# Short-term rental rules in St. Augustine, FL

- Status: **HEAVILY REGULATED**
- Last verified: 2026-07-18 (every legal claim checked against the official sources listed below)
- Canonical page: https://strwatch.ai/st-augustine-fl/

## Summary

Whole-home short-term rentals are legal citywide but zoning district determines the minimum stay: in RS-1 and RS-2 (single-family residential) districts, a grandfathered 2010 rule (recodified by Ordinance 2019-51, effective January 27, 2020) allows rentals only for periods of one week or longer (Sec. 28-155(d): nightly rentals are deemed a motel use), so nightly rentals are prohibited there; in HP-1 (Historic Preservation) zoning, Ordinance 2019-51/2010-24 limits rentals to 30 days (monthly) or longer; all other zoning districts allow nightly rentals. Every vacation rental, regardless of district, must register annually with the City (fee $303.03 base + $79.30 per bedroom, effective per the City's current fee schedule, due each October 1 with a $100 late fee) and pass an annual Fire Department life-safety inspection under Ordinance 2019-50 (effective July 1, 2020). Maximum occupancy is 12 persons (2 per bedroom plus up to 2 minor children), on-site stabilized parking of 1 space per bedroom is required in districts with parking requirements, and hosts must also hold a Florida DBPR Vacation Rental license and collect/remit the 6% state transient rental tax, 0.5% St. Johns County discretionary surtax, and 5% St. Johns County Tourist Development ('bed') Tax. St. Johns County's separate short-term rental registration ordinance (2021-23) does not apply inside St. Augustine city limits, but the county TDT applies countywide.

## At a glance

- Unhosted whole-home rental: Conditional
- Hosted rental (host present): Conditional
- Primary residence required: No
- Guest cap: 12 guests
- Rules apply to stays under: 30 days

Notes: The city's vacation-rental registration/inspection scheme (Ord. 2019-50, City Code §§28-145 to 28-154) applies to any 'vacation rental' as defined by Fla. Stat. §509.242 (rented >3 times/year for stays under 30 days, or held out to the public as such). Separately, zoning overlays a minimum-stay floor that varies by district: RS-1/RS-2 = 1 week minimum (nightly banned), HP-1 = 30-day/monthly minimum (nightly and weekly banned), all other zoning districts = nightly allowed. The RS-1/RS-2 and HP-1 minimum-stay rules survive Florida's 2011 state preemption of local duration/frequency regulation (Fla. Stat. §509.032(7)(b)) because they trace to Ordinance 2010-24, adopted August 23, 2010 - before the June 1, 2011 grandfather cutoff - and were recodified in Ordinance 2019-51 citing that grandfather status explicitly.

## Requirements

### City of St. Augustine Vacation Rental Registration (registration)

- Authority: City of St. Augustine Planning & Building Department
- Cost: $303.03 base + $79.30 per bedroom / year
- Renewal: Annual; registration year runs Oct 1 - Sep 30, $100 late fee if renewed after Oct 1
- Official source: https://www.citystaug.com/830/Short-Term-Rentals
- Notes: Required for every vacation rental unit (registered separately per unit) under City Code §28-146 (Ord. 2019-50). Fee structure per city's published fee schedule (city cites Resolution 2025-41); could not independently retrieve the resolution PDF text (file served as a corrupted/non-PDF download), so the fee figures are sourced to the city's official program page and FAQ, which state the identical numbers.

### Annual Life-Safety Inspection (inspection)

- Authority: City of St. Augustine Fire Department
- Cost: $50 re-inspection fee if a re-check is needed; otherwise included in registration
- Renewal: Annual, concurrent with registration
- Official source: https://www.citystaug.com/DocumentCenter/View/3806/ORD-2019-50-Short-Term-Rental-Regulations
- Notes: City Code §28-147 (Ord. 2019-50): reasonable access must be given at registration and annually thereafter for inspection of life-safety code, zoning code, and property maintenance code compliance (smoke/CO detectors, fire extinguishers, egress, NFPA 101 Ch. 7 emergency lighting).

### Florida DBPR Vacation Rental License (license)

- Authority: Florida Dept. of Business & Professional Regulation, Division of Hotels & Restaurants
- Cost: $50 application fee + $10 Hospitality Education Program fee + license fee (~$170/year for a single rental unit; varies by county and unit count)
- Renewal: Annual; renewal window Feb 1 - Jun 1 depending on district
- Official source: https://www2.myfloridalicense.com/hotels-restaurants/licensing/vrtsp-guide/
- Notes: State law (Fla. Stat. §509.241/509.242) requires this license for any unit rented more than 3 times per calendar year for periods under 30 days, or advertised/held out as regularly rented to guests.

### Florida Dept. of Revenue Sales & Use Tax Registration (registration)

- Authority: Florida Department of Revenue
- Cost: not verified
- Renewal: N/A - one-time registration, ongoing tax filing obligation
- Official source: https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/sales_tax.aspx
- Notes: Needed to collect/remit the 6% state transient rental tax and county discretionary surtax unless a marketplace provider (e.g., Airbnb) collects and remits on the host's behalf under Florida's marketplace-provider law, effective July 1, 2021. Whether a specific platform actually does so for a given listing was not independently verified for every platform - see needs_review.

