Charlotte County, FL Noise from Specific Sources: Car Alarm Limits (2026)

Sec. 2-5-131 of the Charlotte County Code opens by prohibiting 'the making, creation or maintenance of excessive, unnecessary or unusually loud noises' anywhere in the unincorporated county, which is nearly the entire county outside Punta Gorda's city limits. Subsection (1) singles out 'the sounding of any horn or signaling device for any unnecessary or unreasonable period of time, and the unreasonable use of any horn or other signaling device' as one of the acts the article treats as excessive noise, and the list of examples in the section 'shall not be deemed to be exclusive,' so a factory car alarm, an aftermarket alarm, or a panic-button chirp all qualify.

Enforcement runs through Sec. 2-5-133: a deputy who has probable cause to believe the ordinance has been violated must first issue a warning describing the violation and the possible penalty, then allow a reasonable compliance period before acting further. The ordinance carves horn and signaling-device noise out of the two-calendar-day grace period given to other vehicular noise, so a car alarm complaint can move to enforcement faster than a loud-exhaust complaint. One warning per twenty-four-hour period covers all succeeding noises of the same type, so a homeowner does not get a fresh warning every time the same faulty alarm goes off overnight.