[This is my August Bulletin sent out to my clients a few days ago]
How does it work in St. Petersburg to rent out a home for a short-term stay, using operations such as Airbnb or VRBO? The situation is a little murky, but since my clients ask me all the time how it works, I decided to research it a little, and pass the information along to you.
Short term rentals in St. Petersburg, Florida
The kids are back to school and old man winter is around the corner. The snowbirds, as we like to call them, will soon be flocking to our shores.
Many folks already own a second home here in Florida or are considering the purchase of one to escape the harsh winters of the north. These homes will be vacant half the year or more. Some seasonal residents look to offset expenses by offering short-term rentals.
This is a contentious matter. Neighborhoods complain about rentals changing the character of the street, while owners claim that upgrading a home to make it suitable for rent actually improves property values. I’m staying out of that discussion. As with everything in real estate, the situation changes street by street and block by block.
Here are the facts as far as I can ascertain them.
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In St. Petersburg and all of Pinellas County, there’s a 6% tourist development tax that gets levied on the rent you charge. There’s also a Florida sales tax of 7% that gets levied as well, so plan on adding a 13% surcharge on your rent – or at least plan on sending that amount to the tax people.
In St. Petersburg, registration and licensing is also involved. Furthermore, the city has an ordinance that prohibits a short-term lease of less than 30 days being offered more than 3 times per year. And here’s where it gets political.
The State of Florida has prohibited municipalities from regulating short term rentals, except by older laws that are grandfathered in – such as St. Pete’s zoning law. The city can’t amend this law to make it reflect modern realities because it would lose the grandfathering, and the state has so far not acted to allow municipalities to regulate sensibly, so everyone is stuck in limbo.
What they know at the state legislature in Tallahassee is that there are 18,000 licenses issued statewide for short-term rentals, and 130,000 listings online for homes to rent short term. So it’s obvious that many people are renting out through Airbnb and others without being licensed or regulated, and without paying tax on the transaction.
It’s no wonder that the hotels and B&B’s say it’s unfair on them. But it’s also obvious that this trend is not going to stop – homeowners want the right to do this if they choose. Most clear of all, is that there must be regulations around temporary lodging, and the law is still evolving. So be aware, if you play this game, that the rules are still evolving, and they may change.
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What are the current rules? If you rent out through an agency, theoretically that agency has taken care of licenses and taxes. Many people don’t go through an agency.
If you rent a property out for a short-term rental, you need to register with the Pinellas County Tax Collector. Here is the FAQ for this entity:
https://taxcollect.com/tourist-development-faqs/
However, Airbnb now collects tax on behalf of owners to pay to Pinellas County – the operation has inked agreements with several counties throughout the state, and the list is growing. But VRBO doesn’t do this, nor do others.
From what I can tell it looks like Airbnb only collects certain taxes and not others, so a portion of this tax to benefit the municipality is perhaps not being collected. The situation is different around the state. And since Airbnb insists in these agreements on keeping its clients confidential, tax collectors don’t actually know which properties are compliant, which doesn’t make them happy. As I said, it’s murky.
St. Petersburg’s restriction of no more than 3 leases per year is a zoning ordinance, and code enforcement is complaint-driven. If the neighbors complain, and a home is not licensed, there are penalties and assessments to pay – failure to pay could result in a lien on the property. Of about 1,000 homes listed online for St. Petersburg, there are less than a dozen complaints each year.
It looks to me like you will need a lodging license to offer short term rentals in compliance with local law. Here’s a pdf handout on St. Petersburg’s current laws regarding short term rentals:
https://www.stpete.org/planning_zoning/docs/Short Term Rentals HANDOUT.pdf
There’s a phone number and email at the bottom of that document – ultimately you may have to contact the city directly to discover how to be in full compliance with the law. If you do, please let me know what you find out!
If you’ve offered short term rentals and followed all the applicable regulations successfully, please drop me a line and let me know your experience.
— Stephanie
