What you can do right now to combat the noise and lack of respect to you and your neighbors due to short term rentals!
Your neighbors next door or across the street have decided to rent out their house using one of the numerous short term rental platforms such as Airbnb or VRBO! Yes, they could make big bucks renting their home to spring breakers (why they would want to is another conversation!). Unfortunately however, the vast majority of these homeowners haven’t considered the impact on their neighbors and the inconvenience these short term rentals cause the full time residents of Seven Isles at large. I for one have a home across the street from us that rents on a short term basis. Each March & April we brace ourselves for the constant party around the clock and the disruptive behavior that comes with that.
Other than calling the Seven Isles Guard House or the FLPD Non-Emergency number, most of us had been under the impression that there was nothing much else that could be done. While in reality there are a few other measures that can (and should) be taken by impacted neighbors to raise the awareness of officials (both elected and appointed at the local, county and state levels) in an attempt to make the situation a bit more manageable / palatable.
Based on extensive research done over the past couple of weeks, the Seven Isles HOA Board has come up with an information sheet that will be handy as we look to combat short term rentals. You can download a copy of their research here.
Short Term Rental Platforms such as Airbnb, VRBO, and other services are governed and regulated at the state level in Tallahassee. There’s very little recourse left to local municipalities other than enforcement of permitting/licensing processes, and compliance with local ordinances.
Clearly those of us that are full time residents in our community are the ones that have to put up with any disruptive behavior that renters engage in. It is therefore incumbent upon us to step up the level of our engagement when incidents do happen.
Here are a few simple steps that can be taken when faced with a challenging situation:
CALL AND EMAIL TO COMPLAIN!
- Admiral Security Guard House – 954.588.0457
- Non Emergency Police – 954.764.4357
- Seven Isles FLPD Officer Aaron Perdue – 954.806.6055
- City’s 24 hour customer service – 954.828.8000
- Code Enforcement: 954.828.5207
- Fort Lauderdale City Manager’s Office – Christopher Lagerbloom – CLagerbloom@fortlauderdale.gov
- Fort Lauderdale Night Manager – Sarah Spurlock – SSpurlock@FortLauderdale.gov
- Check if the house being rented has been registered with the City Of Fort Lauderdale here and that the requisite licenses / permits have been secured. You can look up the address of property (in 2nd column) to check license status, and also maximum occupancy.
KNOW THE CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE ORDINANCES!
- City Of Fort Lauderdale Code Of Ordinances: – Noise: Chapter 17-7: View this section here
- Max Occupancy Guidelines: View this section here
CONTACT OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TO REQUEST THE FOLLOWING: Increase permit fees – Increase Violation / Citation Amounts, Hire more enforcement officers.
- Mayor Trantalis: DTrantalis@fortlauderdale.gov – 954.828.5004
- Commissioner Glassman: sglassman@fortlauderdale.gov – 954.828.5923
- Scott Wyman (Asst to the Mayor): swyman@fortlauderdale.gov – 954.828.5004
- Florida House District 93 Representative, Chip LaMarca: Chip.LaMarca@myfloridahouse.gov – 954.784.4531 / 850.717.5093
- Florida Senate District 34 Senator, Gary Farmer: Farmer.gary@flsenate.gov – 954.467.4227 / 850.487.5034