New Panama City Beach STR Requirements

 

The attachment below is the first reading for new PCB Ordinance 1632 adding regulations for short term rentals within the City of Panama City Beach.  This is similar to the requirements for Bay County that recently rolled out.  Please read the proposed ordinance FIRST, and then my comments below will make more sense in context.

Ord_1632 Short_Term_Rentals

 

Overall Purpose and Impact:

Overall I believe this will be a positive impact to Panama City Beach.  Offline there has been discussion of many owners in PCB that self-manage their rentals and do not pay the required taxes, nor follow regulations.  This is the first step in bringing all owners and PMs to the same page, and collecting the revenues for the city that they need to continue to market our city and host our events.  I don’t believe any of the requirements are unexpected, unreasonable, or an attempt to be unfair, but rather to provide the safest environment for our guests.

Certification Process:

Currently ,all of our properties are individually licensed through Premium Beach Condos with the DBPR, State of Florida (sales tax), Bay County or South Walton County (Bed tax), and City of PCB (Business License Fee).  We suspect that the new certification will be at the City of PCB website where we already register each property.  They may add a new fee at the property level, but that amount has not yet been stated.  As we receive more information, we will update all of our owners here.

As part of our full service offering, Premium Beach Condos will coordinate the application for this Certification for each property.

 

Specific Duties:

This is where the “devil is in the details”.  This table will help to outline our Premium Beach Condos plan for what is needed and how it will be provided:

Concerns and Action Items:

The biggest area of concern will be for the “responsible party” that must be able to appear within one hour at the site.  Because many owners and PMs do not live in the area, this is a challenge.  At the Calypso Resort, the board has suggested that the COA will provide this service to their owners with the CAM and Property Patrol phone numbers covered 24/7.  But at all other resorts, unless the COA steps up to offer this to owners, this coverage will be an issue.

 

 

Summary:

Because this is a “first reading” there may be some changes made before it receives a final approval.  After the second reading, it can be approved and will go into effect on a date specified – at least 10 days post approval.  As more information becomes available, we will keep you informed.