DeSantis vetoed a bill regarding short-term rental regulations

Airbnb has opposed a law that would prevent municipalities from regulating vacation rentals.

A bill preventing local governments in Florida from regulating Airbnbs and other vacation rentals was vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Cities and counties campaigned against the bill – along with short-stay platform Airbnb and management companies like VTrips, which also opposed the bill, but for entirely different reasons.

Municipalities opposed the bill because under the restrictions in the legislation they lost control. Short-term rental platforms opposed the bill because they didn’t have enough control, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

The law, which sets out how local authorities can regulate vacation rentals, replaces all the detailed rules on short-term rentals that cities and counties have introduced since 2014.

This policy included directing city officials to enforce loud partying laws, including repealing strict rules adopted by cities that allow them to suspend vacation rental properties for several months.

Instead, the bill states that a one-month suspension would require violations on five separate days over a two-month period.

In his veto message to Secretary of State Cord Byrd, Governor DeSantis stated that the bill would prevent “virtually any local regulation of vacation rentals, even though vacation rental markets are far from uniform across regions of the state.”

Opponents of the bill warned that the legislation would force Miami-Dade County to “start from scratch” in regulating vacation rentals, calling five violations in two months the norm “tantamount to no control at all.”

Translation: This is South Florida, we know how to break down loud parties.

VTrips has called on property managers and landlords to oppose the bill because it allows local authorities to regulate rental licenses. VTrips also said the bill imposes strict occupancy limits and provides no consumer protection.

Airbnb campaigned against the bill, arguing that it would “increase regulatory burdens on Hosts at the local and state level, undermine private property rights, and empower local governments to add inspection requirements and revoke state licenses.”

The Florida Alliance for Vacation Rentals released a letter that can be signed like a petition urging DeSantis to veto the bill, saying the legislation “places greater day-to-day operational burdens” on the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which it called an “already understaffed” state agency.”