STRWATCH.AI 50/50 MARKETS · UPDATED 2026-07-18 · ALL CITIES
STRWATCH.AI / FL / Fort Lauderdale

Is a short-term rental legal in Fort Lauderdale, FL?

HEAVILY REGULATED

Fort Lauderdale permits whole-home and hosted short-term rentals (stays of 30 days or less) but subjects every listing to a stacked state-county-city compliance regime under Ordinance C-16-25 (Code of Ordinances Ch.

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Verified2026-07-18against official sources

Both whole-home (non-owner-occupied) and hosted (owner-occupied room) rentals are allowed subject to City Vacation Rental Registration; owner-occupied/homestead listings pay a reduced city renewal fee ($200 vs. $650/year) and are exempt from the state DBPR license if only a room is rented (a notarized owner-occupied statement is required for that exemption). Accessory dwelling units in zoning districts RS-8 and RD-15 may not be used as vacation rentals per Unified Land Development Regulations Section 47-19.2.A.7. Occupancy is capped at 2 persons per legal bedroom (not a flat guest count) and verified at inspection. The city cannot and does not cap nights-per-year or minimum stay below what state law allows, because Fla. Stat. Section 509.032(7)(b) preempts local duration/frequency regulation absent a pre-June-1-2011 ordinance; nothing in the sources reviewed this session establishes that Fort Lauderdale's vacation rental ordinance predates that cutoff, so no grandfathered restriction is assumed here.

What you need to operate

DBPR Vacation Rental License (State of Florida) $170/year license fee (single unit) + $50 one-time/change-of-ownership application fee + $10 Hospitality Education Program fee
Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Hotels and Restaurants
Renewal: Annual; renewal date varies by license district
Multi-unit license fees scale from $180 (2-25 units) up to $350 (501+ units) per the same fee schedule. Exempt if the property is a homestead, owner-occupied, and only a room is being rented (notarized DBPR exemption statement required).
official source
Broward County Local Business Tax Receipt Cost not verified
Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division, Tax Collector
Renewal: Annual, valid October 1 - September 30; renewal period July 1 - September 30
Required before the City will process a Vacation Rental Registration application. Fee varies by business classification per the county's published fee schedule; the exact short-term-rental classification fee was not independently confirmed this session (see needs_review).
official source
Broward County Tourist Development Tax Registration Cost not verified
Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division, Tourist Development Tax Section
Renewal: Ongoing (filing frequency assigned as monthly/quarterly/semi-annual/annual)
Registers the owner to collect and remit the 6% county Tourist Development Tax; no registration fee is listed, only the ongoing tax obligation.
official source
City of Fort Lauderdale Vacation Rental Registration (new/initial) $880/year (up to 4 units under one folio; includes the first inspection)
City of Fort Lauderdale, Community Enhancement and Compliance Division
Renewal: Annual - see separate renewal requirement
Governed by Ordinance No. C-16-25 (Code of Ordinances Ch. 15, Art. X - Vacation Rentals; fee schedule set by Vacation Rental Fee Resolution 17-81). Requires prior state and county licenses, proof of ownership, a sample lease, and a marked/photographed off-street parking plan. Applies to any single-family, two-family, three-family, or four-family dwelling unit or condo advertised for 30 days or less to transient occupants (not timeshares). Transfer of rental agent carries a separate $50 fee.
official source
City of Fort Lauderdale Vacation Rental Registration Renewal $650/year (non-owner-occupied) or $200/year (owner-occupied/homestead-exempted)
City of Fort Lauderdale, Community Enhancement and Compliance Division
Renewal: Annual; renewal deadline August 1, certificate expires September 30
A $100 late fee applies to any renewal not submitted/complete by the deadline. Applications not fully submitted and paid by September 30 are processed as new applications ($880 fee) and require a new inspection, even for owner-occupied properties. Accounts unrenewed for 6 months after expiration are closed.
official source
Vacation Rental Safety Inspection Included in the $880 initial registration fee (first inspection); $100 for each subsequent safety inspection, reinspection, or no-show
City of Fort Lauderdale Code Enforcement
Renewal: Required at initial registration and generally at renewal for non-owner-occupied properties (owner-occupied renewals filed before the deadline may not require reinspection)
Verifies maximum occupancy (2 persons per legal bedroom) and minimum housing/life-safety standards. Failed inspections get a reinspection within 10 days; a Certificate of Compliance issues within 3 business days of passing.
official source
City of Fort Lauderdale Business Tax Receipt (Local Business Tax) $157.50/year (renewal)
City of Fort Lauderdale
Renewal: Annual; expires September 30
Generated and invoiced once the Vacation Rental Application is approved; billed separately from the vacation rental registration fee. Not required to be resubmitted at renewal unless business information changed.
official source
In-Unit Noise Level Detection Device Cost not verified
City of Fort Lauderdale (Ordinance C-16-25, as amended September 19, 2023)
Renewal: N/A (standing equipment requirement)
Each vacation rental must be equipped with a device that alerts the owner/responsible party and occupants to noise levels; data must be retained 180 days and made available to the City on request. Device cost not published by the City.
official source

