Pinellas asked vacation rentals to play by rules. The lawsuit is brewing.

Pinellas County officials hope to eventually crack down on holiday rentals featuring unmanned trash and loud parties that attracted light corn from their neighbors.

But one lawyer has already threatened to sue the county for crackdown. Vacation rental lawyer Keith Brady said more than 50 rental owners and managers were approaching him.

Pinellas requires vacation rental owners living in unincorporated areas to register for a license to use and safety tests that cost $600 for the first year.

It’s not the registration component that Brady and rental owners object to, but the book’s 10-person occupancy limit since 2018, and could now see more stringent enforcement. Brady said the owner of the seven-bedroom home expects to rent to 16 at a time for monthly mortgage payments.

Possible lawsuits against Pinellas highlight blowback communities across the state when it comes to holding owners accountable by renting homes on platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO. Rental owners routinely respond to local enforcement with legal threats.

Perhaps no community will better encapsulate tensions between residents and rental owners than Indian Rocks Beach, the roughly 3,600 towns that are fighting nine lawsuits over rules enacted two years ago.

Litigation and resignation

When Indian Rocks Beach passed ordinances like Pinellas County in 2023, Matthew Barrowclaw decided to sue. The city faces seven lawsuits from rental owners, but only one is moving forward.

Barrowclough owns four rental units in the city. He says he will pay thousands of taxes, but he will not pay any more for the registration program, costs $450 in the first year and must be submitted to city inspections. He also opposes the city’s 10-person limit.

Barrow Klawn says Indian Rocks Beach is not permitted to inspect his home. He argues that the authority is reserved for Florida management and professional regulations. He also says the new ordinance treats his rentals illegally as business, violating previous court rulings in the state.

Barrowclough’s lawsuit has stagnated, and Hurricane Helen shifted his focus to months of repairs to flooded property.

Earlier this year, Homes, not the hotel, a group opposed to illegal short-term rentals, filed two lawsuits against the city. In one, residents requested Indian Rocks Beach to enforce the law.

A month ago, Barrowclough mailed a $5,000 fine in the mail for failing to sign up for the city’s vacation rental program.

“There was no urgency to do this,” he said. “All the reconstruction issues, and this is what they’re focusing on.”

Last Thursday, Indian Rocks Beach mayor Dennis Houseberg was sitting in the Holiday Inn meeting room after Barrowclof claimed he had no right to enforce rental rules against him in front of a special magistrate.

Although Barrowclough did not reduce his fine, he vowed to continue flouting the registration program. He is scheduled to appeal the decision of the Special Magistrate.

Houseberg was worried about the prospect of a legal appeal.

“What we need,” she said. “Other lawsuits.”

City Hall has been under construction since Hurricane Helen overwhelmed it eight months ago. Dozens of people have to rebuild their homes.

Still, driving from the mayor of Office Indian Rocks Beach and city lawyer was a surprise at the vacation rental, Houseburg said.

“Everyone is just sick and tired,” Houseberg said. “In this political field, you try to tell people the truth. They’re like, ‘No, that’s not true.’ ”

Will Pinellas see similar issues?

Laura Lindsay owns vacation rentals in the unfacilized Pinellas County and Indian Rocks Beach.

So far, Pinellas has done everything Lindsay wants Indian Rock to do. The county provides zoom training and educates owners on dedicated web pages. Those who do not register by the deadline will receive a warning for almost three weeks before the fine begins.

“I was watching Pinellas County and this tutorial…and that’s everything people were asking about on Indian rocks,” Lindsay said. “There’s no need to dig deeper” to find information about the new rules.

But not everyone is satisfied. Brady says county officials have not returned emails or calls. He said he didn’t want to resort to lawsuits, but he should not try to challenge the 10-person limit.

He plans to argue that Florida Fire Service Act does not allow the area to regulate vacation rental occupancy beyond the 150 square feet per person standard. That benchmark allowed the 4,000-square-foot home to fit 26 people.

Brady wants to produce the county to accept the loose standards of two per bedroom.

“You have to give us something reasonable,” Brady said. “There’s no need to sue, just take your foot off the gas.”

Kevin McAndrew, director of the Building Development Review Services at Pinellas, said the new ordinance “conforms to the required state laws.” He said state law allows the area to inspect the safety of the fire and limit residents they believe are appropriate.

Why are we watching the waves of enforcement?

Neighbor complaints about vacation rentals have been rising for years, McAndrew said. However, Pinellas struggles to track who is renting for a short stay.

Past rules “are completely ineffective because there is no registration requirement,” McAndrew said. “It was literally not counted or accountable for the number of short-term rentals operated in unincorporated Pinera.”

Now, Pinellas is hiring more code enforcement staff and investing in technology that tracks rental lists across platforms. Those who repeatedly violate rules regarding registration, fire safety, noise and garbage can face a fine of up to $1,000 per day.

Unbuilt Pinellas and Indian Rocks Beach face particularly frustrating limitations.

In 2014, Congress told the community it could not cut back on where vacation rentals are run. Cities such as St. Petersburg and Madeira Beach, where rentals were limited every night in certain parts of town before 2011, were able to maintain those restrictions.

No one else could. Since the law was passed, Airbnb’s annual revenue has skyrocketed from around $400 million in 2014 to $11.1 billion last year.

Local officials estimate that the unincorporated Pinera has around 2,000 short-term rental owners. According to tracking website Airdna, Indian Rocks Beach has around 3,300 listings for short-term rentals, but that count includes duplicate ads.

As the nightly rental platform exploded, residents’ complaints piled up. Houseberg said she hopes to return to home rules, but she has little faith in restoring the rights of Congress to ban vacation rentals in residential areas.

Instead, Indian Rocks Beach and the unincorporated Pinellas look to an aggressive enrollment program. Local officials hope to be able to force owners to become good neighbors through inspections and civil penalties.

Does that solution satisfy everyone? Probably not, Houseberg said.

“It doesn’t matter if (short-term rentals) are fully behaviour,” Houseberg said. “I hate them anyway. It’s getting so bad here that people are screaming at them on the streets, “Who are you, why are you here?”

But Houseberg said she was trying to become mayor for everyone. She hopes to have the rental owner and neighbors on the table and hash better compromises.

Brady said the registration program makes sense for cities chasing bad actors. He has little sympathy for those who are fully following the program.

“There are vacation rentals that are not registered, not registered, not inspected, and… they don’t pay taxes,” Brady said. “And vacation rental owners need to understand (local governments) need to regulate it.”