Calling all Orange County, FL hosts! We began renting our property 2 years ago and became a Superhost. In May of this year, we received notice from Orange County, FL that we were in violation of the zoning ordinance restricting/prohibiting transient rentals. We went to the magistrate hearing to fight this and made the case that the county was required by Florida state law that they can not restrict or regulate transient rentals. The county argued that their ordinance/statue was on the books prior to 2011 and "grandfathered" the county's ability to restrict and regulate.
We continued our argument, pointing out that the county had modified their ordinance/statute AFTER the 2011 date set by the state thereby excluding their policy from "grandfathered" protection.
The magistrate ruled on the side of Orange County and required us to suspend hosting immediately or pay a $300 fine for each future infraction.
I have until September 2 to file an appeal and am looking for other Orange County, Florida hosts who want to join my fight or provide me with helpful information that I can use in my appeal.
I am also requesting help from AirBnb in this effort. Does AirBnb have a legal group that can join this fight with me? This affects tens of thousands of properties in the #1 vacation destination in the US and something must be done to protect the rights of hosts in Florida.
Tric and Monee
