Short-term rentals in Gulf Breeze, explained properly.

The annual certificate fee is $40.00 per unit, due at registration or renewal, with no proration in the first year. A change in ownership requires a new annual fee. A change of designated responsible party costs $15.00 per unit and must be reported in writing within ten business days. Both amounts may be adjusted by resolution of the city council. The City fee schedule or any such resolution was not read, so the amounts are given as the Code states them (Sec. 6-202 as last amended by Ordinance 03-2025, August 18, 2025) and not confirmed against a dated fee schedule.

All registration certificates, regardless of when issued, expire on September 30 and must be renewed on or before October 1. If the renewal date falls on a weekend or holiday, the fee is due on the next day that is not a weekend or holiday. A change in ownership requires a new annual fee.

On application for the registration certificate and before the unit is made available for occupancy, the City inspects it for compliance with the Code of Ordinances, the Land Development Code and the Florida Fire Prevention Code. Each unit is then inspected annually. Owners arrange any other inspections the state or county requires. The City's page says the Fire Department and Community Services representatives carry out the inspections, with reasonable attempts to coordinate them on the same visit, and that the City contacts the owner or designated responsible party to schedule them once the application is received.

The certificate must name a designated responsible party, any person 18 or older appointed by the owner to respond to requests and complaints; a private property management company may serve. The responsible party is the owner's agent for city citations and notices of violation. The owner or responsible party must be available in person or by telephone 24 hours a day, seven days a week for law enforcement action, emergency response or a city ordinance violation, and willing and able to be on site within the next day of notification. A change of responsible party must be reported to the City in writing within ten business days.

Occupancy is limited to two occupants for each bedroom with 100 square feet or more, plus one occupant for each bedroom with at least 70 but less than 100 square feet, plus two additional persons. Only rooms that meet the Code's definition of bedroom count: a room with a bed or other place for sleeping and a separate closet, or an ensuite bathroom, that meets the Florida Fire Code and Life Safety Code as a bedroom. A room added, altered or converted without a required building permit is not a bedroom.

The City of Gulf Breeze Rental Registration Certificate Number for the unit must appear on all advertising of the unit's availability, including print, radio, video, online, social media and sharing-economy platforms.

Inside the unit, in a visually unobstructed area, the owner must post the responsible party's name and telephone number, the location of the nearest hospital, and a notice that all occupants must promptly evacuate on any state or local evacuation order. Before occupancy, guests must be told the applicable City ordinances, including noise, parking, garbage pick-up times, and golf carts, bicycles, electric bicycles, motorized scooters and micromobility devices. If bicycles, electric bicycles, scooters or micromobility devices are provided to renters, helmets must also be provided.

The owner must keep in working condition at all times the safety alarms required by the Florida Building Code and Florida Fire Prevention Code, including smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms. The City's page links a Fire Department Short-Term Vacation Rental Fire and Life Safety Checklist; the checklist itself was not read.

Article VI may be enforced by civil citation under Section 2-154. A person not in compliance is subject to a fine of $100 for the first violation, $250 for the second and $500 for any later violation. Each violation is a separate offense that may be prosecuted separately. Guests and owners may be prosecuted separately and at the same time for a violation of any City ordinance, including noise, parking and garbage violations.

Florida Statutes § 509.032(7)(b) says a local law, ordinance or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate how long or how often they are rented. Local rules adopted on or before June 1, 2011 are exempt from this limit, so some older local rules on rental length can still apply. Section 509.032(7)(a) also reserves the regulation of public lodging establishments (sanitation, inspections and similar matters) to the state, while local governments keep building-code and fire-code inspections. Local governments can still require registration and set other rules that do not ban rentals or limit their length or frequency.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), Division of Hotels and Restaurants, licenses vacation rentals. A license is needed when an entire unit is rented more than three times in a calendar year for periods of less than 30 days or one calendar month, whichever is less, or when the unit is advertised or held out to the public as a place regularly rented to guests. Houses, townhouses and buildings of up to four units take a Vacation Rental – Dwelling license; condominium and cooperative units take a Vacation Rental – Condominium license. Renting single rooms rather than the whole unit does not need a DBPR license, though local rules may still apply. Current licenses must be displayed in a conspicuous place on the premises.

New DBPR vacation rental applications pay a $50 application fee, a $10 Hospitality Education Program fee and a license fee. For a single rental unit the full-year license fee is $170 (half-year $90); group licenses for 2 to 25 units are $180 (half-year $95), with higher tiers for more units. Renewals pay the $10 education fee plus the full-year license fee. Renewal and half-year dates depend on the county's DBPR district.

Anyone who rents, leases, lets or grants a license to use transient accommodations must register with the Florida Department of Revenue to collect, report and remit sales tax.

Florida's 6% state sales tax, plus any applicable county discretionary sales surtax, applies to rent paid for living, sleeping or housekeeping accommodations rented for six months or less.

Counties (and certain cities) may add a local option transient rental tax, such as a tourist development tax, on rentals of six months or less, on top of the 6% state sales tax and any surtax. The Department of Revenue's rate table lists each county's rate and who collects it. Most counties administer the tax themselves, and in those counties it is reported and paid directly to the county rather than to the state.