Florida vacation rental rules for owners

Florida has more short-term rental markets in our atlas than any other state, and one sentence of its statutes explains why. Yet the same state is home to some of the strictest local regimes in the country. Both facts come from the same law, read together with a date: June 1, 2011.

The sentence that matters: s. 509.032(7)

Section 509.032(7) of the Florida Statutes provides that a local law, ordinance or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of their rental. A county cannot impose a 30-day minimum; a city cannot cap you at a handful of stays per year. What local governments can still do is regulate vacation rentals the way they regulate other homes and, in practice, run registration programs with safety inspections, occupancy limits, parking rules and a local responsible party.

The 2011 line

The protection has a large exception: it does not apply to any local rule adopted on or before June 1, 2011. Cities that had already restricted short stays by then kept those rules. That is why Miami Beach can still keep short rentals out of most of its residential districts, why Key West remains largely closed to new transient rentals, and why pockets of older minimum-stay zoning survive in places such as Sarasota and parts of Volusia County. Those legacy ordinances cannot be extended to new restrictions after that date, but they can be enforced.

Several attempts to rewrite the framework have failed. A broad 2024 bill that would have standardized local registration statewide was vetoed, and the 2026 edition of the statutes carries s. 509.032(7) unchanged.

State license, local registration

Florida licenses vacation rentals at state level. A house, townhome or condo unit rented to guests more than three times a year for stays of less than 30 days (or one calendar month) generally needs a vacation rental license from the Division of Hotels and Restaurants of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). Counties and cities then layer their own registration on top. Walton, Lee, Duval and Volusia counties run programs; Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach add inspections through municipal certificates.

Taxes: state, surtax and tourist development tax

• State sales tax of 6% on transient rentals of six months or less, plus any county discretionary sales surtax. Owners, and agents who collect rent for them, must register with the Florida Department of Revenue.
• Tourist development tax, set by each county. Most counties administer it themselves, so you may file with a county tax collector or clerk rather than with the state.

Platforms collect part of this in many counties but not uniformly, which is one of the most common sources of back-tax surprises for new Florida owners.

Condos and HOAs: read before you buy

State preemption does nothing about private covenants, and Florida's association laws give boards real reach. Since July 1, 2021, a homeowners association may amend its documents to prohibit or regulate rentals shorter than six months, or more than three rentals a year, and those amendments bind every owner, not just new buyers (s. 720.306(1)(h)). Condominium declarations are equally decisive. In Florida the association question is often the first one to answer.

Our Florida markets by regime

Open: state license, tax registration and a light local framework. This covers much of the Panhandle and the Gulf and interior markets:

• Santa Rosa & Rosemary Beach (Walton County registration), Destin & Ft. Walton Beach, Pensacola, Panama City, Cape San Blas & St. George Island
• Sarasota (with older minimum-stay zones in some neighborhoods), Punta Gorda, Melbourne & Titusville, Lakeland & Winter Haven
• Tallahassee, Gainesville, Ocala, and our Florida Central, South Central and North area pages

Registration: a mandatory local program, sometimes with inspections, but no cap:

• Miami (Miami-Dade registration, with Miami Beach a separate and far stricter story)
• Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Port St. Lucie
• Cape Coral & Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach
• Amelia, St. Simons & Jekyll Islands, which straddles the Georgia line and mixes two legal systems

Key West, Naples, St. Petersburg, Tampa and the city of Orlando are not in the list: grandfathered or local zoning rules there make short stays in residential areas impractical for most owners. Around Orlando, demand is served by purpose-built vacation home communities in neighboring counties.

Practical advice

Check three things in this order: the association documents, the zoning history of the exact parcel (was a short-stay rule in place before June 2011?) and the county's tourist tax registration. Then apply for the DBPR license. Hurricane season also shapes insurance and cancellation policies, so budget for that. If you own or plan to buy in one of these markets, we study every request and tell you honestly whether and how we can help.