Major Concerns About This Bill:
- HB 833 is of great concern as it would require reporting stays of 24 hours or longer at vacation rentals. A vacation rental is defined to be any unit or group of units in a condominium or cooperative or any individually or collectively owned single-family, two-family, three-family, or four-family house or dwelling unit that is also a transient public lodging establishment but that is not a timeshare project.
- THIS BILL HAS NOW BEEN ADDED TO THE HOUSE COMMERCE COMMITTEE AGENDA FOR A 2:00 MEETING ON MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2023.
- In the bill analysis for 2023 (page 15), the FDLE has warned that the 24-hour reporting for vacation rentals will require an increase in registration staff to accommodate the growth in registrants who must appear in person to register.
- FDLE has also warned that this bill may require increased hours of availability for sheriffs’ offices as only four registration offices in Florida are open for registration 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- The FDLE warned that lawsuits could ensue as a result of this 24-hour reporting for vacation rentals that would make traveling in Florida more difficult for people on the registry.
- The Florida Legislators are choosing to ignore the warnings from FDLE.
- There are three companion bills, but at the present time none contains this onerous verbiage.
PLEASE Do the Following:
- Call all members of the House Commerce Committee.
- Whether you talk to a person or voicemail, you must give your name and contact information (phone numbers work). Remember that all voicemails are checked, so you can call after hours.
- State that you OPPOSE the part of the bill that would require the reporting of the 24-hour stay in a vacation rental.
- Mention that you are a constituent if you happen to live in the representative’s district.
- Give two brief reasons why you oppose the reporting of the 24-hour stays at vacation rentals.
- Ask family members and friends to also call to oppose this reporting.
TALKING POINTS:
- The shortened time for required registration will make it impossible for registered citizens to comply if they check in on a weekend.
- According to FDLE analysis, most registration offices are not open 7 days a week, which would be necessary to accommodate the 24-hour reporting.
- Because this part of the bill could make it nearly impossible for registered citizens to travel throughout the state of Florida, FDLE has warned of SIGNIFICANT LITIGATION (page 16 of 2023 analysis).
- In the 2022 analysis, FDLE said that if the intent is to provide updated information on registrants in vacation rentals, this is not attainable for persons coming into Florida that have not previously registered in the state (which is expected to be a large proportion of registrations received under this bill). Registrants coming to Florida from other states require research from other state registries which are normally only open on weekdays, making dissemination to the public impossible.
- FDLE has said this change will lead to a “substantial increase” in the number of registered citizens required to complete a registration. This will potentially increase the workload of the FDLE and require programming changes to FDLE’s technology systems and incur increased costs.
- FDLE warns in the 2023 analysis that this bill could potentially require an increase in registration staff to accommodate the growth in registrants who must appear in person to register.
- This additional restriction would be punitive for registered citizens, making it unconstitutional.
- What is the purpose of requiring this 24-hour registration? What is the research that is being used to justify this part of the bill?
- Florida already has 52 registry requirements for people on the sex offense registry, where noncompliance for any one of them could result in 5 years of prison. Why is the legislature trying to further punish the tens of thousands of registrants on the Florida registry who are now law-abiding citizens?
We strongly suggest you DO NOT THREATEN LAWSUITS AS THE THREATS DO NOT DETER THE LEGISLATORS. IT DOES TEND TO ANTAGONIZE THEM AND DISMISSES THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE REST OF YOUR MESSAGE.
