Bradenton Beach, FL short-term rental registration

What Bradenton Beach asks of you

• A unit rented to guests more than three times in a calendar year for periods of less than thirty days or one calendar month, whichever is less, must be registered with the State of Florida and hold a transient public lodging establishment licence from the city.^[6]

• Advertising or holding a property out to the public as a place regularly rented to guests triggers the same requirement.^[6]

• The local business tax that carries the licence comes from Ordinance 09-403A and chapter 205 of the Florida Statutes, and rental properties are named in it.^[7]

• The amount depends on the business being conducted, and a single location can owe more than one tax.^[7]

• Renewal notices go out on 1 August and the licence expires on 30 September. Not renewed by 1 January, it costs a $250 penalty to reactivate; not renewed by 1 February, it goes to code enforcement.^[7]

• A licence can be transferred to a new owner for ten percent of the annual business tax, capped at $25.^[7]

What Florida asks wherever you host

These rules apply at this address whatever the city decides.

• Florida licenses vacation rentals itself. A house, townhouse or unit in a building of four units or fewer is licensed as a dwelling, a unit in a condominium or cooperative as a condominium, and the licence costs $150 plus $10 per rental unit plus a $10 hospitality education fee.^[2]

• A city cannot ban vacation rentals, nor regulate how long or how often you rent, unless its ordinance was already on the books on June 1, 2011. Ordinances adopted before that date survive untouched, which is why two neighbouring Florida towns can sit at opposite ends of the scale.^[1]

• State sales tax is due on every rental of six months or less. A bona fide written lease for more than six months of continuous residence is exempt, and so is the seventh month onward once a guest has stayed and paid for six.^[3]