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HEAVILY REGULATEDevery claim verified 2026-07-16 against the sources below

Is a short-term rental legal in Miami Beach, FL?

Miami Beach prohibits short-term rentals (any rental for less than six months and one day) in all single-family homes and in apartment/townhome properties in the RM-1, RM-PRD, RM-PRD-2, RPS-1, RPS-2, CD-1, RO, RO-3 and TH zoning districts, with narrow grandfathered exceptions in parts of the Flamingo Park, Espanola Way, Collins Waterfront and North Shore historic districts (entire-unit rentals only, 7-night minimum in the Collins Waterfront and North Beach exception areas). In the remaining zoning districts (e.g., RM-2, RM-3, CD-2, CD-3, MXE and other commercial/mixed-use districts), whole-unit short-term rentals are legal but the host must obtain a city Vacation/Short-Term Rental Business Tax Receipt and Resort Tax account (both numbers must appear in every listing), an approved Certificate of Use, a Florida DBPR vacation rental license, a Florida DOR sales tax registration, and a Miami-Dade tourist tax account. Guests pay roughly 14% combined tax (6% state sales tax + 1% Miami-Dade surtax + 3% Miami-Dade Convention Development Tax + 4% Miami Beach resort tax). The city's former $20,000-$100,000 fines were struck down (City of Miami Beach v. Nichols, Fla. 3d DCA 2020) and replaced with Chapter 162, F.S. limits — up to $1,000/day first violation and $5,000/day repeat — with mandatory immediate termination of the illegal occupancy; because Miami Beach's zoning ordinance predates June 1, 2011, its district-level prohibitions survive Florida's vacation-rental preemption (F.S. 509.032(7)(b)).

At a glance

Unhosted whole-home rentalConditional
Hosted rental (host present)Conditional
Primary residence requiredNo
Guest capNone verified
Rules apply to stays under183 days

Threshold is 'six months and one day' (~183 days); leases of that length or longer are not short-term rentals. Prohibited everywhere for single-family homes (now Resiliency Code Sec. 7.5.4.13(d)(E), formerly Sec. 142-905(b)(5)) and for apartments/townhomes in RM-1, RM-PRD, RM-PRD-2, RPS-1, RPS-2, CD-1, RO, RO-3, TH (formerly Sec. 142-1111(a), carried into the Resiliency Code) — city code enforcement cited both sections in July 2025 Special Magistrate cases, including one against a single-room Airbnb listing, so hosted room rentals in prohibited districts are also violations. Allowed with registrations in other districts; the city's approved-building list spans CD-2, CD-3, CPS-1, CPS-2, CPS-4, GU, MR, MXE, RM-1 (exception areas), RM-2, RM-3, RPS-3, RPS-4, SPE, TC districts. Grandfathered exception areas (Flamingo Park/Espanola Way RM-1 & TH; Collins Waterfront south of W. 24th Terrace contributing buildings; North Shore National Register district RM-1 buildings fronting Harding Ave.) require a certificate of use, entire-unit rentals only (no individual rooms), no unit rented more than once every 7 days, a 24/7 contact person, and in the Collins Waterfront path 24/7 on-site management and a 7-night minimum reservation. No primary-residence requirement, but the city requires owners to acknowledge in writing that short-term renting may forfeit their homestead exemption.

