Short-term Vacation Rental Bill Sponsor Won’t Pick Up the Mantle in 2025

9/25/2024

Florida State Sen. Nick DiCeglie (R-Pinellas County), who has sponsored two bills aimed at tightening short-term vacation rental regulations, has said he will not sponsor any similar legislation in 2025. Sen. DeCeglie lives in Indian Rocks Beach, which many have said is "ground zero" for the battle between residential neighbors and vacation rental owners. His second sponsored bill this year did pass both chambers of the Florida legislature, but it was vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in late June, just days before the legislation would have gone into effect. Gov. DeSantis said that the bill would have created "new bureaucratic red tape" that would prevent local governments from enforcing their existing ordinances or passing new ones for vacation rentals. This year's bill would have ensured short-term rental platforms shared quarterly reports with the state that identified all the units listed on their sites, their locations, and their vacation rental license numbers, which would have informed a database created and administered by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Local governments are allowed to regulate parking, trash, and noise, and many say that vacation rental regulations are not uniform across the state.

Florida Phoenix (09/18/24) Mitch Perry