## Taxes

- **Florida State Transient Rental (Sales) Tax**: 6% — applies to Rentals of living quarters for 6 months or less; platform collects: yes. Source: https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0200-0299%2F0212%2FSections%2F0212.03.html
- **St. Johns County Discretionary Sales Surtax**: 0.5% — applies to Same transactions as the state transient rental tax (in effect Jan 1, 2016 - Dec 31, 2035); platform collects: yes. Source: https://floridarevenue.com/Forms_library/current/dr15dss_26.pdf
- **St. Johns County Tourist Development Tax ("bed tax")**: 5% — applies to Transient/short-term (6 months or less) living accommodations countywide, including within St. Augustine city limits; platform collects: not verified. Source: https://sjctax.us/tourist-development-tax/

## Enforcement

- Penalties: Violations of City Code §§28-145 through 28-156 and §28-159 (vacation rental regulations) may be prosecuted under the City's Article VI Code Enforcement process (special magistrate hearings with per-day fines) or any other available remedy, including revocation of the vacation rental registration. Listings whose advertised details inaccurately reflect the registration form are treated as a separate violation. Exact per-day fine amounts under the general code enforcement schedule were not located in an official source during this task.
- Platform liability: Not independently verified against an official St. Augustine or St. Johns County source; no ordinance language found imposing direct platform liability or platform-registration-verification duties.
- Notes: The city's Short-Term Rental Committee/Code Enforcement operates a complaint hotline (904-569-7077) and requires the registered property manager/owner to acknowledge preliminary compliance complaints within 30 minutes of notification (City Code §28-154); failure to respond is itself a violation.

## Not yet verified (we say so instead of guessing)

- The exact current per-day fine amount for vacation-rental code enforcement violations (referenced generally as 'Article VI: Code Enforcement') was not located in an official source and needs a direct pull of that code article.
- Whether Airbnb, Vrbo, or other platforms have a direct collection agreement with the St. Johns County Tax Collector for the 5% Tourist Development Tax on St. Augustine listings was not confirmed via an official source; sjctax.us does not publish a platform-agreement list, so collectedByPlatform for that tax is left null.
- The fee resolution the city cites for the $303.03 base + $79.30/bedroom registration fee (referred to as 'Resolution 2025-41' on the city's own program page) could not be independently opened as a readable PDF during this task (the DocumentCenter file that matched most closely downloaded as a Word/DOC file under a different resolution number, RES-2024-41, and did not parse as the fee schedule); the fee figures are corroborated by two separate official citystaug.com pages (program page and FAQ) but not by the underlying resolution text itself.
- Ordinance 2019-50's signature block is dated '27th day of January, 2019' while its own preamble references a September 9, 2019 City Commission hearing and a January 7, 2020 Planning & Zoning Board recommendation, and its companion Ordinance 2019-51 (same case, same signature date format) is dated '27th day of January, 2020.' This is very likely a clerical/scan artifact (year field should read 2020) rather than a substantive discrepancy, since the ordinance's own Section 4 fixes an unambiguous effective date of July 1, 2020 pursuant to Fla. Stat. §166.041(4) - but the passage date itself is not certain to the day.
- Whether St. Augustine vacation rental operators must additionally obtain a City of St. Augustine (or St. Johns County) Local Business Tax Receipt was not confirmed for city-limits properties; the county's own program page lists a Business Tax Receipt as a required document for its unincorporated-area registration only, and no equivalent requirement was located on the city's own program/FAQ pages, so it was omitted from requirements[] rather than guessed.

## Sources

- City of St. Augustine - Short Term Rentals (official program page) (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://www.citystaug.com/830/Short-Term-Rentals
- Ordinance No. 2019-50 (Vacation Rental Regulations, City Code §§28-145 to 28-154) (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://www.citystaug.com/DocumentCenter/View/3806/ORD-2019-50-Short-Term-Rental-Regulations
- Ordinance No. 2019-51 (Effect of Ordinance 2010-24 on RS-1/RS-2 Short-Term Rentals, City Code §28-155) (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://www.citystaug.com/DocumentCenter/View/3805/ORD-2019-51-Short-Term-Rentals-RS-1--RS-2
- City of St. Augustine FAQ - Do Short Term Rentals need to be registered with the City? (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://www.citystaug.com/Faq.aspx?QID=215
- City of St. Augustine FAQ - Where are Short Term Rentals allowed in the City? (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://www.citystaug.com/FAQ.aspx?QID=219
- City of St. Augustine FAQ - Short Term Rentals (registration fees, occupancy, parking, inspection) (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://www.citystaug.com/FAQ.aspx?QID=221
- St. Johns County Tax Collector - Tourist Development Tax (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://sjctax.us/tourist-development-tax/
- St. Johns County - Short Term Vacation Rentals (county registration ordinance, unincorporated areas east of Intracoastal Waterway) (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://www.sjcfl.us/short-term-vacation-rentals/
- Florida DBPR - Guide to Vacation Rentals and Timeshare Projects (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://www2.myfloridalicense.com/hotels-restaurants/licensing/vrtsp-guide/
- Florida Dept. of Revenue - Sales and Use Tax (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/sales_tax.aspx
- Florida Dept. of Revenue - Discretionary Sales Surtax Information (DR-15DSS, 2026) (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://floridarevenue.com/Forms_library/current/dr15dss_26.pdf
- 2025 Florida Statutes §509.032 - Duties of division; general (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0500-0599%2F0509%2FSections%2F0509.032.html
- 2025 Florida Statutes §212.03 - Transient rentals tax; rate, procedure, enforcement, exemptions (official, accessed 2026-07-18): https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0200-0299%2F0212%2FSections%2F0212.03.html
- masterhost.ca - St. Augustine's Comprehensive Guide to Short-Term Rental Regulations (discovery only, vendor guide) (news, accessed 2026-07-18): https://masterhost.ca/st-augustine-guide-short-term-rental-regulations/

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Educational information, not legal advice. Published by STRWatch (Laniakea Technologies LLC).