2026-09-10 · Florida · Compliance

What happened. Two Florida municipalities adopted rental rules within months of each other, and they treat condominium units in opposite ways. The contrast is the clearest available illustration of a point that catches owners constantly: local rental regulation and your association's leasing rules are two separate compliance tracks, and satisfying one does not satisfy the other.

Cape Coral: condominium units are covered

The City of Cape Coral overhauled its Residential Rental Registration Program by Ordinance 53-25 and Resolution 279-25, effective 1 January 2026. Registration and annual renewal are mandatory, with renewal keyed to each property's anniversary date rather than a uniform January deadline.¹

Covered properties are single-family homes, duplexes, multi-family dwellings, and condominiums leased to tenants.

Fees are $35 a year for long-term rentals (over six months) and $350 a year for short-term (six months or less). Penalties are $50 for failure to register and $50 for late renewal within 30 days, with escalating violation fines of $250 first and $500 repeat for long-term, and $500 first and $1,000 repeat for short-term, plus referral to Code Compliance.

The obligation lands on the individual unit owner who leases, entirely independently of what the declaration says.

Sarasota: condominiums and cooperatives are exempt

The City of Sarasota rewrote its vacation rental rules by Ordinance 25-5560, adopted 21 July 2025, amending Chapter 34.5 of the city code.²

Every vacation rental in the city must hold a Sarasota Vacation Rental Certificate, display the certificate number in all advertised listings, state accurate maximum occupancy in advertising, observe a minimum seven-day stay, and pass an inspection before issuance. Fees run to $500 for the initial application and $350 for annual renewal. Occupancy is capped at 10 people in Residential Single-Family and 12 in Residential Multi-Family. Suspensions escalate from 30 to 60 to 90 days and up to 360, with each day a separate violation.

But the city's own compliance page states that registration does not apply to “condominiums, cooperatives, or properties rented for 30 consecutive days or more.”

So in Sarasota, a condominium short-term rental is governed by the declaration, not by the city certificate.

1. City of Cape Coral, Residential Rental Registration Program — Ordinance 53-25 and Resolution 279-25, effective 1 January 2026 ↩
2. City of Sarasota, Vacation Rental Registration and Compliance — Ordinance 25-5560 ↩
3. CS/CS/SB 658 (2026), Water Safety Requirements for the Rental of Residential and Vacation Properties — died in House Messages ↩