Rent control rules in Fort Myers, FL — also known as rent stabilization or rent cap ordinances — limit annual rent increases and protect tenants from displacement.
Florida effectively bans local rent control. State law bars any city or county from imposing controls on rents, and the 2023 Live Local Act removed the old narrow exception that had allowed a one-year emergency referendum riddled with exemptions. There is no statewide rent cap, so landlords set increases freely by lease terms.
Under Fla. Stat. § 166.043 (municipalities) and § 125.0103 (counties), a local government may not adopt or maintain any law that would have the effect of imposing controls on rents. Previously these statutes allowed a city or county to enact rent control for up to one year, but only by referendum after declaring a housing emergency "so grave as to constitute a serious menace to the general public," while exempting most units (new construction, luxury, single-family and similar). That exception was practically unusable, and the 2023 Live Local Act (SB 102) amended the statutes to delete the emergency carve-out entirely, leaving a flat preemption with only a land-use affordable-housing allowance (such as inclusionary zoning). Florida sets no statewide cap on rent increases; landlords raise rent freely subject to lease and notice terms.
Any local rent-control ordinance is preempted and unenforceable. When Orange County voters approved a 2022 rent-control referendum, industry lawsuits blocked it, and the 2023 Live Local Act has since closed the option entirely. A court would strike any new local cap.
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