Lighthouse Point Short-Term Rental Regulations: What Property Owners Need to Know

Short version. A Lighthouse Point home rented for six months or less needs an annual Transient Rental Certificate of Compliance from the city before it takes a booking. The city application prices that at $750 initial, $500 renewal, and $150 for a modification, and every certificate expires on September 30 regardless of the month you applied. Occupancy is capped at whichever is least of one person per 150 square feet of air conditioned space, two people per bedroom, or eight occupants in any residential zoning district. On top of the city you need a Florida DBPR license, city and county business tax receipts, and Broward Tourist Development Tax registration. Occupancy violations here carry fines of up to $5,000. Here is how the three layers fit together.

Lighthouse Point is completely surrounded by Pompano Beach, but its short-term rental rules are its own. The city runs a distinct set of local ordinances, and owners who assume the Pompano playbook applies here get caught. We manage homes in this market, and this is our plain-English walkthrough of the three layers of compliance: the City of Lighthouse Point, Broward County, and the State of Florida.

One note before we start. Rules change, and cities update ordinances. Treat this as your orientation, then verify the current requirements before you list. Better yet, have someone whose job it is to stay current do it for you.

Start With the City: The Transient Rental Certificate

Lighthouse Point regulates short-term rentals under Ordinance No. 2022-0996, which sits in Chapter 42 of the city code. Any home rented to transient occupants for periods of six months or less is a transient rental, and so is any home advertised as one. Before it hosts a single guest, it needs a Transient Rental Certificate of Compliance. The city's own application form prices it at $750 for an initial certificate, $500 for a renewal, and $150 for a modification. The application is sworn in front of a notary. This is not a form you fill out casually.

Since August 2025, all transient rental applications and renewals run through the city's SmartGov public portal, so the paper era is over. If a management company operates the home for you, the city also wants a power of attorney signed by the owner giving that company permission to run the rental. The city has historically taken its residential character seriously, so verify your specific property's zoning before you list. This is not a market where you list first and sort out paperwork later.

Here is the timing detail that costs owners real money. Section 42-451 says every certificate expires on September 30 each year no matter when it was issued, and the annual fee is the same whether you applied in October or in August. A first certificate also cannot issue until the city completes and approves an initial inspection, and that inspection has to be approved within 60 days of a complete application or the application gets rejected. Apply in late summer and you pay a full year for a few weeks of certificate. Plan the application around the September 30 line, not around your first booking.

The Details That Catch Owners Off Guard

A few specifics in the ordinance trip up even careful owners.

The certificate is nontransferable. If you buy a Lighthouse Point home that already has a certificate, you do not inherit it. You start the process over from the beginning, which matters if you are buying with rental income in your underwriting.

The compliance list is long and specific. The city wants a certified property survey completed within 12 months of the application. It wants exterior and interior sketches drawn to scale, showing parking, trash containers, numbered bedrooms, exits, and the location of every detector and extinguisher. It wants a hard-wired, interconnected smoke and carbon monoxide system with a third-party inspection certificate. It wants a multi-purpose dry chemical 2A:10B:C fire extinguisher with a current tag on each floor. You also sign a trespass agreement on the Lighthouse Point Police Department form, authorizing officers to issue trespass warnings for you. That survey requirement surprises almost everyone. If your most recent survey came with your purchase five years ago, it will not qualify.

Inspections are not a one-time hurdle either. The city inspects before it issues the first certificate, then re-inspects every year. If an inspection turns up violations, you have 30 calendar days to correct them and get re-inspected. Miss that window and the certificate is suspended until you do. If the inspector cannot get in after three attempts, the city issues a notice of failure of inspection, and on a renewal that notice is itself a violation.

The Requirement Most Self-Managing Owners Fail

Every certificate requires a named responsible party, and the ordinance is specific about who qualifies. That person has to live within 25 miles of the home, measured in a straight line from property line to property line. The phone number on file has to be answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They have to respond to emergency calls within one hour.

The duties go further. The responsible party has to brief every guest in writing, before occupancy, on the city's noise, occupancy, parking, garbage, and residency rules. They have to keep a register of transient occupants and the tag numbers of vehicles staying overnight, open to city inspection at any time. If the responsible party changes, the city has to be notified within five business days. An owner in Chicago with a cleaner who answers when she can does not meet this standard. That is not a technicality here. It is the certificate.

How Many Guests Your Home Can Legally Sleep

Occupancy is capped, and the cap is whichever of three tests produces the smallest number. One person per 150 gross square feet of permitted, air conditioned living space. Two people per bedroom, using the Florida Building Code definition of a bedroom. And a flat ceiling of eight transient occupants in any residential zoning district. That last one deserves a note. Ordinance No. 2022-0996 struck the older rule that capped RS-3 and RS-5 at eight and allowed sixteen everywhere else, and it deleted the sixteen-occupant sentence outright. The summary on the city's own Transient Rentals page still describes that older split. The adopted ordinance is what governs, so confirm your property with the city before you plan around any number.

This matters for revenue planning. A six-bedroom waterfront home in a single-family district cannot legally sleep 12 short-term guests. The ordinance also requires that any advertising of a transient rental conform to the certificate, occupancy in particular. A listing that sleeps more than the certificate allows is a violation before anyone books it. We list every home we manage at or below its legal cap, and we recommend every owner do the same.

