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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So now private business owners will be roped into these registry laws or face penalties if they don’t comply. Looks like the Nurember laws, you get penalized for not disclosing a jew in you building.
Florida has no interest in protecting children. All they care about is harassing people who are listed on their Nanny Big Government Registries. They love it when people who have shot children live next door to schools. Then they can shoot children from their front porches.
F Florida. Do anything legal to harm anyone who supports the Registries.
This is starting to look worse https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2018/02/23/vacation-rental-bill-narrowly-passes-florida-house.html
I am confused in the bill as the summuary states sexual predator notification then later goes into specific sexual offenders. So does it cover everybody? Predators? Or people with child related offenses. It appears to be a bad Bill regardless and part of a bigger one that appears to be getting pushed quickly bypassing public review and comment.
The amendments need a closer look also as they are out of control. They seem to expand this law to any vacation rental and even properties not covered by the standard Florida definition. They provide penalties for non compliance and legal protection to exclude offenders from suing for rejection! They require a log book to be kept and links to FDLE on rental listings.
This could effictevly ban any SO from ever going on vacation in Florida outside his own property in my opinion.
Wanted 1 Politician with an ounce of common sense and a back bone!
I’m familiar with the adage “Ignorance of the law is no excuse”, but with all these different laws in different states and jurisdictions, how is one supposed to be aware of them all? They appear to be perfectly designed traps because who can possibly know all the restrictions everywhere.
Has Florida banned registered sex offenders from visiting grocery stores or restaurants? Not yet? I’m certain that’ll be the next step: unable to get any food. They already can’t get any shelter. Man, that is one f’ked up State!!!
I have an attorney friend that said this could be an extremely lucrative business. Have a sex offender call a beach rental. Ask when their next available date is. Ask price, and more…get the clerks’ name…write all of this down…when they ask you if you are a RSO, say yes. If they cancel the reservation or whatever…refer this info to your attorney partner…file suit in federal court for discrimination. Split the proceeds…there must be thousands of potential law suits out there just waiting to be picked. To NOT be discriminated against is a federal law…not state…so their ruling supersedes ANY state law…I’ll bet those representatives never thought that we could be so smart…
I’ve not yet seen a case of “discrimination” being brought by those on the Registry for reasons of being on the Registry. It would be wonderful if this WERE a lucrative enterprise, and I would love to be wrong, but I think that the chance of this being actionable, let alone “lucrative,” is, for now, remote.
Registrants are not a protected class. It’s unlikely a discrimination claim would win.
Did you see the bizjournals link in the comments above with a quote from the legislator suggesting he could add language that would allow the property owner to discriminate against the registrant rather than comply with the statute, saying it would “certainly make things safer”
Yes, this would certainly make it the weirdest state to rent a hotel room.