STRWATCH.AI / FL / St. Augustine

Is a short-term rental legal in St. Augustine, FL?

HEAVILY REGULATED

Whole-home short-term rentals are legal citywide but zoning district determines the minimum stay: in RS-1 and RS-2 (single-family residential) districts, a grandfathered 2010 rule (recodified by Ordinance 2019-51, effective January 27, 2020) allows rentals only for periods of one week or longer (Sec.

See permits and requirements

Sources checked5 open items listed below

The city's vacation-rental registration/inspection scheme (Ord. 2019-50, City Code §§28-145 to 28-154) applies to any 'vacation rental' as defined by Fla. Stat. §509.242 (rented >3 times/year for stays under 30 days, or held out to the public as such). Separately, zoning overlays a minimum-stay floor that varies by district: RS-1/RS-2 = 1 week minimum (nightly banned), HP-1 = 30-day/monthly minimum (nightly and weekly banned), all other zoning districts = nightly allowed. The RS-1/RS-2 and HP-1 minimum-stay rules survive Florida's 2011 state preemption of local duration/frequency regulation (Fla. Stat. §509.032(7)(b)) because they trace to Ordinance 2010-24, adopted August 23, 2010 - before the June 1, 2011 grandfather cutoff - and were recodified in Ordinance 2019-51 citing that grandfather status explicitly.

Permits and requirements

City of St. Augustine Vacation Rental Registration $303.03 base + $79.30 per bedroom / year
City of St. Augustine Planning & Building Department
Renewal: Annual; registration year runs Oct 1 - Sep 30, $100 late fee if renewed after Oct 1
Required for every vacation rental unit (registered separately per unit) under City Code §28-146 (Ord. 2019-50). Fee structure per city's published fee schedule (city cites Resolution 2025-41); could not independently retrieve the resolution PDF text (file served as a corrupted/non-PDF download), so the fee figures are sourced to the city's official program page and FAQ, which state the identical numbers.
official source
Annual Life-Safety Inspection $50 re-inspection fee if a re-check is needed; otherwise included in registration
City of St. Augustine Fire Department
Renewal: Annual, concurrent with registration
City Code §28-147 (Ord. 2019-50): reasonable access must be given at registration and annually thereafter for inspection of life-safety code, zoning code, and property maintenance code compliance (smoke/CO detectors, fire extinguishers, egress, NFPA 101 Ch. 7 emergency lighting).
official source
Florida DBPR Vacation Rental License $50 application fee + $10 Hospitality Education Program fee + license fee (~$170/year for a single rental unit; varies by county and unit count)
Florida Dept. of Business & Professional Regulation, Division of Hotels & Restaurants
Renewal: Annual; renewal window Feb 1 - Jun 1 depending on district
State law (Fla. Stat. §509.241/509.242) requires this license for any unit rented more than 3 times per calendar year for periods under 30 days, or advertised/held out as regularly rented to guests.
official source
Florida Dept. of Revenue Sales & Use Tax Registration Cost not verified
Florida Department of Revenue
Renewal: N/A - one-time registration, ongoing tax filing obligation
Needed to collect/remit the 6% state transient rental tax and county discretionary surtax unless a marketplace provider (e.g., Airbnb) collects and remits on the host's behalf under Florida's marketplace-provider law, effective July 1, 2021. Whether a specific platform actually does so for a given listing was not independently verified for every platform - see needs_review.
official source

The full picture

Whole-home short-term rentals are legal citywide but zoning district determines the minimum stay: in RS-1 and RS-2 (single-family residential) districts, a grandfathered 2010 rule (recodified by Ordinance 2019-51, effective January 27, 2020) allows rentals only for periods of one week or longer (Sec. 28-155(d): nightly rentals are deemed a motel use), so nightly rentals are prohibited there; in HP-1 (Historic Preservation) zoning, Ordinance 2019-51/2010-24 limits rentals to 30 days (monthly) or longer; all other zoning districts allow nightly rentals. Every vacation rental, regardless of district, must register annually with the City (fee $303.03 base + $79.30 per bedroom, effective per the City's current fee schedule, due each October 1 with a $100 late fee) and pass an annual Fire Department life-safety inspection under Ordinance 2019-50 (effective July 1, 2020). Maximum occupancy is 12 persons (2 per bedroom plus up to 2 minor children), on-site stabilized parking of 1 space per bedroom is required in districts with parking requirements, and hosts must also hold a Florida DBPR Vacation Rental license and collect/remit the 6% state transient rental tax, 0.5% St. Johns County discretionary surtax, and 5% St. Johns County Tourist Development ('bed') Tax. St. Johns County's separate short-term rental registration ordinance (2021-23) does not apply inside St. Augustine city limits, but the county TDT applies countywide.