What you need to operate

RequirementAuthorityCostOfficial source
Vacation/Short-Term Rental Business Tax Receipt (BTR) City of Miami Beach (Finance/Licensing, Citizen Access Portal)
Occupation codes 95017300 (residential) / 95017301 (non-residential). Application requires an approved Certificate of Use, recorded deed, FEIN, Florida Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax, state (DBPR) license, condo/HOA letter dated within 60 days confirming STRs are permitted, written acknowledgment of possible homestead-exemption loss, disclosure of all hosting/advertising platforms used, and a notarized affidavit submitted within 2 weeks. BTR number must be displayed in every advertisement (city page, citing Sec. 102-386 and Resiliency Code 7.5.4). Failure to obtain or renew the BTR is itself fined ($1,000 first offense, $3,500 second offense imposed in July 2025 Special Magistrate cases). Fee amount not published on fetched pages.
 Not verified source
Certificate of Use permitting short-term rental City of Miami Beach Planning Department
Required before the BTR. In grandfathered exception areas, also requires building/fire code compliance, binding written lease for each rental, 24-hour contact person posted on the premises, entire-unit rentals only, no exterior signage, and no variances permitted.
 $600 application fee (Sec. 142-1111(c)(1)); $1,000 for the North Beach/Harding Avenue eligibility path (Sec. 142-1111(d)(8)(B)) — per 2020 code text
renewal: annual (approvals issued for a one-year period; not renewed after 3+ adjudicated violation days in prior 12 months)
 source
Resort Tax account registration City of Miami Beach Finance Department
Register before operating; certificate number must be conspicuously displayed in every advertisement or listing. Returns filed monthly (due the 20th) or annually (due May 20) via the city's online resort tax portal; $25 manual filing fee for mailed returns.
 Not verified source
Florida DBPR Vacation Rental License (condominium or dwelling; single/group/collective) Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Hotels and Restaurants
Required under F.S. 509.242(1)(c) when an entire unit is rented to guests more than three times a year for stays under 30 days or is advertised as regularly available to transient guests; renting individual rooms while present is exempt from the state license (though Miami Beach zoning still restricts it). Guide: https://www2.myfloridalicense.com/hotels-restaurants/licensing/vrtsp-guide/
 $170/year for a single unit full-year ($150 base + $10/unit + $10 Hospitality Education Program fee; tiered up to $350 for 501+ units), plus $50 application fee for new licenses
renewal: annual (District 1 — Miami-Dade/Monroe — renews October 1; half-year fees available)
 source
Florida Department of Revenue sales tax registration (Annual Resale Certificate) Florida Department of Revenue
Needed to collect and remit the 6% state sales tax plus 1% Miami-Dade discretionary surtax on rentals of six months or less; the city's BTR checklist requires the Florida Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax.
 Not verified source
Miami-Dade County tourist tax account (Convention Development Tax) Miami-Dade County Tax Collector / Regulatory and Economic Resources
Anyone collecting rent on transient accommodations (6 months or less) must register with the county to collect, report, and remit the 3% Convention Development Tax; monthly returns required even if no tax collected. Registration requires the Florida sales tax number, Certificate of Use, and local BTR documentation.
 Not verified source

Taxes on guests & hosts

TaxRateApplies toPlatform collectsOfficial source
Florida state sales tax on transient rentals 6% Rentals/leases of living or sleeping accommodations for six months or less Not verified source
Miami-Dade County discretionary sales surtax 1% Same transactions as state sales tax, including transient rentals in Miami-Dade County Not verified source
Miami-Dade County Convention Development Tax 3% Transient accommodations (6 months or less) countywide except Surfside and Bal Harbour — applies in Miami Beach; the county's 2% Tourist Development Tax and 1% Professional Sports Franchise Facility Tax do NOT apply in Miami Beach (DR-15TDT footnote: total local option rate in Miami Beach is 7% = 3% county CDT + 4% city resort tax) Not verified source
Miami Beach Resort Tax (rooms) 4% Rent for any room(s) in hotels, motels, rooming houses or apartment houses — all transient rentals of six months or less; a separate 2% city resort tax applies to food/beverage sales Not verified source

