Short Term Rental Homes Violations in Fort Myers, FL.
Fort Myers, Florida recently had code of conduct problems with short term rental homes. Code compliance is not being followed according to Vice Mayor Tracey Gore. Vacation renters are causing major disturbance on Primo Drive, which is Gore's street residence. It is a law that short term rental homes are allowed in specific areas on the beaches in Fort Myers for monthly and weekly rentals. The rental vacation homes is required by law to have the code of conduct document clearly displayed in the house. It is mandatory for the owners to have the renters sign a copy of the code by law. Gore and other residents in Fort Myers have seen loud parties that were held after 10:00 pm, which is against the law. Also, there has been people illegally walking on private property in Fort Myers as well.
David Ennis, who is a resident on Primo Drive spoke at a town meeting on April 3, 2017 bringing up an excellent point that there are too many people renting out single family homes. Ennis fears that his neighborhood is being lost due to the increase in price for properties on Fort Myers Beach. Kara Stewart, who is the Compliance Director for Fort Myers says that there are numerous complaints about illegal short term rental cases. Stewart usually looks on rental sites to see if the short term rental home are being promoted in an illegal fashion. The law allows one family each month to rent a short term rental home.
A major problem is that the communication between the townspeople, the sheriff, and the police is poor. The Sheriff's Office is contacted to handle the noisy visitors or fights that break out at the loud and boisterous rental homes. The town is not informed of this activity.
Mayor Gore wants to create a section for rental home complaints on their website so that citizens can write their complaints. Gore wants a complaint button to be placed in the front of the town's website homepage. It will be a written file on who is violating town standards. The townspeople on the council must hone in on short term rental home issues. The Code Enforcement team has not spend a great deal of time on this issue. But, the Fort Myers council members hired a new code enforcement officer last fall. $43,000 dollars was set aside in the town's budget for another employee to impose the law of short term rental homes.