The full picture

Fort Lauderdale permits whole-home and hosted short-term rentals (stays of 30 days or less) but subjects every listing to a stacked state-county-city compliance regime under Ordinance C-16-25 (Code of Ordinances Ch. 15, Art. X), reflecting the amendment the City Commission approved September 19, 2023. Hosts must first get a Florida DBPR vacation rental license ($170/yr + $50 application + $10 Hospitality Education Program fee; waived only for a homestead owner renting a single room), a Broward County Local Business Tax Receipt, and Broward County Tourist Development Tax registration before applying to the city. City registration costs $880 for a new listing (up to 4 units under one folio, includes the first inspection) and $650/year to renew (non-owner-occupied) or $200/year (owner-occupied/homestead-exempt), due by August 1 each year with certificates expiring September 30 (a $100 late fee applies to a missed deadline, and a separate $100 fee applies to each reinspection or no-show). Inspection caps occupancy at 2 persons per legal bedroom and requires an in-unit noise-monitoring device retaining 180 days of data. Civil penalties run $250 (uncontested) to $325 (contested) per violation, and operating during a suspension can cost $5,000-$15,000 per day. Guests pay roughly 13% in combined tax (6% state sales tax + 1% Broward discretionary surtax + 6% Broward Tourist Development Tax) on top of the nightly rate. Florida's preemption statute, Fla. Stat. Section 509.032(7)(b), bars cities from banning rentals or capping rental frequency/duration unless the local law predates June 1, 2011, so Fort Lauderdale does not limit how many nights per year a property may be rented -- it regulates registration, safety, and taxes instead.

Taxes on guests & hosts

TaxRateApplies toPlatform collectsOfficial source
Florida State Transient Rental Sales Tax 6% Rental charges for living/sleeping accommodations rented for 6 months or less Not verified source
Broward County Discretionary Sales Surtax 1% Same base as the state transient rental sales tax (delivered/occurring in Broward County); not subject to the $5,000 cap that applies to tangible personal property Not verified source
Broward County Tourist Development Tax (TDT) 6% Living quarters/accommodations (hotel, apartment, single-family home, condo, etc.) rented for 6 months or less Not verified source

Enforcement

Penalties$250 civil penalty per uncontested vacation-rental ordinance violation and $325 per contested violation (raised from $200/$275 by the City Commission's ordinance amendment approved September 19, 2023). Operating a vacation rental while its Certificate of Compliance is suspended carries penalties up to $5,000/day for repeat violations, and up to $15,000/day if a special magistrate finds the violation irreparable or irreversible; the same 2023 amendment removed a prior 12-month cap on suspension length. Source: City of Fort Lauderdale Vacation Rental Program page (fortlauderdale.gov).
Platform liabilityNot established from the sources reviewed this session. The City's enforcement page directs neighbors with noise/party complaints to Airbnb's and Vrbo's own neighborhood-support channels but does not state a direct statutory or civil liability provision for hosting platforms; the full text of Ordinance C-16-25 was not machine-readable this session, so a platform-liability clause cannot be ruled out (see needs_review).
NotesVacation rental complaints go to a 24/7 hotline (1-800-685-7453) or [email protected]; the City also publishes quarterly, district-level lists of registered/certified vacation rentals and open enforcement cases by HOA on its Registration Enforcement page.

What we could not verify (5)

  • Broward County Local Business Tax Receipt fee for the short-term-rental/vacation-rental business classification was not independently confirmed against the county's official fee schedule this session; recorded as null (cost varies by classification per broward.org).
  • Whether hosting platforms (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.) automatically collect and remit the Florida 6% state sales tax, the 1% Broward discretionary surtax, and/or the 6% Broward Tourist Development Tax on behalf of Fort Lauderdale hosts could not be confirmed against an official source this session. Florida's marketplace-facilitator statute, Fla. Stat. Section 212.05965, explicitly defines 'marketplace' around tangible personal property and excludes persons who solely provide travel-agency/lodging-booking services, so it does not clearly obligate platforms to collect transient rental taxes; collectedByPlatform is recorded as null for all three tax entries pending direct confirmation (e.g., from Airbnb's or Broward County's own tax-remittance agreements).
  • The full codified text of Ordinance C-16-25 / Code of Ordinances Chapter 15, Article X could not be parsed this session (the city's own ordinance PDF returned non-extractable binary text, and library.municode.com / codelibrary.amlegal.com bot-walled automated access). All ordinance-derived facts here come from the City's official program summary pages, which describe themselves as reflecting the ordinance but are not the primary codified text.
  • Whether hosting platforms bear any direct civil or statutory liability under the Fort Lauderdale vacation rental ordinance (as opposed to the property owner/responsible party) was not found stated in the city materials reviewed and could not be verified.
  • The original adoption date of Fort Lauderdale's vacation rental registration requirement (as distinct from the current codification cited as 'Ordinance No. C-16-25') was not confirmed. This matters because Fla. Stat. Section 509.032(7)(b) only allows local duration/frequency regulation for ordinances adopted on or before June 1, 2011; nothing fetched this session establishes whether Fort Lauderdale's program predates that cutoff, so no such grandfathered authority is assumed or claimed in this profile (consistent with the fact that no night-cap/frequency limit was found in city materials).

Sources

A markdown mirror of this page lives at /fort-lauderdale-fl.md for AI tools and researchers.

STRWatch publishes educational information about short-term rental regulation, verified against the official sources linked above as of the date shown. It is not legal advice, and rules change — a city can move between our verification passes. For decisions with money at stake, confirm with the authority linked above or a local attorney.