After years of debate, the Florida Senate is scheduled to take up a bill (SB 280) on Thursday, filed by Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, to revamp regulations about vacation-rental properties.
After getting approval from two Senate committees, the bill will be heard during a floor session.
A House version (HB 1537), filed by Rep. Griff Griffitts, R-Panama City Beach, has not been heard in committees midway through the third week of the 60-day legislative session.
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Lawmakers have repeatedly wrangled in recent years with issues about vacation rentals as platforms such as Airbnb have skyrocketed.
But lawmakers were not able to reach agreement last year, in part because of constituents’ complaints about problems with vacation properties in their neighborhoods.
Residents have pointed to loud noise at “party” houses and issues such as parking and trash. Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, sponsored a proposal (SB 714) in 2023 that would have allowed cities and counties to register vacation rentals and suspend or revoke registrations if property owners failed to follow local ordinances.
But the House balked at giving local governments such power and stripped from DiCeglie’s bill the proposed authority to suspend or revoke registrations.
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Under current law, the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation issues licenses for vacation rentals.
A House proposal would have allowed local governments to create registries of vacation rentals but kept sanctions against the properties in the hands of state officials. The House plan would have allowed local officials “to know how many vacation rentals are within their jurisdiction,” Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, said in 2023.
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