Where short-term rentals are allowed in Longboat Key, FL

What Longboat Key asks of you

• Unless the property is grandfathered as a tourism use or sits in a tourism-zoned district, each rental period must be at least thirty consecutive calendar days, one entire calendar month, or longer.^[6]

• Tourism-zoned districts and grandfathered tourism properties are outside the thirty-day minimum.^[6]

• A rental of less than six months requires the property or unit to register with the town for a Residential Rental Certificate of Registration.^[7]

• The restriction rests on Ordinance 82-10, in place since 1982, which is what keeps it clear of the Florida preemption on rental duration and frequency.^[6]

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]