Can a Miami HOA or Condo Association Restrict Long-Term Rentals?

Section 718.110(13) of the Florida Condominium Act is specific: an amendment that prohibits unit owners from renting their units, changes the duration of the rental term, or otherwise restricts rental rights applies only to owners who consent to the amendment and owners who acquire title after the amendment's effective date. An owner who bought before the amendment and didn't vote for it generally isn't bound by the new restriction, and keeps renting under whatever rules applied when they bought.

This is a meaningfully stronger protection than states where a rental restriction can apply retroactively to every owner regardless of when they bought. It also means a building can end up with two sets of rules running simultaneously, a legacy group of owners still operating under the old terms and everyone else bound by the new restriction, which takes real recordkeeping on the association's part to track correctly.

Chapter 720, Florida's Homeowners' Association Act, governs non-condominium HOA communities, and it doesn't include a provision equivalent to Section 718.110(13). That means a non-condo HOA can generally apply a newly adopted rental restriction to existing owners without the same consent-based grandfathering that protects condo owners under Chapter 718.

Neither Chapter 718 nor Chapter 720 sets a uniform statewide vote threshold for adopting a rental restriction or a specific numeric cap; both defer to what the individual declaration or bylaws require. In practice, that means the actual bar for adding, removing, or modifying a restriction, and the cap itself if one exists, varies significantly building to building, and has to be confirmed against that specific association's recorded documents rather than assumed from general guidance.

Miami, unincorporated Miami-Dade County, and Miami Beach each regulate short-term rentals differently. Miami-Dade County generally defines a transient rental as a stay of six months or less; Miami Beach defines it as a stay of less than six months and one day. Properties rented more than three times a year for stays under 30 days generally require a Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation license, and a Miami-Dade County certificate of use is required before a unit can even be advertised on a booking platform, on top of city-level business tax registration and, in Miami Beach, a resort tax certificate. Zoning matters too: short-term rentals are generally allowed in Miami's T4, T5, T6, and CI-HD zoning districts but not in the low-density T3 district, and Miami Beach prohibits them in single-family districts and across much of its multifamily housing stock.

None of that government permission matters if the building's own governing documents say otherwise. Florida's state preemption of local vacation rental ordinances specifically doesn't reach condo and HOA governing documents, so an association can ban or restrict short-term rentals regardless of what the city, county, or state otherwise allows. Miami Beach goes a step further procedurally: it requires a letter from the association confirming that transient rental activity is permitted, dated within 60 days, before the city will issue a short-term rental license, making city approval directly contingent on the association's own sign-off.

Get the current declaration and any amendments directly from the association's management company, along with the vote and consent record if a leasing restriction was added after you purchased, since that record is what determines whether you're grandfathered. Confirm whether the property is governed by Chapter 718 or Chapter 720. If short-term rental is part of the plan, confirm zoning, pull the county certificate of use requirement, and request the association's written confirmation early, particularly in Miami Beach, where it's a hard prerequisite to licensure.

Substantive review means an editor or reviewer checked this article against the current statute text and the cited third-party guidance. Miami, Miami-Dade County, and Miami Beach short-term rental rules change relatively often; verify current zoning, licensing, and association requirements before relying on this for a specific leasing decision. This is general information, not legal advice. Corrections: compliance@platuni.com