Enforcement

PenaltiesThe city's former mandatory fines of $20,000 (1st) / $40,000 (2nd) / $60,000 (3rd) / $80,000 (4th) / $100,000 (5th+ within 18 months) in Secs. 142-905(b)(5) and 142-1111 were held preempted by Chapter 162, F.S. (City of Miami Beach v. Nichols, Fla. 3d DCA, July 22, 2020, recited in the city's October 2020 amending ordinance), and the city substituted fines 'as provided in Chapter 162, Florida Statutes' — i.e., up to $1,000/day per violation (first), $5,000/day (repeat), and up to $15,000 for irreparable violations under F.S. 162.09(2)(d); the special magistrate may not waive or reduce them. July 17, 2025 Special Magistrate agenda shows this schedule in practice ($1,000 first-offense fines; $3,500 second-offense fine). Additional verified provisions: illegal transient occupancy 'must be immediately terminated' by police/code compliance (guests evicted); an additional $25,000 fine for a second offense within 18 months at properties over 5,000 sq ft; adjudication orders are recorded and become liens enforceable by foreclosure; code compliance notifies the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser/Tax Collector (homestead-exemption consequences); the city may also seek injunctions. Advertising a prohibited short-term rental is itself a violation and constitutes direct evidence raising a rebuttable presumption of illegal use.
Platform liabilityViolations may be issued to 'the owner, manager, real estate broker or agent, or authorized agent, or any other individual or entity that participates in or facilitates the violation' (Sec. 142-1111(e)(3), verified in the city's ordinance text). Operators must conspicuously display the city BTR number and Resort Tax certificate number in every advertisement or listing (city page citing Sec. 102-386 and Resiliency Code 7.5.4.11(a)). Florida has no enacted statewide platform mandate: SB 280 (2024), which would have required advertising platforms to collect/remit taxes, display license numbers and remove noncompliant listings, was vetoed June 27, 2024 (flsenate.gov bill history).
NotesActive enforcement is documented in official 2025 Special Magistrate dockets, including cases built from Airbnb listings (screenshots of advertisements used as evidence, body-worn cameras, certified mail service). The city runs a public 'Practice Safe Renting' lookup tool so renters can verify a property is authorized. Miami Beach's zoning prohibitions survive F.S. 509.032(7)(b) preemption because that paragraph 'does not apply to any local law, ordinance, or regulation adopted on or before June 1, 2011' (verified 2025 statute text) — and the 3d DCA ruling invalidated only the fines, not the underlying restrictions.

Pending changes

What we could not verify (7)

  • Miami Beach BTR fee amount and renewal period for the Vacation/Short-Term Rental category: not published on the fetched official pages (fee schedule sits behind the Citizen Access portal); a July 2025 Special Magistrate case fined an operator for 'failing to renew' an STR BTR, implying periodic renewal, but the cycle is unverified.
  • Certificate of Use application fees ($600 standard exception path / $1,000 North Beach path) were verified only against the October 2020 ordinance text amending Sec. 142-1111; the current fee under the 2023 Resiliency Code recodification (Sec. 7.5.4) could not be re-verified because library.municode.com returned HTTP 403.
  • Full current text of Resiliency Code Sec. 7.5.4 (successor to Secs. 142-905/142-1111) unverifiable directly (municode 403); prohibited-district list and single-family prohibition were instead verified from the code sections as quoted in the city's own July 2025 Special Magistrate enforcement agenda and the 2020 ordinance.
  • Maximum guest/occupancy limits: no fetched official source states a numeric cap for Miami Beach STRs; max_guests set to null (do not confuse with Miami-Dade County's occupancy caps, which apply to the county's own STVR program, not inside Miami Beach).
  • Whether Airbnb/Vrbo collect any of the four taxes for Miami Beach hosts (platform tax agreements with the state, county, or city) could not be verified against an official source; all collectedByPlatform fields set to null.
  • Separate fine amounts for advertising-display violations under City Code Sec. 102-386 (BTR/resort tax numbers in listings) not verified — municode 403; only the display requirement itself is verified via the city's program page.
  • Exact scope of the vacation-rental/advertising-platform tax provisions in Ch. 2026-239 (HB 7031-E, effective July 1, 2026): enactment verified on flsenate.gov, but the service-fee-exclusion detail comes from a search excerpt of the House Ways & Means analysis; the analysis PDF itself returned 'document not found' on direct fetch.

Sources

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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.