Launch Pad

April 14, 2023

Public Policy Update

Hello everyone. With the sixth week of session closing out today I have some fantastic news to bring to your attention. The House released its tax package this week which includes a huge win for our members, businesses and the state’s economy. The House is proposing a 1% cut (from 5.5% down to 4.5%) to the Business Rent Tax (BRT) this year, which would be an estimated $311 million in savings for businesses who lease their space! 

If you recall from 2021, the Legislature directed the commercial-lease tax to be cut to 2% when revenue from sales-tax collections on out-of-state retailers replenishes the state’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund, which became depleted during the COVID-19 pandemic. That 2% rate is expected to kick in starting in Aug. 2024, based on current revenue predictions. So, if this tax package passes, the state BRT rate would drop to 4.5% on July 1, 2023, and then drop to 2% around August of 2024.

Now, keep in mind that this is the House’s proposal, and we are hearing that the Senate may want to be even more aggressive when it comes to reducing the BRT so definitely stay tuned for more information to come on this great news.

Regarding the rest of the House tax package, the total savings included amount to about $1.38 billion. These savings are in the form of the BRT cut, several sales tax holidays and permanently lifting taxes on adult incontinence products, oral hygiene products, equipment to produce renewable natural gas and certain agricultural fencing.

Before I get into the rest of this week’s updates, I just wanted to throw a quick shoutout to your public policy team for making this BRT cut possible. In particular, Murphy Kennedy, JP Fraites and French Brown worked the numbers and came up with several different proposals to take to lawmakers on ways they could cut the tax this year without negatively impacting the rest of the budget. A cut to the BRT wasn’t really part of the conversation until we started approaching lawmakers about it, which just goes to show you how important the Realtor voice is in Tallahassee.

2023 Legislative Session

The 2023 regular session concluded its sixth week today. Here is the latest activity regarding our priorities and other bills of interest we are currently watching closely. Please note that the list may look a little shorter than previous weeks. This is because at this late point in session, several bills that were on our list simply were not moving and were unlikely to pass.

As always, you can tune in to the Florida Channel whenever a bill is up in committee to see the discussion taking place and hear the outcome.

Florida Realtors priority bills:

• Affordable Housing: Senate Bill 102, designated the “Live Local Act,” is a comprehensive affordable housing bill that is a major priority for Florida Realtors® this year. The bill does variety of things such as increasing funding for certain state housing programs, providing incentives for multifamily unit owners to make a portion of their units more affordable, providing incentives for developers to build new affordable housing units and much more. A full list of the measures in the bill can be found here. 
• Recent Actions: PASSED BY THE FLORIDA LEGISLATURE AND SIGNED BY THE GOVERNOR.
• Realtor License Plate: House Bill 675 and Senate Bill 1254 would create a specialty Realtor license plate that would give members of the profession and other Floridians a visible way to demonstrate their passion for the real estate industry. Proceeds of license plate sales would go to programs that support homeownership in Florida.  
• Recent Actions: SB 1254 unanimously passed its first committee, the Transportation Committee, on 3/27 and now heads to its second committee, the Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development.  HB 675 has received its two committee assignments and is waiting to be placed on its first agenda. 
• Real Estate Appraisers and Appraisal Management Companies: House Bill 213 and Senate Bill 398 are identical bills that would establish a statutory limitation on the time in which a civil cause of action can be brought against a real estate appraiser, or appraisal management company, following the date the appraisal was performed.  
• Recent Actions: HB 213 unanimously passed its final committee, the Judiciary Committee and is now on second reading on the House floor. SB 398 is waiting to be heard in its final committee, the Rules Committee.  
• Local Ordinances: Senate Bill 170 and House Bill 1515 deal with local ordinances and their impact on businesses. This is similar to the bill we supported last session that allows courts to award attorney fees, costs, and damages to a complainant who successfully challenges a local ordinance on the grounds that the ordinance is arbitrary or unreasonable.  
• Recent Actions: SB 170 was passed by the Senate on 3/8 by a 29 – 11 vote. It now waits for the House to conclude their actions on HB 1515. HB 1515 passed its final committee, the State Affairs Committee on 3/23 by a 14 – 6 vote and is now on second reading on the House Floor. 
• Residential Tenancies: House Bill 1417 and Senate Bill 1586 preempt regulation of residential tenancies, the landlord-tenant relationship and all subjects under Part II of Chapter 83, Florida Statutes (F.S.), also known as the Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, to the state. This is a retroactive preemption, meaning this bill would in effect void all current local ordinances which expand beyond Ch. 83, F.S. This bill includes an increase in the number of days’ notice a termination of tenancy without a specific term will take place, by changing the minimum number of days’ notice from 15 to 30 days by the tenant or landlord for month to month. For termination of tenancy with a specific duration, the number of days’ notice of termination requirement is a minimum of 60 days’ notice from either the tenant of the landlord.  
• Recent Actions: HB 1417 passed its final committee, the Judiciary Committee, on a 14 – 7 vote and is now on second reading on the House floor. SB 1586 is waiting to be heard in its final committee, the Rules Committee.  
• Telephone Solicitation: House Bill 761 and Senate Bill 1308 would amend certain provisions of the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA). Currently, the act requires prior express written consent to receive telephone solicitations from a business and this is further complicated when numbers are reassigned to new users and the prior authorization was given by the previous owner of that number. Because of these provisions hundreds of complaints and costly class action lawsuits against legitimate Florida businesses have ensued. The bills clarify these provisions of the FTSA, including definitions and written consent requirements to put an end on frivolous lawsuits against businesses. 
• Recent Actions: HB 761 passed its final committee, the Commerce Committee on 4/10 by a 16 – 1 vote and is now on second reading on the House floor. SB 1308 is waiting to be heard in its final committee, the Rules Committee.  

