operate a transient public lodging establishment in my residential single family neighborhood I say you are wrong. Property zoning laws where put in place to prevent incompatible uses. If I license my three bedroom single family dwelling as a bed and breakfast, which is a transient public lodging establishment I would be prevented from operating it in area’s zone strictly for single family use. Since a B&B and a vacation rental home are transient public lodging establishments and are both license by the state. What property rights are you taking about? The only property rights that I see violated are those of families living in single family neighborhoods.
Pogo says
@Local control is not a Republican party value – a Republican preys (sic):
Monopolists, polluters, profiteers, et. al. – first and last – and always. Amen.
Stop the Assault on Local
Government, Energy Autonomy, and
Climate Action
Zac Cosner
“Floridians deserve a say in how we power our homes, businesses, and communities. Unfortunately, a new series of bills filed in the Florida Legislature aim to disenfranchise local governments, state executive agencies, and working Floridians by consolidating nearly all decisions about our energy into the hands of state legislative leadership…”
“…SB 856/HB 839 – State Preemption of Energy Infrastructure Regulations by Sen. Travis Hutson (R-Palm Coast) retroactively prohibits local governments from passing any law, ordinance, regulation, policy, or resolution that prohibits, restricts, or requires the construction, expansion, upgrading, or repair of energy infrastructure. The bill also preempts to the state all regulation over the construction of “energy infrastructure,” which is broadly defined to include any infrastructure involved in the production, import, storage, or use of energy (drilling oil wells, solar panels, the location of gas stations, and more)…”
https://fcvoters.org/2021/02/15/stop-the-assault-on-local-government-energy-autonomy-and-climate-action/?emci=497f24ec-6e70-eb11-9889-00155d43c992&emdi=2ab1557e-6b71-eb11-9889-00155d43c992&ceid=553475
Did YOU vote for this?
Tom Mutschler says
If you look at present home rentals in PC you will notice most have a ” I don’t give a sh## ” look about them and many are inhabited by multi family occupants with a plethora of vehicles and constant turnover of the occupants. Vacation rentals can only add to the running down of our residential neighborhoods and creation of slums. Why aren’t our state representatives fighting this ?
Ron says
The Florida Legislature is at it again. Certain legislators are presenting bills that would limit home rule, specifically with regard to controlling short term vacation rentals. While these bills have not yet encroached upon the ability of homeowner associations to manage short term rentals, a simple modification of a bill could change that. Our community has done a good job of retaining the residential nature of our neighborhoods while allowing vacation rentals where they are desired by property owners.
If you care about preserving local control over our community please contact the appropriate legislators and committee members who are hearing and voting on these bills. The easiest way to do this is to subscribe to the organizations that are supportive of home rule. There are two sites that you can subscribe to:
AirbnbWATCH Florida. Click on the site https://airbnbwatch.org/contact-us/ to send an email stating you would like to subscribe to their list.
Home Rule Florida.Click on the site homerulefl.com and scroll to the bottom to click Join Our Email List.
Both of these sites will send you updates when a bill is being considered, and provide you with the names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers of legislators to contact. Usually there is a pre-written letter for you to use or modify with the e-mail addresses loaded and ready to go with a few keystrokes.
When contacting our legislators it is always helpful to include the elected officers for our area:
Representative Paul Renner— [email protected]
Senator Travis Hutson— [email protected]
All correspondence must include your name, address and phone number in order for your comments to be considered.
Please log on to the above sites for information on how to make your voice heard and to protect the residential nature of our neighborhoods. Thank you.
Community Affairs Committee
Ed says
An Airbnb is a hotel in a residential neighborhood and i’m totally against it as i’ve lived next to one for 2 years now.
300+ new people per year come and go 10 yards from my house. That doesn’t include the Uber/Lyft drivers, food delivery drivers, and the house cleaner that comes between visits.
No transparency when it launched, all of us neighbors figured it out on our own and found the listing on the Airbnb site where the owners have multiple properties and do not live in the home next to us.
Aside from the extra noise, traffic, and garbage, not knowing who lives next to you each day is the worst part and gives us all anxiety. When a group of 8 people show up, park in front of my house, and all unload their luggage on my yard that is a real treat!
I think it can work if the owner actually lives in the home, designates parking, and has an upfront conversation with each neighbor on the front end to hear their concerns. If my neighbor actually lived here every day and had a conversation with me at the beginning we’d be in a better place now than the outrage all of us neighbors now have living next a hotel in a forever homes. But the Airbnb house next to me is just an investment with an absent owner leaving the rest of us who live here daily to police and deal with all the extra nonsense that goes with it. Not fair and quite rude.
bj says
several unlicensed short term rentals , unregulated, were reported and no one did anything.
at least follow the law, keep them running complying with The ordinances that the rest of us have to comply with and pay your fair share of taxes on them and be licensed so that they are regulated safely and appropriately and that’s fine it’s a free country but just not following through when unlicensed under the table rentals are occurring which causes a problem for the residence because they are unregulated is what my problem is!
The county and the state has an obligation to make sure people are complying With whatever part of the laws they have the power over and it doesn’t appear to us that they are.