Taxes on guests & hosts

TaxRateApplies toPlatform collectsOfficial source
Florida State Transient Rental (Sales) Tax 6% Rentals of living quarters for 6 months or less Yes source
St. Johns County Discretionary Sales Surtax 0.5% Same transactions as the state transient rental tax (in effect Jan 1, 2016 - Dec 31, 2035) Yes source
St. Johns County Tourist Development Tax ("bed tax") 5% Transient/short-term (6 months or less) living accommodations countywide, including within St. Augustine city limits Not verified source

Enforcement

PenaltiesViolations of City Code §§28-145 through 28-156 and §28-159 (vacation rental regulations) may be prosecuted under the City's Article VI Code Enforcement process (special magistrate hearings with per-day fines) or any other available remedy, including revocation of the vacation rental registration. Listings whose advertised details inaccurately reflect the registration form are treated as a separate violation. Exact per-day fine amounts under the general code enforcement schedule were not located in an official source during this task.
Platform liabilityNot independently verified against an official St. Augustine or St. Johns County source; no ordinance language found imposing direct platform liability or platform-registration-verification duties.
NotesThe city's Short-Term Rental Committee/Code Enforcement operates a complaint hotline (904-569-7077) and requires the registered property manager/owner to acknowledge preliminary compliance complaints within 30 minutes of notification (City Code §28-154); failure to respond is itself a violation.

What we could not verify (5)

  • The exact current per-day fine amount for vacation-rental code enforcement violations (referenced generally as 'Article VI: Code Enforcement') was not located in an official source and needs a direct pull of that code article.
  • Whether Airbnb, Vrbo, or other platforms have a direct collection agreement with the St. Johns County Tax Collector for the 5% Tourist Development Tax on St. Augustine listings was not confirmed via an official source; sjctax.us does not publish a platform-agreement list, so collectedByPlatform for that tax is left null.
  • The fee resolution the city cites for the $303.03 base + $79.30/bedroom registration fee (referred to as 'Resolution 2025-41' on the city's own program page) could not be independently opened as a readable PDF during this task (the DocumentCenter file that matched most closely downloaded as a Word/DOC file under a different resolution number, RES-2024-41, and did not parse as the fee schedule); the fee figures are corroborated by two separate official citystaug.com pages (program page and FAQ) but not by the underlying resolution text itself.
  • Ordinance 2019-50's signature block is dated '27th day of January, 2019' while its own preamble references a September 9, 2019 City Commission hearing and a January 7, 2020 Planning & Zoning Board recommendation, and its companion Ordinance 2019-51 (same case, same signature date format) is dated '27th day of January, 2020.' This is very likely a clerical/scan artifact (year field should read 2020) rather than a substantive discrepancy, since the ordinance's own Section 4 fixes an unambiguous effective date of July 1, 2020 pursuant to Fla. Stat. §166.041(4) - but the passage date itself is not certain to the day.
  • Whether St. Augustine vacation rental operators must additionally obtain a City of St. Augustine (or St. Johns County) Local Business Tax Receipt was not confirmed for city-limits properties; the county's own program page lists a Business Tax Receipt as a required document for its unincorporated-area registration only, and no equivalent requirement was located on the city's own program/FAQ pages, so it was omitted from requirements[] rather than guessed.

Sources

A markdown mirror of this page lives at /st-augustine-fl.md for AI tools and researchers.

STRWatch publishes educational information about short-term rental regulation, checked against the official sources linked above as of the date shown. It is not legal advice, and rules change — a city can move between the times we check it. For decisions with money at stake, confirm with the authority linked above or a local attorney.