Additional bills we are monitoring closely:

• Vacation Rentals: Senate Bill 714 and House Bill 833 would require advertising platforms to collect and remit taxes for certain transactions, limit local government registration requirements, cap local registration fees, and require advertisements to attest to certain information, among other things.  
• Recent Actions: SB 714 is set to be heard in its second committee, the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government on 4/18 at 12:00 p.m. HB 833 unanimously passed its second committee, the Ways & Means Committee on 4/12 and is set to be heard in its final committee, the Commerce Committee on 4/17 at 2:00 p.m. 
• Condominium and Cooperative Associations: Senate Bill 154 and House Bill 1395 clarifies several measures that are outlined in Senate Bill 4D which was passed last year during the May Special Session. Specifically, it clarifies who can provide milestone inspections, that in some circumstances a milestone inspection can be required sooner than the building reaching 30 years of age, which Citizens condominium policyholders must have flood insurance, the specific items subject to a structural integrity reserve study and the resale disclosure requirements associated with milestone inspections and reserve studies.  
• Recent Actions: SB 154 passed the Senate unanimously on 4/12 and now waits for the House to conclude its actions on HB 1395. HB 1395 is set to be heard in its final committee, the Commerce Committee on 4/17 at 2:00 p.m. 
• Fees in Lieu of Security Deposits: House Bill 133 and Senate Bill 494 provide the option for a landlord to offer a tenant to pay a fee in lieu of a security deposit. This type of product is typically for a prospective tenant who cannot pay a security deposit and is currently an allowed business practice. The bills provide conditions by which a landlord must follow in order to offer such a payment option.  
• Recent Actions: SB 494 is waiting to be heard in its final committee, the Rules Committee. HB 133 is on the House special order calendar scheduled to be heard on 4/20. 
• Termination of Agreements by a Servicemember: House Bill 73 and Senate Bill 574 provide clarity in defining the type of housing eligible for lease termination due to a servicemember receiving military orders by specifying that “government quarters” means any military housing option that is available to a servicemember, including privatized military housing that is owned, operated, or managed by a private sector company.  
• Recent Actions: HB 73 is on the House special order calendar scheduled to be heard on 4/20. SB 574 unanimously passed its final committee, the Rules Committee on 4/11 and is on the Senate special order calendar scheduled to be heard on 4/18. 
• Real Property Fraud: House Bill 1419 and Senate Bill 1436 would require real estate licensees & parties providing real estate transaction closing services to send fraud prevention notices to the potential seller of the property, limits liability of real estate licensee for noncompliance but provides that such noncompliance may be introduced as evidence for certain violations, and provides that failure of property owner to respond to notice does not preclude or limit his or her ability to establish certain challenges or defenses or limit his or her remedy in any quiet title or declaratory judgment action.  
• Recent Actions: HB 1419 is waiting to be heard in its final committee, the Judiciary Committee. SB 1436 unanimously passed its final committee, the Rules Committee, on 4/11 and is now on second reading on the House floor.
• Residential Real Estate Listing Agreements: Senate Bill 770 and House Bill 861 are bills designed to curtail certain listing practices. Where a homeowner has been compensated for a future listing agreement that’s longer than two years – this is defined as a “residential alternative loan agreement” – the bill requires listing services be provided to the homeowner within 90 days after both parties sign the agreement. The bill also prohibits the agreement from being recorded or assigned.  
• Recent Actions: SB 770 unanimously passed its final committee, the Rules Committee on 4/11 and is now on the Senate special order calendar for 4/19. HB 861 unanimously passed its final committee, the Commerce Committee, on 4/10 and is now on the House special order calendar for 4/20.
• Disclosures of Ad Valorem Taxes: Senate Bill 974 and House Bill 1097 would require residential online listing platforms to include an ad valorem tax estimator for online listings of residential property and link to the respective county property appraiser office’s website for a more detailed property tax estimate for the residential parcel.  
• Recent Actions: SB 974 unanimously passed its first committee, the Community Affairs Committee, on 3/22 and now heads to the Finance and Tax Committee. HB 1097 is waiting to be heard in its first committee, the Ways & Means Committee.
