Over the past two weeks, the group Florida Alliance for Vacation Rentals (FAVR) has urged Gov. DeSantis to veto Senate Bill 280.
“If Senate Bill 280 goes into effect, property owners will end up paying for more regulations and bigger government,” says Denis Hanks, Executive Director with Florida Alliance for Vacation Rentals.
FAVR says the proposed legislation will impose stricter regulations on vacation rentals and increase costs for taxpayers due to the need to expand the staffing of Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR).
This bill grants the DBPR additional responsibilities for regulating vacation rentals, including a new transparent database to be developed, enforcing new occupancy limits and other provisions outlined in the legislation.
“Expanding DBPR staffing by nine full-time employees to effectively enforce the new regulations, training them, adding benefits, and providing resources for the new enforcement activities are all included in this bill. But, having said that, it is important to note that DBPR is already one of the most understaffed agencies in Florida, struggling to fill double-digit vacancies year to year. Furthermore, why should there be an additional burden placed on the DBPR, effectively requiring the state to be the arbiter of property disputes and additional regulatory requirements that they did not advocate for this legislative session,” said Hanks.
Numbers by FAVR show the boom taking place in Florida, with 2/3rds of all their lodging licenses now held by vacation rental operators. Vacation rental lodging is the fastest-growing lodging sector in Florida, with 27% of the entire US vacation rental market located in the Sunshine State.
“Policymakers need to consider the potential financial implications of Senate Bill 280, including the costs associated with enforcing the new regulations, as they weigh the benefits and drawbacks of enforcing a dozen new provisions. More importantly, will this complex regulatory scheme between private enterprise, local governments and state government result in a regulatory utopia or a colossal failure of epic proportion? Our bet is the latter,” says Hanks.
FAVR and his membership have been getting their members asking Governor DeSantis to Veto this bill.
