Miami Gardens Short Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Miami Gardens, Florida and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is, you can. Miami Gardens doesn't ban short-term rentals, and neither does Miami-Dade County or the state of Florida sitting above both of them. What's changed, and changed fairly recently, is that the city actually wants to know your listing exists now.

That's the real update for 2026. For years, Miami Gardens' vacation rental rules amounted to little more than a line buried in a landlord permit form, and plenty of guides, including earlier versions of this one, described the city as having no dedicated short-term rental ordinance at all. It has one now. Every vacation rental in the city has to register annually under Sec. 6-171 through 6-177 of the Code of Ordinances, through a third-party portal the city hired to run it, and that registration sits on top of a state license and a Miami-Dade County tax bill that together add up to 13% on every stay.

So let's walk through what Miami Gardens actually requires in 2026: the city registration, the paperwork behind it, the tax stack layered on top from the county and the state, how hard any of it gets enforced, and exactly who to call when something doesn't add up. Every figure below comes from Miami Gardens', Miami-Dade County's or Florida's own pages and forms, checked in July 2026, and where I couldn't confirm something from an official source, I've said so plainly. If you're still deciding whether the numbers pencil out at all, run the property through BNBCalc first.

What are short term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) regulations in Miami Gardens, Florida?

Before any of those numbers mean anything, you need to know which government actually writes the rule you're reading, because three of them do here, and confusing them is the easiest way to think you're covered when you're not.

The state layer sits on top of everything and applies no matter which Florida address you own. Fla. Stat. 509.032(7)(a) preempts the regulation of public lodging establishments, including sanitation, inspections and staff training, to the state, and a vacation rental is a public lodging establishment. Subsection (7)(b) goes further and protects the activity itself, stating plainly that "a local law, ordinance, or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals." The one exception is a local rule adopted on or before June 1, 2011, which gets grandfathered past all of that. I found no evidence Miami Gardens has one. The city's own registration system runs through a modern third-party vendor portal, and the city's guide describing it wasn't updated until January 2025. So treat Miami Gardens as operating inside the post-2011 limits: it can register you, fee you and inspect you, but it can't ban the activity or make a booking run longer than 29 nights.

The county layer is smaller than it looks from the outside, and this is exactly where people get tripped up. Miami-Dade County does run its own vacation rental ordinance, Sec. 33-28 of the county code, complete with a Certificate of Use and its own occupancy caps, two guests per bedroom plus two more, up to a maximum of twelve. None of that reaches you, though, because the county says so directly: that ordinance applies only to the unincorporated area, and for a property inside a municipality, "the owner or responsible party must contact the respective municipal government for its regulations." Miami Gardens is a municipality. The county's tax reach is different, mind you, and it does apply to you regardless of city lines, which is its own section below.

The city layer is the one that actually governs your listing day to day. Every vacation rental in Miami Gardens has to register under Sec. 6-171 through 6-177, a requirement the city runs through a third-party vendor, Avenu Insights & Analytics, at its Short Term Rental Registration Portal. That registration doesn't replace anything above it. It stacks on top.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Miami Gardens

That stacking is exactly why starting here takes longer than reading a single ordinance. Opening a Miami Gardens vacation rental legally means dealing with four institutions plus one private party, and treating any of them as optional is how hosts end up unregistered without meaning to be.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation issues the state vacation rental license, and its test for whether you need one is refreshingly plain: you need it if you rent the entire unit more than three times a year for stays under 30 days, or if you advertise the property as regularly available to guests. Make sure you read that second half, since a slow first year of bookings won't save you if the listing itself says otherwise. The property has to qualify too. Fla. Stat. 509.242(1)(c) defines a vacation rental as a condo or co-op unit, or a single-family through four-family house, so anything bigger gets licensed as something else entirely.

Miami-Dade County wants its tourist and convention tax registration next, and it wants it regardless of which of the county's municipalities you're in. That piece is countywide even though the county's zoning-side vacation rental ordinance isn't, since a tax obligation and a Certificate of Use are two entirely different kinds of authority.

Then comes the city, and this is the part that's genuinely new for 2026. The Sec. 6-171 registration through Miami Gardens' Short Term Rental Registration Portal is required of every vacation rental in the city, full stop, and it sits alongside the ordinary business tax receipt and certificate of use the city requires of any business operating inside its limits. A separate, older Landlord Permit program also exists for anyone renting residential property in Miami Gardens, renewed every March 31 with a background check on occupants 15 and older. Be aware that whether the city expects a nightly Airbnb host to run that same background-check process on every guest isn't something I could confirm from an official source, so call the Code Enforcement & Licensing Department and get a straight answer for your specific property before you assume either way.