• Resiliency Energy Environment Florida Programs: Senate Bill 950 and House Bill 669 provide that a property owner may apply to a Resiliency Energy Environment Florida (REEF) program for funding to finance a qualifying improvement and may enter into an assessment financing agreement with a local government; revising and specifying public recording requirements for assessment financing agreements and notices of lien; revising requirements for qualifying improvements; revising the calculation of non-ad valorem assessment limits; specifying additional annual reporting requirements for program administrators, etc.  
• Recent Actions: SB 950 unanimously passed its first committee, the Community Affairs Committee, on 3/22 and now heads to its final committee, the Fiscal Policy Committee. HB 669 passed its third committee unanimously on 4/12 and now heads to its final committee, the Commerce Committee.
• Interests of Foreign Countries: Senate Bill 264 and House Bill 1355 restrict governmental entities from contracting with entities of foreign countries of concern, and entering into contracts for an economic incentive with a foreign entity of concern. The bill also prohibits a foreign principal from owning or acquiring, or having an interest in any agricultural land, or any real property within 20 miles of a military installation or critical infrastructure in the state, and requires that a buyer must provide a signed affidavit attesting that the buyer is not a foreign principal and in compliance with the law. The listed countries of concern are China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and Syria. 
• Recent Actions: SB 264 was unanimously passed by the Senate on 4/11 and now waits for the House to conclude its actions on HB 1355. HB 1355 unanimously passed its second committee, the Appropriations Committee on 4/12 and heads to its final committee, the State Affairs Committee. 
• Environmental Protection: HB 1379 and SB 1632 are regulatory water quality bills that focus on areas of the state with Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs), reasonable assurance plans, and pollution reduction plans. Among the regulatory changes made, the bills: 1) Require local governments within a BMAP to list all projects necessary to meet their pollutant load reductions and again in the applicable 5-year milestone document to meet their total maximum daily load (TMDL); 2) Prohibits new OSTDS in BMAP, reasonable assurance plan, or pollution reduction plan, where sewer is available. On one acre or less lots where sewer is not available, new OSTDS must be an enhanced system with 65% greater reduction than conventional systems; 3) Authorizes DEP to provide grants for these projects; 4) Authorizes DEP to create an OSTDS remediation plan for BMAPS that do not already have such a plan; 5) Creates the Indian River Lagoon Protection Program within DEP; 6) Increases the contract price for land acquisitions under Florida Forever that need cabinet approval from $1 million or greater to $5 million or greater.
• Recent Actions: HB 1379 is set to be heard in its final committee, the Infrastructure Strategies Committee, on 4/17 at 2:00 p.m. SB 1632 is set to be heard in its second committee, the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government, on 4/18 at 12:00 p.m.

Governor Declares State of Emergency in Broward County

Yesterday, Governor DeSantis issued Executive Order 23-65 (Emergency Management – Broward County Flooding), declaring a state of emergency for Broward County due to severe flooding and rainfall.

On April 12, 2023, widespread showers and thunderstorms occurred overnight and produced significant rainfall totals, with certain areas of Broward County, including the City of Fort Lauderdale, witnessing heavy rainfall of over 25 inches, in addition to consequential flooding. The rainfall and flooding may continue to impact the operational capability of critical infrastructure, including major state and county roadways, airports, hospitals, schools, and other critical infrastructure throughout Broward County.

NAR joins Anti-Rent Control Coalition

Rent control initiatives are sweeping across the country, limiting housing supply and exacerbating affordability issues. NAR has joined with four other national trade associations to establish the Housing Solutions Coalition to address this failed housing policy. The Coalition will provide tools and resources to develop campaigns and offer proven, effective alternative solutions on rent control policies and proposals where they arise. 

Thankfully, here in Florida, the Florida Legislature passed SB 102, which includes a ban on rent control in the state.

Please reach out to us at publicpolicy@floridarealtors.org with any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Andy Gonzalez
Vice President of Public Policy
Florida Realtors®