Vacation rentals are a local issue
Cities and counties, being closest to the people, know best how to regulate business within their borders. The Florida Legislature once shared that sentiment.
No longer. These days, the Legislature takes every chance to undercut home rule, continuing a trend that began when term limits shifted so much power to lobbyists.
Fortunately, legislators may fail this year to preempt local regulation of vacation rental properties. But there’s still a week left in the annual session, so you never know.
It makes no sense for the state to set a rental policy that fails to distinguish between South Beach and Sunrise. Yet that’s where the Legislature has been heading.
The Senate took the extraordinary step of combining two nearly contradictory bills. SB 1400, sponsored by Sen. Greg Steube, RSarasota, would prohibit any local regulation of vacation rentals like those found on websites Airbnb and HomeAway. SB 1640, sponsored by Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, would allow local regulations enacted before June 2011 to remain in place. Cities and counties also could conduct safety inspections of vacation rentals.
Under this combination, however, Steube’s bill had the advantage. And Steube comes to this issue with a unique perspective. He got angry because of regulations on a rental property he owns. SB 1400 is his latest attempt to turn a personal dispute into state policy.
Seven years ago, when the Legislature first acted on vacation rentals, Airbnb was four years old. Recovery from the Great Recession, which had decimated the state’s real estate industry, was just beginning.
The idea was that homeowners — empty nesters, for example — could rent out a spare bedroom to tourists seeking a cheaper alternative to hotels and perhaps avoid losing their house during the mortgage crisis. Owners would be on site to monitor guests’ behavior.
Instead, what began as a cottage industry has become an industry. Investors bought homes cheap during the recession and rent them out. Owners often are not on the premises. Single-family homes have turned from residences into businesses, disrupting neighborhoods.
Fort Lauderdale has been trying to deal with the issue for more than two years, most recently with a rental registration system. Miami Beach has fined owners who rent through Airbnb. Meanwhile, Broward and Miami-Dade counties struck a deal to get Airbnb hosts to pay tourist taxes.
If this sounds a lot like Uber, that’s because it is. Ride-sharing services set up in South Florida without obtaining local permission, then turned out drivers to protest when counties tried to regulate the service. Eventually, the Legislature passed statewide rules.
With Airbnb and HomeAway, homeowners are playing the role of drivers looking to earn a little money. The vacation rental industry commissioned a study showing its supposed economic impact and distributed supportive op-ed articles, one by Steube.
In an interview with the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, a lobbyist for the Florida League of Cities explains that there are three groups of municipalities on this issue.
About 75 cities passed vacation rental rules before 2011. The earlier legislation allowed those rules to stand. Cities can change them only if the new rules are “less restrictive.” The definition is open to interpretation.
In the second group are about 30 cities that have passed rules since 2014. SB 1400 would eliminate those rules in favor of state regulations. The third group includes cities that have not passed regulations and could not do so if SB 1400 became law.
This is not just a potential nuisance issue for neighbors of vacation rentals. It’s a potential safety issue for the renters. The League of Cities points out that SB 1400 would allow, but not require, inspections of vacation rentals. There are about 135,000 such properties in Florida. According to the league, the state inspected just 400 last year.
We understand that many vacation rental owners want to follow the rules. Others, though, simply want to profit. With neighborhoods already dealing with problems from sober homes, which long went unregulated, traditional homeowners can’t wait each year for help from Tallahassee during the Legislature’s annual 60-day session.
The Senate bill has passed two committees. Supporters hoped to get it to the Appropriations Committee this week. The House version narrowly got through the Government Accountability Committee last week. But the session ends March 9, and the Legislature is dealing with its response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. The Senate bill may stall, meaning no action this year. That would be fine with us. Neighborhood issues are local issues. Leave vacation rentals to the locals.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Elana Simms, Andy Reid and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.