Panama City Beach rental owners have less than a month to register for inspections

Nathan Cobb, Panama City News Herald
·2 min read

PANAMA CITY BEACH − Local short-term rental owners have less than a month left to register for annual safety inspections.

According to Shawn Legleiter, captain of the fire inspection division of Panama City Beach Fire Rescue, all of the approximately 10,000 short-term rental owners within the city's limits have until Feb. 1 to register for the mandatory inspections.

Those who do not will face a $500 fine for their first offense, a $1,000 fine for their second offense and another $1,000 fine, along with having their license revoked, for a third offense within a year.

Short-term rental owners in Panama City Beach have until Feb. 1 to register for annual safety inspections for face fines.
Short-term rental owners in Panama City Beach have until Feb. 1 to register for annual safety inspections for face fines.

"It's obviously geared around safety," Legleiter said of the inspections. "The safety of the guests is paramount while they're here."

He said inspections will check for a list of requirements in each rental, including that they have fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, evacuation routes and information on the beach flag system.

A Wednesday post of the Panama City Beach Facebook page added that in order to pass the inspections, rental owners also must have a valid PCB business tax receipt number, proof of registration for bed tax collections through Bay County Clerk of Courts and a state license from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Rental owners who pass will receive a vacation rental certificate.

Panama City Beach City Council members in September approved an ordinance to set a registration deadline for the annual inspections. Legleiter said that before then, they were done based on rentals that had business licenses.

Local inspections: Vacation-rental owners in Panama City Beach can register now for required fire inspection

"There were a lot of homes that we just weren't able to inspect, and we didn't know how many were actually out there," Legleiter said. "This new ordinance gives us the ability to figure out who is renting and (if) they're doing it per local codes and ordinances."

He hopes for the majority of inspections to be done by the start of peak tourist season.

For more information on the inspections, visit www.pcbfl.gov.

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Deadline Feb. 1 to sign up for rental inspections in Panama City Beach