New Florida landlord laws next year : required permits/fees ?

Question

Hi all.

I didn't want to look this up as it would possibly stress me out more, I'd rather ask here and get a direct expert answer .

So I heard from someone , whom heard it from her son , that there will be new laws/regulations in Florida starting next year?

It had to do with , off course , ways to further restrict Florida landlords : requiring permits to be 'allowed' to rent out your own property, required inspections to do with building codes , more county/state fees or taxes etc ?

I was not sure as her English is very broken, but I had heard the same from my brother a few weeks ago , also very vague as he wasn't sure.

It sounds like more communism taking over , and the New World Order (NWO) creep take over .

Look up the World Economic Forum (WEF) . Klaus Schwab his words about 2030 'sustainable goals' :  The loss of private property.

If this happens in a red state , the whole country will follow for sure.

Does anyone have any insight , perhaps the law won't pass as my brother said this law hadn't passed yet?

Thanks

Nathan Gesner · Answer

The world will end some day; it won't be next year and it won't be due to Florida creating a law to register rentals.

I haven't heard of anything regarding a state-wide requirement, but maybe it's true. These are increasingly common in cities and I expect that to continue. They claim it's to ensure Landlords maintain properties to code, but it really ends up a money/power grab that does very little to help Tenants and is more likely to hurt Landlords.

Even if it happens, it could be many, many years before it really impacts you. Don't worry about things that haven't happened yet.

Henry T. · Answer

Sigh...because people are stupid and don't think things through. For politicians it's an easy vote. Relax, it's only gonna get worse, until all landlords quit and there's just a few corporations holding all the properties. Then the laws will recede.

Kenneth Garrett · Answer

@Reya Ripet

More and more cities are creating licensing regulations for landlords.  Some only impact you if you own a certain number of unit’s while others are each year or every other year.  The reason for it is simple.  Like all new regulations, a few bad situations cause harm to the majority.  I don’t care, the cost is generally minor and as long as you keep your property maintained there is nothing to worry about.  Maybe we can get rid of the landlords who don’t take care of there properties and it will be better for all of us.  I’ve not seen a city start a landlord licensing program and start to charge from $100 one year to $500 the next.  Let’s keep all of this in perspective.

Jeff Copeland · Answer

Setting politics and conspiracy theories aside, there have been no changes to FS 83 (the landlord tenant act) here in Florida, and Florida remains a very landlord-friendly state.

There has been some minor erosion of landlord rights at the county and municipal levels. For example, our local cities and counties have recently passed a "tenant bill of rights", but the only significant changes were things like requiring at least 60 days notice to tenants if their rent is increasing by more than 5%, and to give at least 30 days notice of non-renewal (up from 15 the days required by state law).

Most Florida cities and counties have had laws on the books requiring occupational licenses (and thus, registration) of rentals for decades. That is nothing new. It's $18/year, and really a non-factor, here in St Petersburg, for example.

Ian Murray · Answer

@Reya Ripet I think you need to relax.  Most FL counties require some type of permit to rent out property.  It's the same thing as a business license, and it can be used to make sure that you don't run a dangerous place. The same goes with the code compliance. Not sure if you recall the condo collapsing in Miami, but that's why the code compliance rules exist.

A rental property is a business. Businesses have a requirement to not pose a threat to the safety of those utilizing the business (tenants).  I wouldn't worry about having inspectors going to your property every week to check for faulty wallpapering.  At best, they would likely only show up if the county or city received complaints.

It's not a big conspiracy to remove people's property rights.

JD Martin · Answer

Well I don't know about you, but I'm bringing at least 10 years worth of food, water and toilet paper supplies down into my nuclear bunker underneath my house right now! The entrance is pretty well hidden so the zombie hordes are going to have a tough time finding me, but if they do I have a whole stack of counterfeit stimulus checks to hand out to them to keep them occupied as I run them down in my Mad Max deathmobile 🙄

In all seriousness, you do know that hundreds of places have rental permits, right? You use the word "allowed" as if you have some kind of constitutional right to do anything you want with "your" property, which I assume runs the gamut from brothel to strip mining operation - but in reality every state has the right to regulate economic activity within their borders (intrastate, rather than interstate) how they please, and if you have rental property you are operating a business. The easy answer is quit worrying about tin-foil conspiracies and adjust your model to fit whatever comes your way. That's what successful investors do, rather than crying about commies and new world orders. Also, they don't really get their information from a friend of a friend of the Uber driver 🙄

Mike S. · Answer

It will in fact hurt tenants as we will have to pass the cost down to them... Today if a property is not up to code, a tenant can complain to code enforcement. Having mandatory inspection will only let municipalities increase their budget to hire more inspectors and charge more fees.

Wesley W. · Answer

Wow.  In the big scheme of things, this is not really a big deal.  I get the whole "don't tread on me" thing, believe me.  However, I would be ecstatic of this was the grossest government overreach I have to deal with.

We have a similar process here in my market in Upstate NY, in order to rent your property out you need to take a "landlord course" offered by the city.  I think it's a few hours and goes over the basics of L/T law, warranty of habitability, etc.  (I'm not certain of this, because existing landlords were exempted from this requirement when it went into effect some years ago.)  You also need to provide the contact information of someone within 20 miles whom has stewardship over your property (if you are not local).

Additionally, each rental unit must be inspected prior to new tenant placement or every three years, whichever occurs first.  The inspections are $40 and they last about 10 minutes.  The cost is not egregious and the officers don't bust balls unless your poor reputation precedes you.  It's an additional level of regulation to be sure, but I think it elevates the reputation of the city and the lifestyle there - which attracts a higher quality tenant and keeps the slumlords away.  In contrast, the city directly across the river is very "laissez faire" with code enforcement / housing stock - I call it "The Wild West" - and they have a pretty serious crime and drug problem over there.

The oversight isn't horrible, in my opinion.  But maybe it's just because I've become habituated to the yoke around my neck.  ;)

New Florida landlord laws next year : required permits/fees ?

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