AirBnb Miami South Beach

[Jordan Moorhead]

Who runs short term rentals on Miami Beach and knows a good agent on Miami Beach? I’ve always been interested in having a vacation rental there.

[Francis Fitzgerald]

Sorry for bumping this thread, but I have some quite valuable information in this market for you.  Currently, the state of Miami Beach short-term rental restrictions is in complete limbo. For those of you not in the know, Miami Beach, specifically South Beach and everywhere south of 41st St., is regulated into oblivion as far as short-term rentals go. Most of us think it's to protect the condominiums and hotels on the outer ring of the beach to contribute heavily for politicians. The city had imposed insane fines of $20,000 per violation of their short-term rental zoning laws.  But the city lost their lawsuit against a private citizen named Nichols. In Nichols V Miami Beach, the judge struck down Miami Beach is penalties as being in excess of the $1000 state limit that Ford imposes on all cities. The judge also declined to sever that restriction from the penalty amount, effectively destroying any enforcement of that law other than straight up criminal penalties (no fines).  There's almost no way the city is going to criminally charge 10,000 to 20,000 of its own residents and still expect its commissioners to be reelected.  Normally, the city would just make a new law with the correct penalty amount. Unfortunately for them, the state of Florida made a new law that restricts its counties from regulating short-term rentals in the way Miami Beach does. The only reason Miami Beach got away with it before because it was grandfathered in.  Several weeks ago in the middle of July 2020, the city lost the appeal. They must now either when a Florida Supreme Court case, or when a Supreme Court of the United States case in order to find people for short-term rentals now.

I don't see how Miami Beach is going to win this fight, and it looks like South Beach is about to become a giant free-for-all in the short term rental market.