Florida bill would effectively ban sex offenders from vacation rentals.
Florida Bill Tries to Ban Sex Offenders from Vacation Rentals
A new bill concerning vacation rentals, HB 773, sponsored by Rep. Mike La Rosa, R-St. Cloud, is making its way through the Florida House of Representatives. (https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=768073.docx&DocumentType=Amendments&BillNumber=0773&Session=2018)
The bill, among other things, would require vacation rental owners to give 24-hour notice to residents who live within 1,000 feet of the properties that sex offenders will be staying at the rentals.
While it does not expressly ban sex offenders from vacation rentals in Florida, its effect would be that it would require vacation rental owners to inquire whether a prospective renter was a sex offender and then they literally have to notify every neighbor within a 1000 foot radius of their presence! Who would rent to a sex offender under those conditions?
AirBnB offenses committed by individuals not on registry
As with most of these bills, there’s not been a swath of “issues” with sex offenders swarming on vacation rentals and the only reported instances of sexual assault relating to AirBnB or similar programs have been from people not on the registry.
Not sure what the purpose of this ill-informed legislator’s bill is, aside from another piece of “feel good” toilet paper that will give the public a false sense of security.
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Dont get it the more i think on it: why a different ordinace than what it already is if we visited someone in a different juristiction? And also how do we register somewhere before we get there? Preregistrations?
Register in person 2 days in advance of your arrival. Makes perfect sense.
Those who come up with this stuff are usually hiding something in their own closets. Has there been any more investigation into the recent Florida Legislature sex scandal??? It’s all about ‘deflecting’.
On another front, Second Chances Florida is NOT relenting in their quest to ban RSO’s from voting. Their Twitter account bears witness to their hypocrisy:
https://twitter.com/YesTo2ndChances
And, it appears the ACLU is posting on the website in support of the Amendment “as is”. This really doesn’t need a public vote. The Florida Legislature could simply use the power of the pen to remedy this issue. Oh, wait, their too busy sitting on their thumbs trying to conjure up more and more idiotic laws affecting a subclass of Americans.
A quick check of the Florida Statutes:
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0500-0599/0509/Sections/0509.242.html
defines “vacation rental”:
(c) Vacation rental.—A vacation rental is 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.
But they specifically now state hotels. So do they post a sign with your picture and room number? Dont see how this even remotely does anything. Are we not to live near hotels or rental properties soon? Will shops deny service to thieves? Banks not provide services to fraudsters? Wayyyyy to weird….
Where do they state hotels? I don’t know that is correct. Only vacation rentals.
Here is the link to the current bill look at the pdf bill text also the above article states a public lodging and requires them to also ask you if you are a sexual predator! To inform All guests! And so on
“The committee also approved an amendment from Rep. David Santiago, R-Deltona, that would require notification of all hotel guests if a sexual predator is staying at a property. It would require the hotel to ask guests at check-in if they are sexual predators.”
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/00773
The current full pdf text now states “Vacation Rentals”
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/773/BillText/c1/PDF
So it seems hotels and motels are only restricted as to predators and residential vacation rentals are restricted as to offenders? Am I reading this correctly?
You are not reading it correctly.
This is a BADLY written bill that uses “predator” and “offender” synonymously without considering they have different definitions.
Nowhere does it refer to Hotels and Motels – I’m not sure how that came up.
The Bills both the House And Senate are full of changes and very confusing. It’s important to read both as they eventually will be merged (Public lodging and Vacation Rentals are both used in the Bills) Current Senate Bill says
Redlines didn’t paste over but full text can be reviewed at
http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/1400/BillText/c2/HTML
509.242 Public lodging establishments; classifications.—
1323 (1) A public lodging establishment is shall be classified
1324 as a hotel, motel, nontransient apartment, transient apartment,
1325 bed and breakfast inn, or timeshare project, or vacation rental
1326 if the establishment satisfies the following criteria:
1327 (a) Hotel.—A hotel is any public lodging establishment
1328 containing sleeping room accommodations for 25 or more guests
1329 and providing the services generally provided by a hotel and
1330 recognized as a hotel in the community in which it is situated
1331 or by the industry.
1332 (b) Motel.—A motel is any public lodging establishment
1333 which offers rental units with an exit to the outside of each
1334 rental unit, daily or weekly rates, offstreet parking for each
1335 unit, a central office on the property with specified hours of
1336 operation, a bathroom or connecting bathroom for each rental
1337 unit, and at least six rental units, and which is recognized as
1338 a motel in the community in which it is situated or by the
1339 industry.
Anonymous
The statute includes “vacation rentals” in the classification of Public Lodging Establishments, but distinguishes them from Hotels, Motels, etc.
(a) Property owners who choose to use their property as a
128 vacation rental have constitutionally protected property rights
129 and other rights that must be protected, including the right to
130 use their residential property as a vacation rental;
131 (b) Vacation rentals play a significant, unique, and
132 critical role in Florida’s tourism industry, and that role is
133 different from that of public lodging establishments;
If you look at the amendments and the other bill in the senate they change the definition it’s scary and appears to cover all Hotels,Motels and Resorts/condos.
States hotel specifically but refers only to predators in that case.
Seems to me that Florida should eliminate the sex offender bullshit and concentrate on other problems. One comes immediately to mind…school shooting perhaps?
How about putting ALL of the MONEY that has been WASTED on the hateful profiling Un-American sex offender “laws” and use that money and other resources to work on other problems!
SexOffenderTruth.com
So…how do we plan to fight this. Again it afflicts families in addition to registrants. I gotta say…I hate Florida. The 10th most corrupt state in the Union.
The new registration laws will not stop until the 850,000 RSO’s organize. Imagine all 850,000 RSO’s moving to Fort Lauderdale and saying, “lock me up!” Their entire judicial system, jail system and prison system would collapse.
Remember its not just 850,000 multiply that by at least 3 to include immidiate family this affects and then some…..