I found no zoning district in Miami Gardens where vacation rentals are singled out and banned outright, which tracks with the state preemption above. That's not the same as no rules at all, though. Your HOA or condo documents are the wildcard no state law touches, and plenty of Miami Gardens single-family subdivisions carry deed restrictions that a city registration can't override.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Miami Gardens

Assuming your HOA doesn't kill the plan on its own, the licensing stack itself still has a shape worth learning in order, because the pieces build on each other.

Start at the state, since Miami Gardens sits in the DBPR's District 1 alongside the rest of Miami-Dade and Monroe County. A single-unit vacation rental license costs a $50 one-time application fee, a $10 Hospitality Education Program fee, and a $170 annual license fee (or $90 at the half-year rate), scaling up from there for anyone licensing more than one unit. District 1 renews every October 1, with the half-year rate becoming available April 1, and that date runs on the district's own calendar rather than your application anniversary. Buy or license a property close to that date and you can end up paying twice within weeks, so check the calendar before you file rather than after.

Then comes the city's own registration, which is where the 2025 update actually lives. Under Sec. 6-171 through 6-177, a Responsible Party has to file an application with the City's Business Licensing Division, on forms the department provides, disclosing the information the ordinance requires. The city has handed administration of this to Avenu Insights & Analytics, and applications now run through Avenu's Short Term Rental Registration Portal rather than a paper form at City Hall. An annual registration fee applies, and the city's own guide is explicit that late payment draws additional fees, though I couldn't find an official page that prints the dollar figure itself. Call Business Licensing at 305-622-8000, ext. 2620 or 2625, before you assume any number you've seen elsewhere is still current.

A handful of standing rules attach once you're registered. Registration is non-transferable and tied to one specific property, so a sale means the new owner has 90 calendar days from the transfer to apply for their own. A material change, anything that increases the intensity of use or alters what you told the city originally, needs an update within that same 90-day window. And registration never runs longer than 12 months regardless of when you apply, since every Miami Gardens vacation rental registration expires on September 30 and has to be renewed by that date each year, the same date the city's business tax receipts and certificates of use expire on. One deadline, several documents.

None of this replaces the state license, and the city says so directly: registering with Miami Gardens "does not exempt the vacation rental from obtaining a valid Public Lodging Establishment license" from the DBPR. Keep both current, because either one lapsing puts you back in unregistered territory.

Required Documents for Miami Gardens Short Term Rentals

Since a lapse on either side puts you back to square one, it's worth gathering the paperwork properly the first time rather than discovering a gap mid-season. Two packets exist here: one identical for every Florida host, and one specific to Miami Gardens and Miami-Dade.

The state and county packet:

• Your DBPR vacation rental application, filed through a DBPR Online Services account, naming the specific unit and choosing Dwelling or Condominium.
• Your Florida sales tax registration, Form DR-1 through the Department of Revenue, which returns a Certificate of Registration you'll need to show elsewhere.
• Miami-Dade County's tourist and convention tax registration with the Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, since that tax reaches you regardless of the county's unincorporated-only zoning rules.

The city packet:

• A completed vacation rental registration application through Avenu's Short Term Rental Registration Portal, naming your Responsible Party and the specific address.
• A zoning approval letter from Planning & Zoning, which the city requires before it will process a business tax receipt or certificate of use application, so email [email protected] early rather than after you've already advertised the listing.
• Your business tax receipt and certificate of use application, with fees based on business type and square footage.
• If the older Landlord Permit program also applies to your property, the names and birthdates of occupants and a national background check for anyone 15 or older, renewed every March 31.
• Written confirmation from your HOA or condo association that short-term rental is permitted, gathered before closing rather than after, since it's the one document no city registration can substitute for.

Don't forget that a change of ownership resets part of this. The new owner has 90 days to file a fresh Sec. 6-171 registration, and none of the paperwork above transfers with the sale.