Phone Numbers for the Commerce Committee:
- Bob Rommel (R), Chair: (850) 717-5081; [email protected]
- Patt Maney (R), Vice Chair: (850) 717-5004; [email protected]
- David Borrero (R), Republican Committee Whip: (850) 717-5111; [email protected]
- Allison Tant (D), Democratic Ranking Member: (850) 717-5009; [email protected]
- Bruce Antone (D): (850) 717-5041; [email protected]
- Kristen Arrington (D): (850) 717-5046; [email protected]
- Webster Barnaby (R): (850) 717-5029; [email protected]
- Christopher Benjamin (D): (850) 717-5107; [email protected]
- Kimberly Daniels (D): (850) 717-5014; [email protected]
- Wyman Duggan (R): (850) 717-5012; [email protected]
- Mike Giallombardo (R): (850) 717-5079; [email protected]
- Dotie Joseph (D): (850) 717-5108; [email protected]
- Chip LaMarca (R): (850) 717-5100; [email protected]
- Thomas Leek (R): (850) 717-5028; [email protected]
- Lauren Melo (R): (850) 717-5082; [email protected]
- Tobin Overdorf (R): (850) 717-5085; [email protected]
- Dr. Joel Rudman (R): (850) 717-5003; [email protected]
- Tyler Sirois (R): (850) 717-5031; [email protected]
- Kevin Steele (R): (850) 717-5055; [email protected]
- Chase Tramont (R): (850) 717-5030; [email protected]
- Bradford Yeager (R): (850) 717-5056; [email protected]
Every call gets heard and tallied. Every respectful conversation with a staffer is an excellent opportunity to change a mind about our community with someone who has direct contact with a lawmaker. YOUR EFFORTS DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
You know i had a airbnb account and they terminated my account because I’m a RSO? Mind you I was never convicted of the SO charge but I still have to register. I guess you can not have a airbnb account if you are on the registry.
After reading the new law, it seems different from the current travel law. Currently we register our temporary address at our home Sheriff office no matter what county we are going to. The way I read this one is within 24 hours of getting to the rental unit, we go to the “local” sheriff’s office to register that we are there and would not report to our Sheriff’s office unless we are there more than three days. Apparently then, we would have to notify both Sheriff offices.
“Sexual Offenders and Predators
The bill amends s. 775.21, F.S., to require sexual offenders and sexual predators to register with the
local sheriff’s office if they stay in a vacation rental for 24 hours or more (currently set at stays of 3 days
or more).”
Message from AirBnB to hosts:
This week, Florida lawmakers advanced legislation that could negatively affect your ability to host. House Bill 833 and Senate Bill 714, if passed, would increase the regulatory burden on Hosts and empower local governments to not only increase regulation, but revoke vacation rental permits for even minor violations. Additionally, these bills would likely overburden the state, which could cause major delays on license renewals.
There’s still time to make an impact. We encourage you to email your elected officials today and ask them to Vote NO on HB 833 and SB 714.
Send an email
Additionally, we encourage you to attend the upcoming committee meetings and share with lawmakers how these new rules could hurt Hosts across the state.
Meeting 1
What: Florida House Commerce Committee
When: Monday, April 17th at 2:00 PM EST
Where: 212 Knott, 400 S Monroe St, Tallahassee, FL 32399
Meeting 2
What: Florida Senate Appropriations. Committees on Agriculture, Environment, & General Government
When: Tuesday, April 18th at 12:00 PM EST
Where: 110 SB, 400 S Monroe St, Tallahassee, FL 32399
It’s vital that you take action today and ask your lawmakers to protect your right to Host in the Sunshine State.
Thank you for hosting and for your advocacy,
The Airbnb team
I own a camper and would be utilizing camp sites either in Florida State parks or private parks.
So does that mean checking out at the home office and checking in at the office in the area where we would be staying.
And then checking out there and checking back in at the home office?
Campsite is not a “dwelling unit” I would think, and would be exempt. You are bringing your own dwelling unit with you.
Maby exempt for now. It seems they won’t stop untill were all back on what is basically probation. My charges are 33 years old and zi have more restrictions now than when I was first home from prison. I NEVER dreamed it would get this bad here in my home state.
@Jerry. I go camping quite a bit and also trips on my small sailboat. I go to the office of my permanent residence location. Tell them where I’m going and when and they put the info in the ‘system’ and if it’s a place with an address such as a state park campsite, it’s listed as a temporary residence. No need to go to the local office.
Florida is messed up with all of these “gotcha laws” laws that are logistically difficult if not impossible to comply with. Some states are entertaining or have passed laws that even with “lifetime registration”, after a certain period of time, you can petition to come off of the registry if you meet certain conditions. I would hate to be able to come off LTR in my home state only to be stuck on the Florida site because I went there on vacation.
I have a serious question on all this FL legislation… has any of the calling and lobbying to stop these bills from becoming law ever? As a non-FL based person it appears to me the march of oppression by the FL government just marches on, damn the torpedos…
Yea, it stopped the 24 hr notification law on all travel a while back, because it was brought to their attention that every place on the map would be reported eventually the way it was written. So now they have just changed the wording and made up another onerous law that gets around that point.
Yes, it has stopped some bills from becoming law.