business licences

[AAbsolute]

ACCESSORY APARTMENT AFFIDAVIT​

I _________________________________________, understand that Ordinance 97-28,
of the Walton County Land Development Code, section 6.02.01, allows accessory
apartments in single residential areas under certain circumstances and with certain
restrictions.
I hereby certify that the accessory apartment on my property at:
______________________________________________________________________
will be the only accessory apartment on this residential lot and it will not exceed 800
square feet.
This accessory apartment shall be located and designed not to interfere with the
appearance of the principal structure as a one-family dwelling unit.
This accessory apartment shall not be available for commercial short-term or long-term
rental to any person who is not a family member of the owner of the property.
_____________________________________________________________________
Signature Date
_____________________________________________________________________
STATE OF: _________________________
COUNTY OF: _______________________
Before me, the undersigned Notary Public, in and for said County and State, appeared
_____________________________________________ who is personally known to me
or who has produced _______________________________________ as identification,
and who executed the foregoing instrument. Given under my hand and seal this _____
day of _______________________, ___________.
{Seal}
____________________________​

Signature of Notary Public

 

[Creeklover]

I do not know who you send $5.00 to unless the county has started a fee and did not tell every one as i do not have one. They told me that it was not needed.

I do not see the public safety benifit as if the cops/fire/ems know their area and do the fire inspections every year they know what is in their area and can plan for it. The illigal bussiness will not have a office or a license so you are just costing the legal bussiness more money even if it is just 5.00. But i think the county would charge more like other counties to make a profit as on %5.00 you could not pay someone to take the money.

 

[Smiling JOe]

ACCESSORY APARTMENT AFFIDAVIT​

I _________________________________________, understand that Ordinance 97-28,
of the Walton County Land Development Code, section 6.02.01, allows accessory
apartments in single residential areas under certain circumstances and with certain
restrictions.
I hereby certify that the accessory apartment on my property at:
______________________________________________________________________
will be the only accessory apartment on this residential lot and it will not exceed 800
square feet.
This accessory apartment shall be located and designed not to interfere with the
appearance of the principal structure as a one-family dwelling unit.
This accessory apartment shall not be available for commercial short-term or long-term
rental to any person who is not a family member of the owner of the property.
_____________________________________________________________________
Signature Date
_____________________________________________________________________
STATE OF: _________________________
COUNTY OF: _______________________
Before me, the undersigned Notary Public, in and for said County and State, appeared
_____________________________________________ who is personally known to me
or who has produced _______________________________________ as identification,
and who executed the foregoing instrument. Given under my hand and seal this _____
day of _______________________, ___________.
{Seal}
____________________________​

Signature of Notary Public

I'm not sure why you quoted me for this because my question was regarding why the County should limit the number of rental units, and what was the appropriate number? Also, how should the County enforce it? The County (TDC) would make more money by not limiting rental units (bed tax).

As for the Accessory Apt Affidavit above, it looks like it doesn't mention short term rentals (6mo or less), and in many places in South Walton, bed tax isn't collected on short term rentals, so they could do six month agreements, then month to month when the contract ran out.

 

[AAbsolute]

I'm not sure why you quoted me for this because my question was regarding why the County should limit the number of rental units, and what was the appropriate number? Also, how should the County enforce it? The County (TDC) would make more money by not limiting rental units (bed tax).

As for the Accessory Apt Affidavit above, it looks like it doesn't mention short term rentals (6mo or less), and in many places in South Walton, bed tax isn't collected on short term rentals, so they could do six month agreements, then month to month when the contract ran out.

I quoted it for you because I thought you might know something about renting carriage houses in Walton County. Don't you sell real estate in Sowal? I don't.

There is a line 1/3 of the way down that says it prohibits both short and long term rentals. Do you know if an owner can legally rent a carriage house in Sowal?

