Fort Lauderdale, FL Rental Inspections: Tenant Complaint Process (2026)

Sec. 9-257 authorizes the enforcing agency, defined in Sec. 9-236 as the City of Fort Lauderdale itself, to inspect dwellings, dwelling units, hotels, rooming houses and the premises occupied by or adjacent to such structures, including vacant lots and nearby business establishments, to determine their condition under the Minimum Housing Code. Inspecting officers, who are city employees synonymous with 'enforcing officers' under Sec. 9-236, may enter and survey these structures at reasonable hours, and every owner, operator, lessee or occupant, which reaches a renting tenant, is required to give the inspector free access and to supply requested information as correctly and promptly as possible.

Inspecting officers must carry official identification and show it whenever they make an inspection. When an inspection turns up a violation, Sec. 9-258 requires the city to serve notice on the person responsible for correcting it, and creates an unsafe structures board, made up of an engineer, architect, general contractor, electrical contractor, attorney, plumbing contractor, real estate appraiser, property manager and a citizen member, to hear appeals. Anyone affected by a violation notice can request a hearing before that board within thirty days of filing a petition, present evidence, and have the board sustain, modify or withdraw the notice.

In a genuine emergency, such as a disease outbreak or unsanitary condition threatening public health, the head of the enforcing agency, the city manager or a designee, can approve an immediate order requiring compliance within twenty-four hours without prior notice or hearing, subject to a later hearing on request.