Port St. Lucie, FL Short-Term Rentals: Insurance Requirements (2026)

Port St. Lucie has not enacted a city-specific short-term rental ordinance, so there is no local registration program conditioning operation on proof of liability insurance. Florida Statute 509.032(7)(b) preempts municipalities from prohibiting vacation rentals or regulating their duration or frequency, and from imposing STR-only licensing or insurance requirements that do not apply to other dwellings of the same type. STR operators with stays of six months or less still need a Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) Division of Hotels and Restaurants vacation rental license under F.S. 509.241; the DBPR application requires fees and inspection compliance but does not condition issuance on a stated minimum liability-insurance amount. Florida Statute 509.144 governs vacation rental network companies (online platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo) and requires the platform itself to maintain insurance covering the lessor and listed property, typically at $1 million per occurrence, so guests booking through covered platforms are protected by the platform's program. Direct bookings outside a platform have no equivalent statutory floor. St. Lucie County imposes a 5% Tourist Development Tax on rentals of six months or less plus 6% Florida state sales tax and a 0.5% county discretionary sales surtax, but these are tax obligations and not insurance requirements. Most standard Florida homeowner policies exclude or limit transient rental use; commercial or short-term rental endorsements (often called dwelling-fire DP-3 with a business-use rider, or a dedicated STR policy) are the practical way to cover guest liability and contents. HOA and deed-restricted communities inside Port St. Lucie may impose their own insurance and rental rules, which Florida's preemption statute does not override.