Rental restrictions are the single most aggressive enforcement area in most Florida HOAs, and also the area where boards most frequently overreach. F.S. 720.3075 reserves specific rental-related decisions to state law, pre-empting HOA rules that go farther. A board that fines a short-term rental, a roommate, or a longer-lease situation without checking whether the declaration authorized the rule and whether that authorization survives state pre-emption is setting up a fee-shift loss.
What the statute says
F.S. 720.3075 is brief but pointed on the subject of governing-document authority:
An association or its board of directors may not refuse to approve the rental of a parcel based on the age, national origin, race, religion, or sexual orientation of the proposed renter.
And on amendment-timing protections for existing owners:
An amendment prohibiting owners from renting their parcels, or altering the duration of the rental term, or specifying or limiting the number of times owners are entitled to rent their parcels during a specified period applies only to parcel owners who consent to the amendment and parcel owners who acquire title to their parcels after the effective date of that amendment.
That second paragraph is the one most boards do not internalize. An amendment adopted in 2022 that restricts rentals does NOT apply to owners who took title before 2022 unless they voted yes on the amendment. The rental rule runs on a three-tier owner population.
"Can the board just ban rentals?"
Only by amendment, and only against owners who consent or take title after. Three tests a CAM team should run before any rental-ban enforcement:
- Is the ban in the ORIGINAL declaration or in an amendment? If original, it applies to every owner; if amended, subsection (2) of F.S. 720.3075 protects pre-amendment owners.
- If amended, did the parcel under enforcement take title AFTER the amendment's recording date? If pre-amendment + no consent vote, the ban does not apply.
- Did the owner provide written consent to the amendment? Board minutes + the vote record need to show this for the board to enforce against the specific owner.
A rental ban that fails any of the three tests is unenforceable against that owner. The board pays attorneys' fees on a failed enforcement under F.S. 720.305(1).
"What about short-term rentals specifically?"
F.S. 509.032(7)(b) pre-empts local regulation of vacation rentals (rentals of less than 30 days). Cities and counties cannot ban short-term rentals outright (though they can regulate noise, parking, occupancy). HOAs are NOT cities or counties; the pre-emption does not apply to private-contract restrictions in governing documents. But the F.S. 720.3075(2) amendment-timing protection does.
Three patterns boards should know:
- Declaration-silent communities. If the declaration says nothing about short-term rentals, the board cannot retroactively prohibit them without an amendment that runs into subsection (2) protections.
- Minimum-lease-term declarations. A declaration specifying a minimum lease term of 90 days is a direct restriction on short- term rentals. That is enforceable against everyone who took title after recording, but NOT against pre-recording owners.
- Occupancy-limit workarounds. Some boards try to ban short- term rentals indirectly (e.g., occupancy limits, guest-visit frequency caps). These work if the declaration authorizes them and they survive selective-enforcement scrutiny.
"Roommates and guests?"
F.S. 720.3075 does not give a clean answer. Courts have been inconsistent. The operating rule: if the declaration or rules clearly distinguish "tenants" from "occupants without a lease," the board can enforce lease restrictions against formal tenants but usually not against roommates. Fining a long-term roommate under a rental cap almost always fails on a strict-construction reading.
Three practical CAM filters before any roommate-related enforcement:
- Is there a written lease between the owner and the alleged tenant? If no lease, the occupant is legally a guest, not a tenant.
- Does the occupant pay the owner? Rent-paying distinguishes some tenancies but not all (parent-adult-child arrangements pay rent without being tenancies for restrictive-covenant purposes).
- Does the declaration authorize the specific enforcement action? A roommate-ban fine without explicit authority loses.
Where this leaves your board
HOAStream surfaces F.S. 720.3075 alongside the declaration's rental-related clauses in under 500 milliseconds, so the CAM team has the pre-emption + amendment-timing analysis ready before any rental enforcement leaves the board packet. Nothing in this post or in the product is legal advice. For a specific rental enforcement where fee-shift exposure is live, a retained Florida HOA attorney is the right call.
If you want the full rental-restriction statute stack alongside your community's declaration, sign up at /cam or /board.