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Article
Courtesy of The Tampa Bay Times
By
Mary Ellen Klas
Published February 13, 2020
TALLAHASSEE — A stream of anxious homeowners and
government officials from Miami Beach to Tallahassee paraded before a Senate
committee Tuesday, urging lawmakers to reject a plan to preempt the ability
of their cities to regulate short-term vacation rentals.
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They complained of
vacation homes and apartments pricing long-term rental
properties out of the market. They blasted “opportunistic
investors” who leverage residential property “into major
commercial profit” at the expense of unwitting neighbors.
And they warned of human traffickers exploiting short-term
rentals to hide from the law.
But homeowners who rely on short-term rentals for additional
income also spoke up.
They said small cities were ill-equipped to handle the
regulation needed to license and watch their growing
industry. They argued that the task is better managed by the
state. They told stories of how they work with neighbors and
screen their guests. And they decried the existing law,
which has led to “unreasonable fines” and litigation.
In the end, the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee voted
3-2 along party lines to send SB 1128 to the Senate floor. A
similar measure, HB 1011, has one more committee to clear in
the House. |
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Sen. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah
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But the successful vote came with a warning from
committee chair, Sen. Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican. He had “serious
reservations about how it impacts my community,’’ he said, noting that he
has seen “mini-hotels going up in residential neighborhoods.”
“If you want my vote on the floor, we could continue to work on this,’’
Gruters said.
Regulation confusion
The bill, sponsored by Hialeah Gardens Sen. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah Gardens,
is a reaction to Florida’s fast-growing vacation rental market and the
see-saw approach regulators have taken over the last decade.
When Airbnb first emerged, the industry persuaded lawmakers in 2011 to pass
a state law preempting any local regulation. After homeowners complained
that state regulation was insufficient and their property values were
declining because of the bad actors in the industry, the state reversed
course in 2014 and opened the door to local regulation.
Now legislation by Diaz, and Rep. Jason Fischer, R-Jacksonville, would
return regulation to state control, prohibiting cities like Miami Beach from
imposing fines on violators and giving the job of licensing, tax collection
and inspection to 19 enforcement officers at the Department of Business and
Professional Regulation.
That prospect frightens local officials like Michelle Berger, chief of staff
to the mayor of Miami Beach Dan Gelber.
Her city has hired 39 inspectors who work “around the clock” to keep tabs on
“conglomerates who invade and invest in residential properties to create
permanent vacation rental hostels,” she said. She warned that the bill’s
“cookie-cutter approach does not work.”
“No level of oversight from Tallahassee would be effective against the
predatory business tactics used by these investors,’’ Berger said. In this
fiscal year, Miami Beach has investigated 368 vacation rentals alone.
“Our fines are high because these investors are charging often tens of
thousands per week to rent,’’ she said. “In January, someone rented a house
for 31 days for $1 million. Every night there was a party, loud music,
hordes of people coming and going. The next-door neighbors were helpless. A
high fine is the only way to deter anything else would be a cost of doing
business.”
Casey Cook of the League of Cities said “DBPR has not proven it has not been
able to handle” the fast-growing vacation rental industry and has “failed to
meet its performance benchmarks” already in place.
According to statistics cited by Diaz, the short-term rental market in
Florida served 6.6 million guests last year and earned property owners $1.2
billion in supplemental income.
“As we continue to seek ways to cut regulations and red tape that are
prohibitive to growing Florida’s economy, we must address this drawn out
clash between local governments, the vacation rental industry and competing
business interests.,’’ he and Fischer wrote in a recent op-ed.
Cook, however, urged the committee to adopt an amendment proposed by Sen.
Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, that would have given the state the licensing
authority over short-term rentals but would allow local governments to
regulate them the way they regulate bed and breakfasts.
The proposal was modeled after a medical marijuana law that allows local
communities to regulate dispensaries, Stewart said. The committee rejected
the amendment on a voice vote.
Dennis Hanks, representing the Florida Vacation Rental Management
Association, said that after the state reversed its decision to preempt
local governments and allow local regulation of short-term rentals, a
hodgepodge of regulation has emerged.
“For every one ordinance that’s approved that’s fair, we see one that is
overreaching,’’ he said.
As dozens of city officials and unhappy homeowners from across the state
appeared to speak, lobbyists for supporters such as Airbnb, Americans for
Prosperity and the James Madison Institute waived the chance to address the
committee. Gruters joked the ratio was: “100 to 1.”
Miami Beach resident protests
Sheila Duffy-Lehrman of Miami Beach traveled to the state capital to
describe how her community has been “rocked by vacation rentals.”
“For over four years, our neighborhood has been rocked by vacation
rentals,’’ she said. “Our sons offered drugs to keep quiet. Our daughter
propositioned by leering strangers. My family waking up to drugged out
strangers in our yard.”
She told the Republican-controlled Senate that as vice president of the
National Small Business Association, she is “a card-carrying capitalist and
a Republican” but “as a homeowner and taxpayer, I am frankly furious.”
The committee approved an amendment to the bill that represents an agreement
between homeowners in condominium associations and homeowners associations.
Under the compromise, any of those communities can continue to restrict
short-term rentals without being preempted by state law.
The bill also prohibits local governments from regulating advertising
platforms, like Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway, and others, which market the
short-term rentals. It does require the platforms, however, to verify if the
rental property is licensed and to remove unlicensed listings within 15
days.
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