Vacation rental companies are again seeking to stop Florida cities and counties from imposing local regulations on them, a move opposed by many landlords in parts of the state where short-term home rentals in single-family neighborhoods can be a noisy and disruptive nuisance.
The battle over short-term vacation rentals has become an annual showdown in Tallahassee.
Leading lawmakers support arguments made by the industry that these rentals are a vital driver of Florida’s tourism-driven economy and should also be protected due to property rights issues.
But efforts to limit local rental regulations have been met with fierce opposition, especially from beach towns that have seen a proliferation of large rental homes in recent years. Residents complain that living next to rental homes is like living next to a hotel.
Sen. Wilton Simpson, a Republican from Trilby who is expected to become Senate Speaker next year, said Monday he hoped to finally resolve one of the thorniest issues the Legislature has grappled with in recent years.
“We’re trying to take this one off the table,” Simpson said.
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The Legislature barred cities and counties from passing new vacation rental rules in 2011, while grandfathering any rental rules passed before the bill was passed.
Facing a public backlash, lawmakers revised the preemption law in 2014 and allowed communities to regulate rentals, as long as they didn’t ban them outright or limit their frequency or duration.
Now lawmakers want to revert to the 2011 standard and ban all local vacation rental regulations, while still adhering to rental rules passed before.
Tenancy Legislation (SB 1128) sponsored by Sen. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, cleared its first Senate committee Monday by an 8-2 vote, with one Democrat and one Republican voting against.
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The bill was backed by Airbnb and other rental companies. Communities such as Longboat Key, Holmes Beach, Jacksonville Beach and others voiced their opposition on Monday.
A representative from Jacksonville Beach said community residents are “quite upset” by the proliferation of rentals in residential neighborhoods, which he says erodes the “culture” of the community.
“Homes are people’s biggest investment in their lives and when you buy in a single-family residential neighborhood, that means something,” said Sen. Gary Farmer, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat who voted against the legislation.
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Senator Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said she shares many of the concerns about rentals affecting the character of communities and driving out full-time residents, noting that older communities without homeowners associations are particularly at risk of become “one vacation rental after another”. .
“And the locals will leave,” she added.
But Passidomo said statewide rules are better than a patchwork of local regulations. She supports the preemption effort, but would like to see a more robust set of statewide rental regulations.
“We can’t just anticipate; we have to anticipate and establish rules,” she said. “I don’t think we’re there yet here.”
Diaz said that because the tenancy issue “isn’t a big deal” in his community, he can take an unbiased approach to the bill and try to reach a fair compromise.
“I think it’s a different opportunity and I think there’s room here to hit a good product,” Diaz said.
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