Fort Lauderdale, FL short-term rental registration

What Fort Lauderdale asks of you

• Registration covers any house of one to four units advertised to transient guests for up to 30 days. Condominium units must register too, timeshares excepted.^[6]

• The city registers last. A DBPR license, a Department of Revenue sales tax account and a Broward County business tax receipt come first. Proof of Broward tourist tax registration is also required. A separate City of Fort Lauderdale business tax account is opened and invoiced once the city approves the application.^[8]

• Registration costs $880 for up to four units under one folio, first inspection included. Each further inspection, reinspection or no-show costs $100.^[8]

• No Certificate of Compliance is issued until a code officer has inspected the property. Maximum occupancy is two persons per legal bedroom, verified at that inspection.^[8]

• The application includes a sample guest lease and a sketch of the off-street parking spaces, with a statement that no on-street parking is permitted.^[8]

• Certificates expire on September 30 each year and renewals are due by August 1. Renewal costs $650, or $200 for an owner-occupied homestead.^[9]

• A renewal not paid by September 30 is processed as a new application, at $880 with a fresh inspection.^[9]

• Accessory dwellings cannot be vacation rentals in RS-8 or RD-15 zoning, under Section 47-19.2.A.7 of the Unified Land Development Regulation.^[9]

• An amendment approved on September 15, 2026 provides a civil penalty of $1,000 a day for advertising or renting without a valid certificate.^[6]

• That amendment is Ordinance C-26-39, passed on first reading on August 18, 2026. Its Section 5 makes it effective thirty days after adoption.^[7]

What Florida asks wherever you host

These rules apply at this address whatever the city decides.

• Florida licenses vacation rentals itself. A dwelling license covers houses, townhouses and buildings of up to four units. A condominium or cooperative unit takes a condominium license instead. The license costs $150 plus $10 per rental unit, plus a $10 hospitality education fee.^[2]

• No Florida city may ban vacation rentals. It may not set how long or how often you rent either. The one exception is a local ordinance already in force on June 1, 2011, which still applies.^[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. So is the seventh month onward once a guest has stayed and paid for six.^[3]