Can you short term rent your Delray Beach home?

Where the table says "no short term rental rule", that is our reading of the definitions, not a sentence in the code granting permission. The code also says a use it does not list is prohibited unless the City rules it similar to one it does (4.3.2(C)(3)), which is why a written confirmation is worth having.

1. Confirm the address is in the city

   Search it on the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser (opens in new tab) and note the municipality and the 17 digit parcel number (PCN). Parcels in the hatched pockets on the map are unincorporated county, where the city's rules do not apply.

2. Open the city's current zoning layer

   Use the City of Delray Beach zoning layer (opens in new tab), search the address, click the parcel and read the district code in the ABRV field, for example R-1-AA, RM or CBD.

3. Skip the older zoning map

   The City's "Interactive Zoning Map" app reads parcel data last edited in September 2022, so it misses anything rezoned since. The layer above has edits through September 2026.

4. Match the code to the table

   If it is SAD, find that district's own ordinance. If it is anything you are about to spend money on, ask the City's Development Services department to confirm the district in writing.

5. Read the condo or HOA documents

   An association can forbid short rentals in any district, RM included. More on that below.

Nightly and weekly renting is out, but the code leaves three doors open.

Fewer, longer stays

The rule counts turnovers, not nights. The city sets no minimum stay, so six or fewer turnovers in a year stays inside it, which works out at about two months a stay on average. Seasonal and monthly lets are the model that fits.

Your own use

The owners and their family are exempt, however much time they spend there (4.3.3(ZZZ)(1)(c)). Read plainly, that covers your own use of the house. It does not say that renting rooms while you live there is exempt, and the code separately prohibits guest houses (rooms let to travelers). Ask the City before relying on it for that.

A hardship waiver

An owner can apply to Development Services for a waiver on grounds of undue economic hardship (4.3.3(ZZZ)(2)). It takes two years of records: purchase price and date, assessments, taxes, mortgage payments, appraisals, any listing for sale or rent, income and cash flow. The City must decide in writing within 45 days of a complete file, and a denial can be appealed to the City Commission. Nobody publishes how often waivers are granted.

Once the district is clear, this is the paperwork. Most of it is the county's and the state's rather than the city's, and the tourist tax is a monthly job that never stops.

Florida vacation rental license

From the DBPR's Division of Hotels and Restaurants, for a whole unit rented more than three times a year for under 30 days, or advertised as regularly rented. For a single unit: $50 application, $10 hospitality education fee and $170 a year. Palm Beach County is in the DBPR's District 2, which renews on 1 December. Display the license at the property.

Palm Beach County tourist development tax

6 percent on stays of six months or less, charged on the rent including cleaning and pet fees. The host files it every month: due on the 1st, late after the 20th, and a return is required even for a month with no stays. The Tax Collector is plain that online platforms do not remit it. One account per property.

Short term rental business tax receipt

From the Palm Beach County Tax Collector, one per tourist tax account: $33 a year, or $16.50 if you start between 1 April and 30 September. Renew by 30 September. It needs no zoning approval, so holding one says nothing about whether the city allows the rental.

Both numbers on every listing

The county requires the tourist tax account number and the business tax receipt number to appear in every advertisement.

Florida sales tax

6 percent state sales tax plus Palm Beach County's surtax, collected from the guest and remitted to the Florida Department of Revenue. We are not quoting the county rate until it is confirmed with the DOR; see the open questions below.

Nothing from the city, as far as the code shows

We found no city short term rental registration, inspection or local contact requirement in the Land Development Regulations or the Code of Ordinances. Two older city items are still open, below.

Noise

Quiet hours are 10:01PM to 6:59AM across the city (later in the downtown Entertainment District). Sound plainly audible inside a closed home is a violation. Fines are $250 for a first offense and $500 for a second, and up to $1,000 a day, or $5,000 a day for a repeat, through code enforcement. An absentee owner gets no violation notice unless two warnings were mailed in the previous 12 months or it is a repeat, and a property only counts as compliant again after 30 noise-free days.

Who counts as a family

The city's definition of family allows no more than three people who are not related, and excludes groups whose association is "seasonal or similar in nature to a resort, motel, hotel". It dates from 2009. Whether the City applies it to short term rental guests is not yet confirmed, so a booking for a large unrelated group is the one a complaint would test.

Cars and bins

Leased units are limited to four vehicles for residential parking stickers. Bins go out no earlier than 5:00PM the day before collection and come in by 7:00PM on the day.

ADUs, guest cottages and rooms

An accessory dwelling unit can never be used for short term rental, in any district (Ordinance 12-26, April 2026). A guest cottage is for family, non-paying guests or staff, and accessory structures may not be rented separately. A home with rooms let to travelers is a "guest house", which the code prohibits.

State requirements at the property

A working lock on every bedroom door that opens to the outside, a hallway or another room. Railings on balconies and stairs in buildings of three or more stories. Carbon monoxide detection where there is a fuel-fired boiler. Linens changed and dishes sanitized between guests.

Penalties

A breach of the city code can bring a fine of up to $500 and up to 60 days per offense, with each day a separate offense. A code board can fine up to $1,000 a day for a first violation and $5,000 a day for a repeat. Running without the state license is a second-degree misdemeanor.

These are the questions we have not yet seen answered in writing, by the City or, for the sales tax rate, by the Department of Revenue. We would rather list them than guess, and the page will change when they are settled.

• The city landlord permit. Chapter 117 of the city code still requires a permit to rent any residential unit: $75 per unit a year, from 1 November, tripled if late. Whether the City applies it to vacation rentals is not confirmed.
• A city business tax receipt. Whether the City expects one for a vacation rental.
• RM-6 to RM-10. Whether these mapped codes are treated exactly as RM.
• RL and RR in writing. The code no longer names them in the rule. We would still want that confirmed for a specific parcel.
• The family definition. Whether the three-unrelated limit is applied to short term rental guests.
• The county sales tax rate. The Tax Collector's page says 6.5 percent in total; the Department of Revenue's posted form lists a 1 percent county surtax running to 31 December 2026. Whether Airbnb and Vrbo collect Florida sales tax for Palm Beach County stays is also unconfirmed.
• How the rule is enforced. How actively the City enforces the R-1 and PRD limit, and how often hardship waivers are granted.