Margate, FL Short-Term Rentals: Host Presence Rule (2026)

Margate does not require an owner to live at the property while guests stay. It requires reachability. Under § 9-43(a)(13)d, the owner of a vacation rental, or the property manager or agent designated on the registration, must be available with authority to address and coordinate solutions to problems with the rental twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The code defines "available" as arriving on site, being available by video phone call, or answering by phone within two hours of the initial contact or contact attempt.

A property is a vacation rental under § 9-37(r) when a condominium or cooperative unit, or a single-family through four-family house, is rented to transient occupants more than three times in a calendar year for periods of less than thirty days or one calendar month, whichever is less, or is advertised as a place regularly rented to transient occupants. Timeshare projects are outside the definition.

The contact person is fixed at registration. Under § 9-43(a)(5), an owner who lives more than thirty miles from the rental must designate a property manager or agent with authority to make emergency decisions about the building, repairs and spending, and the application must list a physical address where that person can be found during business hours and off hours.

The same subsection adds duties for that person: file proof of Florida Department of Revenue sales tax registration and Broward County Tourist Development Tax registration, file proof of Florida DBPR licensure as a transient public lodging establishment, keep a guest register covering the preceding ninety days that is open to city inspection at all times, inspect the unit after each rental period and before the next, and hand guests the city's vacation rental guidelines pamphlet.

Registration is renewed every year, and any change to the application, such as a new manager phone number, must be filed within ten days under § 9-43(b). The building department inspects rental units at least once in each twelve-month period or on a substantiated complaint.