 

[Smiling JOe]

selling and renting are two different things. I don't handle rentals. The line to which you refer is specific to no "COMMERCIAL" short-term or long-term rental outside of family. I guess it depends upon how "commercial" is defined. It sounds like you are saying that "residential rental usage" is that which you question, which sounds different than "commercial usage." Does that Affidavit include the definition of "commercial" leases?

 

[ShallowsNole]

I'm not sure why you quoted me for this because my question was regarding why the County should limit the number of rental units, and what was the appropriate number? Also, how should the County enforce it? The County (TDC) would make more money by not limiting rental units (bed tax).

As for the Accessory Apt Affidavit above, it looks like it doesn't mention short term rentals (6mo or less), and in many places in South Walton, bed tax isn't collected on short term rentals, so they could do six month agreements, then month to month when the contract ran out.

There certainly are places where bed tax isn't collected. That is the part that is illegal. New ones crop up everyday. And contrary to popular belief, there is a bit of enforcement.

However, carriage houses and mother-in-law apartments are rented all up and down our coast, as are homes in non-rental subdivisions. For the non-rental subdivisions, enforcement of whether to rent or not rent is usually by their neighbors via their HOA, and I've seen some that were quite persuasive. I have never heard of the county telling somebody they cannot rent. Who would enforce that?

Back to the point...Walton County does NOT require general occupational licenses. Certain vendors are required to have permits, and I'd bet that AAAbsolute's fee has something to do with being in the construction industry. Beyond that, I'd only be guessing. ;-)

 

[Smiling JOe]

There certainly are places where bed tax isn't collected. That is the part that is illegal....

Help us out with a clarification. Are short-term rental properties which are required to pay bed tax on rental agreements of 6 months or less, not location specific? I don't recall the exact law, but I thought they were indeed location-specific, and didn't include much of the northern area of South Walton.

Also, I would be in favor of allowing a single carriage house on a property, with the ability to rent it long term. This area needs service workers, and allowing people to rent their carriage house to people in the service industry at affordable pricing, would in theory, help many workers, businesses, and tourists.

 

[scooterbug44]

I believe that in certain developments they forbid separately renting the carriage/guest house because it would change their unit count (typically planned as one less than the max allowed) or their parking requirements (also minimized as much as possible).

Stupid IMO, as carriage/guest apartments are great places for the typically young and single workforce to live and keep traffic/eyes through the area during the off season.

 

[BeachSiO2]

Help us out with a clarification. Are short-term rental properties which are required to pay bed tax on rental agreements of 6 months or less, not location specific? I don't recall the exact law, but I thought they were indeed location-specific, and didn't include much of the northern area of South Walton..

The bed tax collection district for Walton County is all lands from Bay County line to Okaloosa County line, south of Choctawhatchee Bay (and the intercoastal waterway). No property owners "north of the bay" are required collect bed taxes.

 

[ShallowsNole]

Help us out with a clarification. Are short-term rental properties which are required to pay bed tax on rental agreements of 6 months or less, not location specific? I don't recall the exact law, but I thought they were indeed location-specific, and didn't include much of the northern area of South Walton.

Also, I would be in favor of allowing a single carriage house on a property, with the ability to rent it long term. This area needs service workers, and allowing people to rent their carriage house to people in the service industry at affordable pricing, would in theory, help many workers, businesses, and tourists.

Everything south of the Intracoastal Waterway, rented for periods of six months or less, is subject to the bed tax. Exception: if a qualifying (i.e. no easy way out) written lease for longer than six months is signed at the beginning of the stay. All other "residential" stays become exempt with the seventh month of continuous residence.

Admittedly, most enforcement efforts have traditionally been aimed south of 98 and 30-A, etc, for obvious reasons. I'm sure we all know people who rent residentially who don't have a lease and don't pay. Once upon a time, Fuzz and I fell into that category, and we didn't know any better.

Another thing most folks don't realize is that, even though the 4% doesn't apply north of the bay, that the 6% state sales tax applies to every residential rental in the state of Florida, with the exception of those with a lease for longer than six months. In Walton County, it's 7% everywhere because of the surtax.