Short-term rentals in Redington Shores, explained properly.

A complete certificate of use application is signed under oath or affirmation and includes (Sec. 90-178(B)(1)): the address and legal description; the owner's name, address, email and phone; the same details for the responsible party; the peer-to-peer or platform entities where the rental is or will be listed; a statement that the responsible party (or a platform) will remit all applicable Pinellas County business and tourist taxes; a statement that the responsible party is authorized by the owner; whether the entire property or only a room or rooms will be rented; a statement that liability insurance coverage for injury or harm to transient occupants will be in effect at all times, acknowledging that a standard homeowner's or renter's policy may not cover it; an acknowledgment that the rental must be registered with the Florida Department of Revenue and that a vacation rental licence from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation must be obtained; a statement that the property will be maintained in compliance with the vacation rental standards; and a building sketch for each floor, drawn to scale, showing all bedrooms and sleeping areas. Copies of any executed rental contract in existence before August 12, 2020 that conflicts with the section, with evidence of any deposit, must be submitted with the first application, along with the Town's affidavit; failing to submit them means all rentals are subject to the section regardless of when the contract was made. The responsible party must keep the licences and records that support these statements. False or incomplete information is grounds to deny or revoke the certificate; a denial or revocation on that ground can be appealed to the board of commissioners with a written notice filed with the town clerk within ten calendar days of the written denial or revocation. The Town's form also asks for the number of bedrooms and the type of building (single-family home, rental apartment unit or condominium), and says the property owner must update the application on file within 30 days when the responsible party changes.

Sec. 90-178(C)(3): maximum overnight occupancy is up to two persons per permitted bedroom, plus two additional persons per property, up to a maximum of 12 persons, excluding children under six. At all other times occupancy may not exceed the maximum overnight occupancy plus four additional persons per property, up to a maximum of 16 persons, excluding children under six. "Overnight" means 10:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. the next day. At no time may occupancy exceed the maximum occupant load for the property under the Florida Building Code. The Town's application form uses the same formula for overnight occupants (bedrooms times 2, plus 2, not above 12).

Whenever a property is used as a vacation rental, the certificate of use must be available in a conspicuous location that is clearly visible to guests within the vacation rental and must show at least the name, address and phone number of the responsible party and the maximum occupancy of the rental (Sec. 90-178(C)(6)).

For each vacation rental the responsible party must (Sec. 90-178(C)(2)): give transient occupants written notice, before occupancy, of the vacation rental standards and the Town's current rules on noise, public nuisance, vehicle parking, solid waste collection, pet dogs on the beach and condominium common area use, and make that information available inside the property; make sure violations are able to be promptly addressed and resolved 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and keep a register with the names and dates of stay of all guests, including transient occupants and their invitees. The application names the responsible party and a 24-hour contact.

Vehicles linked to the rental (owner, responsible party, guests, and maintenance, service and catering providers) must comply with Chapter 140 and other applicable Code sections and may not obstruct emergency vehicles, normal traffic movement, driveways, mailboxes or beach access. Transient occupants may not park more than two vehicles at any one time on the property during the rental period unless the property has additional lawfully permitted parking spaces sufficient for the extra vehicles without encroaching on the Town right-of-way (Sec. 90-178(C)(7)).

All transient occupants must abide by Chapter 101 of the Town Code, which prohibits unreasonably loud, excessive, unnecessary or unusual noise, and outdoor amplified sound at a vacation rental is not permitted at any time (Sec. 90-178(C)(8)). The responsible party and all occupants must also abide by Florida Statutes sections 823.05 and 823.10 and Article II of Chapter 103 of the Town Code on public nuisance (Sec. 90-178(C)(9)). The Code text for Chapters 101 and 103 was not read for this page.

Solid waste containers sufficient to handle the maximum permitted occupancy must be maintained in accordance with Chapter 127, and the Code's screening and storage rules for containers apply to vacation rentals. Containers go near the curb or alley no earlier than 6:00 p.m. on the evening before collection and must be removed no later than 7:00 p.m. on collection day (Sec. 90-178(C)(4)).

If the responsible party permits pets at the vacation rental, the pets must be at all times secured within the property lines or on a leash but may not be tethered, and continual nuisance barking is prohibited. Pets remain subject to Chapter 56 of the Town Code on animals (Sec. 90-178(C)(10)). The Code text for Chapter 56 was not read for this page.

If a swimming pool is on site, the responsible party must have at least one of the pool safety features listed in Florida Statutes section 515.27 (pool safety barrier, pool safety cover, pool alarm, or door latch/alarm) in place before the property is used as a vacation rental by any person under six. The responsible party complies if the feature is in place when the property is turned over to the occupant. The provision does not apply to a vacation rental with a community swimming pool on site, such as in a condominium, and is in addition to Article VI of Chapter 63 of the Town Code on pool fences (Sec. 90-178(C)(11)).

Signs are allowed only to the extent permitted by the Code regulations for the relevant zoning district. Any advertisement or sign about a vacation rental that is inconsistent with the requirements of the certificate of use or the vacation rental standards is prima facie evidence in an enforcement action that the rental is operated in violation of the section (Sec. 90-178(C)(5)).

A peer-to-peer or platform entity must give notice of the section's requirements to those listing on its service; may only provide payment processing for a vacation rental that has a valid certificate of use; must comply with administrative subpoenas and other legal process; and must keep records and make them available to the Town on request under legal process (Sec. 90-178(C)(1)). A platform is not liable under the payment-processing duty if its listing registration process informs the responsible party that a certificate of use is needed, links to the Town's application page, requires confirmation, and provides a field for the certificate of use number, and it sends the Town a monthly report of the number entered (or left blank) for each listing, the total listings and the total nights rented in the prior month.

Anyone operating a vacation rental without a certificate of use, or in violation of the standards or any other provision of Sec. 90-178, is subject to the penalties in section 1-16 of the Town Code and the civil infractions below, or both, and to other enforcement authorized by the Code or law (Sec. 90-178(D)(1)). Failure to obtain a certificate of use: first offense $100.00, second offense $1,000.00, third and later offenses $2,500.00. Violation of a vacation rental standard or other provision of the section: first offense $100.00; second offense within 12 months of the first $1,000.00; third offense within 12 months of the most recent two preceding offenses $2,500.00 and revocation of the certificate of use. The text of section 1-16 was not read for this page.

Revocation of a certificate of use under the section is for a period of 12 months. A revoked certificate may be appealed to the board of commissioners if a written notice of appeal is filed with the town clerk within ten calendar days from the date of the written notice of revocation; the appeal must be accompanied by a fee set by resolution of the board of commissioners (Sec. 90-178(D)(1)(c)). The amount of the appeal fee was not read for this page.

The property owner is liable for any violation of the section, and where two or more persons commit a violation each is jointly and severally liable for any fines. A platform that does not itself commit a violation is not jointly and severally or vicariously liable for violations committed solely by the responsible party or occupants, and a platform that follows the Sec. 90-178(C)(1)(b)(i) and (ii) process is not jointly and severally liable for providing a listing or collecting a listing fee (Sec. 90-178(D)(2)). The subsection addresses liability for administrative code violations only.

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.