Discussion on regulations, fees for rentals continue
The city of Cape Coral continues to discuss possible changes to fees and regulations related to rental properties.
While Cape Coral City Council did not come to a consensus on possibly higher registration fees Wednesday, the elected board decided not to consider lowering the minimum number of rental days below seven, discussed a three-tiered approach, and considered the potential implementation of penalties for properties not registered.
Councilmember Jennifer Nelson-Lastra, who established a volunteer stakeholders’ group, said the majority of the panel were Realtors.
She said the group favored a flat yearly fee of $100 to register for all rentals, both annual and short-term.
The current charge is a one-time fee of $35.The city currently 6,522 registered rentals, which is fewer than the 9,000 previously stated during discussions about rental fees.
The city computes its cost of compliance at $441 per rental for administration, police, and code enforcement.
Wednesday’s presentation showed an annual cost for administration of $18, $192 for police ready-for-service and $231 for the code enforcement ready-to-service fee.
“I wanted to understand the percentage of bad actors. I didn’t understand how many bad actors we had out of 6,500 registered rentals,” Nelson-Lastra said.
There was a total of 766, or 12%, of code cases specific to rentals. Those include 322 investigations for renting for less than a week, 308 investigations for rental registration requirements and 136 investigations for trash cans left out too early/too late.
“In the City of Cape Coral, we do not use a call for service, (we use) a ready-to-serve methodology. If all calls stop tomorrow, there would still be code officers ready to respond and police officers,” City Manager Mike Ilczyszyn said.
Mayor John Gunter shared the Sanibel ordinance, which includes a three-tiered approach, one with which the majority of council agreed. The approach – anything less than three months is considered a short-term rental, three to six months is a seasonal rental and six months, or more is an annual rental.
Although not agreed upon, Gunter shared some possible fees for rentals — $50-$75 for an annual rental, $200 for seasonal rental and $365 for a short-term rental. Those registration fees should be placed in a restricted fund for enforcement, he said.
Gunter said they need to put a penalty in place for those who do not register.
“That penalty should be greater than what the fees are,” he said of a $500 fine if not registered.
There also was discussion of rewards for those who are good neighbors, something that may be applied to the next year’s annual rental fee.
Council also asked why they were not capturing condos, duplexes, and apartments in the registration fee.
“We are not capturing condos and duplexes. Why aren’t we capturing apartments, too? They are all rentals,” Councilmember Rachel Kaduk said, adding that short-term rentals should pay a higher fee.
A follow-up discussion will be held in two weeks at the council’s next workshop.
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