Miami Gardens Short Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and Miami Gardens carries a genuinely tall stack of it: five separate charges across two governments, one layer more than most Florida cities see.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Florida state sales tax	6%	Florida Department of Revenue
Miami-Dade discretionary sales surtax	1%	Florida Department of Revenue
Miami-Dade Convention Development Tax	3%	Miami-Dade County (RER)
Miami-Dade Tourist Development Tax	2%	Miami-Dade County (RER)
Miami-Dade Professional Sports Franchise Facilities Tax	1%	Miami-Dade County (RER)
Total	13%	Two agencies

Those bottom three rows aren't three separate charges you negotiate one at a time. Together they make up the single 6% "tourist tax" figure Florida's own DR-15TDT table quotes for the county, and Miami-Dade collects it directly rather than routing it through Tallahassee, the same self-administered shape Broward and several other Florida counties use. Add the state's 6% sales tax and 1% discretionary surtax, and a Miami Gardens short-term stay carries 13% in combined tax, whether the guest ever notices it or not.

Who files where matters more than the arithmetic. State sales tax and the discretionary surtax always go to the Florida Department of Revenue on your DR-15 return, no matter which Florida county you're in. The three county-level charges above go to Miami-Dade County's Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, which took over administering them from the Tax Collector's office, and that office wants a return every single month, even in a month you didn't collect a dime. Miss enough of those and, as of October 2025, the county now adds a flat $10 fee for failing to file electronically and another $10 for failing to pay electronically, on top of whatever the return itself owes.

Here's the one genuinely good piece of news in this section. Airbnb collects and remits every layer above for Miami-Dade reservations of 182 nights or shorter, the state pieces and all three county pieces alike, so a host booking exclusively through Airbnb generally isn't the one cutting the check. I couldn't confirm Vrbo's Miami-Dade collection behavior from an official source, so pull an actual payout statement before assuming it works the same way there. And keep in mind that Airbnb's collection doesn't excuse you from registering with the county yourself. The department still expects a monthly return from you, even a zero one, regardless of what the platform already sent in.

The deduction side works in your favor, at least. License fees, the city and county registration costs, insurance, cleaning, management, depreciation and mortgage interest are all ordinary write-offs, and the tax you collect and pass through was never your income to begin with. If you're weighing what a Miami Gardens property clears against a submarket where the tax stack runs lighter, BNBCalc Markets compares real revenue and expenses at the neighborhood level rather than a blended Miami-Dade average nobody actually earns.

Florida wide Short Term Rental Rules

Comparing markets only works if you understand the rule sitting above every single one of them, and that's Florida's own preemption law, the same one that let Miami Gardens write a registration ordinance in the first place without being able to ban anything.

Fla. Stat. 509.032(7)(a) hands the regulation of public lodging establishments, sanitation, inspections and staff training, to the state alone. Subsection (7)(b) is the part that actually shapes your city, and it states plainly that "a local law, ordinance, or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals." Then comes the sentence that split Florida into two kinds of city fifteen years ago, since "this paragraph does not apply to any local law, ordinance, or regulation adopted on or before June 1, 2011." A handful of Florida cities got their bans and minimum-stay rules in just under that wire and keep them today. Miami Gardens isn't one of them, at least not on anything I could find, which is exactly why its own ordinance only registers, fees and inspects rather than restricting how long or how often you rent.

Plenty of 2026 content still describes Florida as having handed vacation rental licensing over to the state entirely. It hasn't, and the detail matters, because those write-ups describe rules nobody actually has to follow. CS/SB 280 would have done roughly that, preempting licensing to the DBPR and capping local fees, and it passed both chambers in March 2024. Governor DeSantis vetoed it on June 27, 2024, and nothing has replaced it since. The 2026 session produced two bills touching vacation rentals, both about water safety near pools rather than licensing, and both died: CS/CS/SB 658 passed the Senate 37 to 0 in February before dying in House messages on March 13, 2026. Treat that as a bill that could resurface rather than settled law, and be skeptical of any guide describing SB 280 as current Florida law, since it never took effect.

So the state sets the ceiling, and Miami Gardens decided what to build under it. Our Florida statewide guide walks through the full preemption history and every county's variation on it, and the Collier County guide and Osceola County guide show how differently two other Florida markets structured their local rules despite sharing this exact statute.

Does Miami Gardens strictly enforce STR rules?

Whether Miami Gardens actually enforces what it built is the fair next question, and the honest answer is that the city hasn't made headlines over it the way Miami Beach or New York City have. That's not the same as nothing happening.

