Monroe County, FL Short-Term Rentals: Repeat Violator Strikes (2026)

Monroe County Land Development Code Section 134-1(j) governs the license every vacation rental manager in the unincorporated Keys must hold, and it builds in a two-strike revocation trigger. After notice to the manager and a public hearing, the Planning Commission must revoke the license, and the code enforcement special magistrate or a court of competent jurisdiction can add fines, upon a finding of either of two things within a single license year: a total of two or more no-responses to complaints registered by the public about tenants not following the tenants agreement, or two or more violations of the vacation rental section tied to the manager's own duties and responsibilities.

The license is also revoked outright if the manager is found in violation of the vacation rental prohibitions in subsections (k)(1) through (k)(3), which cover renting without a permit or in a district where vacation rentals are banned. Because the license is issued for only one section of the county at a time, Upper, Middle or Lower Keys, and no individual may hold more than one manager license simultaneously, a revocation removes that person from the vacation rental business in their assigned district entirely. Once revoked, the individual cannot even apply for a new vacation rental manager license until two years have passed from the date of revocation, a mandatory cooling-off period the code sets out directly rather than leaving it to Planning Commission discretion.