Tampa, FL Rental Inspections: Tenant Complaint Process (2026)

' Ord. No. 2016-97 (§ 8, adopted June 23, 2016) created § 19-109, and Ord. No. 2023-64 (§§ 3-9, adopted May 4, 2023) later repealed the surrounding registration machinery, §§ 19-105–19-108 (purpose, definitions, applicability, registration) and §§ 19-110–19-112 (certificate, fees, enforcement), leaving § 19-109 itself as the only operative section in the division. Under it, code enforcement officers do not need a landlord to have registered a unit before inspecting: an inspection can start from (a) an officer's own observation of a Code violation, (b) information reaching the department about a serious threat to tenant or community health, safety, or welfare, or (c) a complaint lodged by the tenant or by a neighboring property owner.

Those three triggers dovetail with the director's broader powers under § 19-5: if an inspection under § 19-109 turns up conditions that lack the maintenance or sanitary facilities set forth in section 19-231, the director can issue an order declaring the unit unfit for human habitation under § 19-5(a)(3), order repairs under § 19-5(a)(1), or order the property vacated under § 19-5(a)(4). Because § 19-1 gives the Department of Code Enforcement jurisdiction over all ordinances of the city touching property maintenance, the same complaint-triggered inspection can also surface violations of the nuisance provisions in §§ 19-46–19-59 found on the same visit.