What Miami Gardens does have is the general code enforcement machine every property owner in the city already lives under, and it's a real one. A violation starts with a Warning Notice that carries no fine and gives you time to cure it, and only escalates to a Civil Violation Notice, which does carry a fine and starts accruing daily, once that window closes without a fix. From there it's either a stipulation agreement or a Special Master hearing, a quasi-judicial process under Florida Statute Chapter 162 where a qualified attorney hears the case, and fines the city's own guide says can run "from $50 to $5,000" per violation, plus a lien if you don't pay. Daily fines keep running even after a lien is filed, and a lien on one property can attach to others you own in the city too. An unregistered vacation rental sits squarely inside that machine, since operating a business without the required registration, BTR or CU is exactly the kind of violation it exists to catch.

Watch out for the timing angle specifically. Vacation rental registrations, business tax receipts and certificates of use all expire on the same date, September 30, which means the city runs one annual compliance sweep rather than tracking scattered renewal dates all year. At the state level, the DBPR isn't sitting still either. Its own FY 2024-25 annual report says it "closed approximately 10,800 delinquent licenses in August 2024 and now conducts monthly sweeps of delinquent licenses," so a lapsed state license is an ongoing risk rather than a one-time renewal you can quietly ignore.

What I couldn't find is a specific Miami Gardens news story, lawsuit or published enforcement statistic naming vacation rentals directly, and I'd rather say that plainly than manufacture a crackdown that didn't happen. Enforcement here reads as steady and complaint-driven rather than aggressive, which for an investor probably means the compliance bar is real, but the odds of a dramatic case landing on your specific address are low, provided the registration stays current.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Miami Gardens

Keeping that registration current starts with doing things in the right order, since several of the steps below ask for proof the earlier ones are already done.

1. Check your HOA or condo documents first. State law protects you from the city and county; it does nothing about a private six-month minimum written into your own declaration.
2. Confirm the DBPR trigger applies to you, and pick Condominium or Dwelling based on your property type under Fla. Stat. 509.242(1)(c).
3. Get a zoning approval letter from Planning & Zoning before applying for anything else, since the city won't process a business tax receipt or certificate of use without it. Email [email protected].
4. Register for Florida sales tax with Form DR-1, and separately register your property with Miami-Dade County's tourist and convention tax office through RER.
5. Apply for the DBPR vacation rental license. Budget $50 plus $170 for a single unit, and remember District 1 renews every October 1, not on your own filing date.
6. File your Sec. 6-171 registration through Avenu's Short Term Rental Registration Portal, naming a Responsible Party the city and your guests can actually reach.
7. Apply for the city business tax receipt and certificate of use, and check whether the older Landlord Permit program applies to your specific property.
8. Set up tax collection, confirm which of the 13% your booking platform actually remits, and file the county return monthly even in months you collect nothing.
9. Diary September 30. Registration, BTR and CU all expire the same day every year, and a lapse anywhere in that stack puts you back in unregistered territory.

Who to contact in Miami Gardens about Short Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Since that date shows up in three separate places on the calendar above, it helps to know exactly who answers which question before September rolls around.

Registration, business licensing and landlord permits

The City of Miami Gardens Code Enforcement & Licensing Department handles the Sec. 6-171 vacation rental registration, business tax receipts, certificates of use and the landlord permit program.

• Address: 18605 NW 27th Avenue, Miami Gardens, FL 33056
• General information: 305-622-8020 or 305-622-8000
• Business licensing (BTR, CU, vacation rental registration): 305-622-8000, ext. 2620 or 2625
• Landlord permit: 305-622-8000, ext. 2624 or 2659
• Hours: Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., closed Fridays and major holidays
• Register a vacation rental: the Short Term Rental Registration Portal

Zoning approval

Planning & Zoning signs off on every business tax receipt and certificate of use application before Code Enforcement will process it.

• Email: [email protected]

Miami-Dade County tourist and convention tax

The Miami-Dade County Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, Business Section, administers the Convention Development, Tourist Development and Professional Sports Franchise Facilities taxes.

• Address: 11805 SW 26th Street, Suite 230, Miami, FL 33175
• Phone: 305-375-5550
• Fax: 305-375-5594
• Email: [email protected]

State license and sales tax

The DBPR Division of Hotels and Restaurants issues and renews your vacation rental license.

• Phone: 850-487-1395 (TTY 800-955-8771)
• Address: 2601 Blair Stone Road, Tallahassee, FL 32399-1011
• Email: [email protected]

The Florida Department of Revenue handles your Form DR-1 sales tax registration and DR-15 returns.

