Brevard County could seek enforcement software to crack down on AirBnB, Vrbo properties

Brevard County is looking for help in making sure vacation rentals in the county are obeying rules and paying taxes as they should.

Brevard County commissioners voted Tuesday to put out a request for proposal to software companies to bid for the job of scanning and finding non-compliant short-term rentals. If selected, the company would only be contracted on a one-year trial basis to determine the efficacy of the program.Hiring an outside firm to scan the internet and find short-term rentals like AirBnB and VRBO units that aren't registered and aren't paying the correct amount in taxes has been used by many local governments around the state and in Brevard County.

The county believes there are about a thousand illegal short-term rentals operating in unincorporated parts of the county and the issue has enflamed homeowners and rental property owners at both the local and state level as state lawmakers have been working to find a solution to satisfy both sides.Municipalities like Indian Harbour Beach currently contract a software company to track non-compliant properties. Brevard County now many join their ranks in hopes of giving itself more muscle to go after evasive rental owners in unincorporated areas of the Space Coast.

Commissioner Jason Steele was vocal in his support of hiring such a company to look into unregistered short-term rentals across unincorporated Brevard.

“If we don’t start charging a registration fee, we’re silly. Everybody charges a registration fee," Steele said. “We’re getting killed here.”

More: Former deputy says Sheriff Ivey treated him poorly after shooting. Now he wants the job

More: Brevard's luxury home market remains strong despite industry cooldown

Adopting a $50 registration fee annually would generate an estimated $50,000 in revenue for the county, which would only partially offset the estimated $200,000 annual cost of adopting software for $50,000 and hiring dedicated staff for the problem at $150,000.

Other revenues generated are the 6% fee on hotels and rental properties. County staff in their report submitted to the commission also wrote that other jurisdictions were able to suspend their use of the software after a few years because of its success rate.

Commissioner John Tobia opposed expressed his feelings against using AI-powered software to track non-compliant rental properties, calling the process an "Orwellian" overreach that could invade people's privacy without the revenue to make it fiscally sound.

"They’re scanning social media, Facebook and tweets," Tobia said. "I don’t want to sound like too much of a Luddite… but this is a little scary."

Commissioners back in August asked staff to prepare an analysis of the tradeoffs between the increased expense of investigating and enforcing short-term rental registration with the increased revenue from registration fees and taxes collected on those rentals.

According to an analysis by county staff, "Approximately 26% of properties that are the subject of complaints since 2009 are owned by an individual or entity with a mailing address outside of Brevard County, with 10% being out of State."

According to recent data compiled by the Space Coast of Office of Tourism, vacation rentals account for about 33% of the the total revenue revenue collected from Brevard's 5% tourist development tax on hotels, vacation rentals and other short-term rentals. When the final numbers are in for the just-ended county budget year, the Officer of Tourism expects more than $25.7 million in tourist tax revenue, with vacation rentals accounting for about $8.5 million of that.

State law severely limits how cities and counties can regulate vacation rentals, but local governments can collect fees and taxes and require registration of vacation rentals.

"Those people are breaking the law and taking away money from each and every one of us. In this particular case, we don’t have a choice. We have to be proactive."

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard County could seek enforcement software to crack down on AirBnB, Vrbo properties