The city put real weight behind that. Lighthouse Point declared maximum occupancy violations and unpermitted commercial use of a rental to be irreparable and irreversible in nature, which lets its code enforcement board or special magistrate issue fines of up to $5,000 per violation. Repeat violations cost you the certificate on a fixed ladder. A third occupancy violation inside any 36-month window suspends it for 12 calendar months. A fourth suspends it for 18. Every violation after that adds another 24. You cannot host during a suspension.

One more line catches owners who market to groups. For vacation rentals the number of people allowed on the property at one time is capped at one and a half times the home's maximum occupancy, and no single party or similar event may exceed twelve people no matter how big the house is. Between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday, no more than three unregistered occupants may be on the property. Parking is capped too, at one vehicle per bedroom, all of it on hard surface off-street parking. Commercial use is prohibited outright, which includes renting the home as a venue for parties or receptions.

The State Layer: Florida DBPR

Florida requires a DBPR vacation rental dwelling license for any home that meets the state's transient public lodging test in F.S. 509.013(4)(a)1: rented to guests more than three times in a calendar year for periods of less than 30 consecutive days, or advertised or held out to the public as a place regularly rented for periods of less than 30 consecutive days. Read that second half again. The advertising alone triggers the license, whether or not the bookings arrive. The license runs through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, renews annually, and is separate from everything the city requires.

Most owners who get tripped up at the state level simply never knew the license existed. Airbnb does not file it for you. Neither does Vrbo. It is your responsibility as the owner, or your manager's responsibility on your behalf.

Broward County: Registration and the Tax Stack

This is where the layers stack. The city will not issue a certificate without a business tax receipt from the city itself under Chapter 78 of its code, a Broward County business tax receipt where one applies, a Florida Department of Revenue certificate of registration for sales and transient rental taxes, and proof of Broward County Tourist Development Tax registration. Owners tend to remember the county and forget the city. The city is the one holding your certificate.

Here is the full tax stack on a Lighthouse Point booking: Florida's 6 percent sales tax, Broward County's 1 percent surtax, and the 6 percent Broward County Tourist Development Tax. Platforms collect some of these taxes automatically, but collection is not the same as compliance. You still need to be registered correctly with the county, and remittance needs to be right every month. On a home grossing $80,000 a year, tax errors are not rounding errors.

HOA and Deed Restrictions: Read Before You List

This layer stops more Lighthouse Point rentals than the city does. Many of the city's waterfront communities carry strict deed restrictions, and a number of neighborhoods have active governance that takes enforcement seriously.

A city certificate does not override your community's documents. If your deed restrictions prohibit rentals under a certain length, that prohibition stands no matter what the city or state would otherwise allow. Pull your governing documents and read the leasing language before you spend a dollar on the listing. We review these documents with owners before we ever agree to manage a home, because finding a restriction after launch is expensive in every direction.

Why Compliance Carries More Weight Here

In a volume market, a compliance stumble is a fine and a bad week. In Lighthouse Point, the stakes are different. The guests booking here are paying premium rates and expect a seamless, legally sound operation. A canceled stay because of a certificate problem does not just cost you the booking. It costs you your standing with exactly the kind of guest who rebooks, refers, and pays top rates.

The city is small, the community is engaged, and every operator's conduct is visible. That is literal, not figurative. Under the city's Transient Rental Notification Policy, the City Clerk's Office notifies nearby property owners when a transient rental certificate is issued, and the notice carries the name, address, and phone number of your responsible party. Your neighbors know before your first guest arrives. The application also warns that a transient rental claiming a homestead exemption will be reported to the Broward County Property Appraiser. All of that is genuinely good for owners who run their homes to a high standard. It is unforgiving for owners who cut corners. We hold the certificate process, the inspections, and the monthly tax remittance for every home we manage, because in this market the operation has to be as clean as the home.

Updated September 2026. Every number here was re-verified this month against the city's own documents: Ordinance No. 2022-0996, the City of Lighthouse Point transient rental certificate application, and the city's Transient Rentals page. New to this version: the fee schedule, the September 30 expiration, the responsible party standard, the inspection windows, the $5,000 occupancy fine ceiling, the suspension ladder, the group and parking caps, and the state licensing test in F.S. 509.013(4)(a)1. We corrected the occupancy cap after reading the adopted ordinance's own markup, which caps all residential zoning districts at eight and deletes the sixteen-occupant allowance the city's summary page still shows. We also removed an active listing count from an earlier version because we could not source it.

If you own a home in Lighthouse Point and want clarity on exactly what your property needs before it hosts its first guest, we are happy to walk you through it. We are Brad and Justina, founders of Yours Truly Hospitality, and this is our home market. Reach out for a compliance consultation and we will map your specific property against the city, county, and state requirements, no obligation.

Own a rental in the area? Start with our Lighthouse Point short-term rental management page, or see how we approach short-term rental management across South Florida. Related reading: Why Lighthouse Point Vacation Rental Owners Leave the Most Money on the Table and How Much Can You Really Make from an Airbnb in Lighthouse Point? (2026 Update).