• Taxpayer Services: 850-488-6800, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern
• Register: Form DR-1 through the Department of Revenue's registration portal

Noise, nuisance and neighbor complaints

The Miami Gardens Police Department, non-emergency line, takes noise and nuisance complaints a neighbor might file about your listing.

• Phone: 305-474-6473

What do Airbnb hosts in Miami Gardens on Reddit and Bigger Pockets think about local regulations?

Since noise and neighbor complaints are exactly the kind of thing hosts trade notes about online, it's worth being straight about what that trade actually contains here. I looked for Miami Gardens-specific threads on BiggerPockets and came up short. Reddit isn't something this pipeline can read directly, for reasons unrelated to Miami Gardens itself, so nothing below claims to summarize a Reddit thread I never opened.

What does exist is general Miami-Dade sentiment, and it clusters around a few themes that apply here even without the city being named directly. What follows is my read of those themes rather than a survey, so weigh it accordingly.

• Jurisdiction confusion is the recurring complaint across Miami-Dade generally. Investors search the county's rules, find the unincorporated-area Certificate of Use program, and assume it covers them, only to discover later that their specific city runs something different. Miami Gardens hosts are exactly as exposed to this mix-up as anyone else in the county.
• HOA and condo restrictions come up more than any ordinance does. One investor researching Miami-Dade broadly put it plainly, noting that associations "do not allow STR and there are a lot of restrictions from the city as well." That matches what state preemption can and can't touch, since it binds governments, not private covenants.
• Older guidance calling Miami Gardens unregulated is stale, and it's worth actively correcting. Several still-circulating write-ups describe the city as having no dedicated short-term rental ordinance. That stopped being accurate once the Sec. 6-171 registration and its Avenu portal went live, and a host relying on an older summary is working from the wrong picture entirely.

The through-line, at least from what I could piece together: nobody's reporting Miami Gardens as a hostile market, but the paperwork changed underneath a lot of existing guidance, and the hosts most likely to get caught out are the ones reading an outdated summary rather than the city's own current page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Miami Gardens in 2026?

Yes. Miami Gardens permits short-term rentals, but owners must register the property annually with the city under Sec. 6-171 through 6-177, through the Avenu Short Term Rental Registration Portal, hold a Florida DBPR vacation rental license, and collect 13% in combined state and Miami-Dade County tax. Neither the city nor the county can ban the activity or set a minimum stay under Florida's 2011 preemption law, since Miami Gardens' own rules only register, fee and inspect rather than restrict how often or how long you rent.

How much does it cost to register a vacation rental in Miami Gardens?

The city has not published the exact registration fee on any official page currently available; its own guidance states only that an annual fee applies and that late payment adds further charges. What is published: a separate landlord permit, where it applies, costs $12 plus $66.15 for a single-family home. Call the Business Licensing Division at 305-622-8000, extension 2620 or 2625, to confirm the current vacation rental registration fee rather than relying on unsourced numbers found elsewhere.

Does Miami-Dade County regulate short-term rentals inside Miami Gardens?

Not for licensing. Miami-Dade's own vacation rental ordinance, with its Certificate of Use and occupancy limits, applies only to the unincorporated county, and the county explicitly tells owners inside a municipality to contact that municipality instead. Miami Gardens runs its own registration program under Sec. 6-171 through 6-177. The county reach that does apply to you is tax: its Convention Development, Tourist Development and Professional Sports Franchise Facilities taxes total 6% on every Miami Gardens short-term stay, regardless of city or county jurisdiction.

How much tax do you collect on a Miami Gardens short-term rental?

Thirteen percent combined. Florida's state sales tax is 6%, Miami-Dade's discretionary sales surtax is 1%, and Miami-Dade's tourist-related taxes, Convention Development, Tourist Development and Professional Sports Franchise Facilities, add another 6% together. State sales tax and the surtax go to the Florida Department of Revenue; the three county taxes go to Miami-Dade's Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources, which requires a monthly return even when no tax was collected. Airbnb collects and remits all five components on Miami-Dade bookings of 182 nights or shorter.

Did Florida pass a new short-term rental law for 2026?

No. CS/SB 280 would have preempted vacation rental licensing to the state and capped local fees, but Governor DeSantis vetoed it on June 27, 2024, and nothing has replaced it since. The 2026 session produced two water-safety bills touching vacation rentals near pools, and both died. The furthest along, CS/CS/SB 658, passed the Senate 37-0 in February before dying in the House on March 13, 2026. Florida's 2011 preemption law still governs Miami Gardens and every other Florida city.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.