Margate, FL Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Permits (2026)

Margate has no separate short-term rental permit chapter in the code read here. Vacation rentals are regulated inside the residential rental unit inspection program, article V of chapter 9, and section 9-43(a)(13) lists what the owner or designated property manager must do on top of the ordinary rental application. Section 9-37(r) defines a vacation rental as a unit in a condominium or cooperative, or a single-family through four-family house or dwelling unit, 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 advertised as a place regularly rented to transient occupants. Timeshare projects are excluded.

The filing requirements come first. The owner files with the city rental coordinator proof of registration with the Florida Department of Revenue for sales tax collection and with Broward County for Tourist Development Tax, and proof of licensure with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation as a transient public lodging establishment. The owner must keep a register of all overnight guests, open to inspection by authorized City of Margate personnel at all times and listing all rentals for the preceding ninety-day period. The owner must conduct an on-site inspection at the end of each rental period and before the next one begins.

The owner or manager must be available with authority to address and coordinate solutions to problems twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Available means arriving on site, or reaching the person by video phone call or phone, within two hours of the initial contact or contact attempt. Guests must receive a copy of the city's vacation rental guidelines pamphlet.

The usual program rules also apply: a rental inspection application per unit, an amended application within ten days of any change, annual renewal, a certificate of inspection given to guests or posted in the unit, and inspection at least once every twelve months. Section 9-43(a)(5) requires a local property manager or agent when the owner lives more than thirty miles away.