ANNA MARIA – City officials are concerned about ground-level storage spaces in vacation rental homes being illegally converted and used as additional bedrooms.
Mayor Dan Murphy addressed these concerns with the city commission on Aug. 3.
“New single-family homes are being built with storage areas included. It appears some of these storage areas conveniently could be converted into bedrooms. Storage areas should not be converted into bedrooms,” Murphy said, noting that it violates state and city building codes and FEMA flood insurance regulations.
According to the notice of violation the city issued on Aug. 1, the vacation rental home in violation is located at 614 Gladiolus St. and is owned by Windemere residents Jose and Judith Calderon.
According to the violation notice, the home was inspected as a vacation rental on July 24 and the city inspector discovered a ground floor garage/ storage area had been enclosed and converted into a bedroom and/or habitable area. The notice also states the enclosed room is labeled as a bedroom on the sketch required as part of the city’s vacation rental registration program.
According to the notice, the property is currently in violation of several city and state building code regulations.
The notice of violation states the owners had until noon on Aug. 4 to apply for a city-issued demolition permit to bring the property into compliance with its previously issued building permit.
The homeowners were scheduled to meet with the city building official Monday afternoon.
When addressing the commission, Murphy noted the city’s annual vacation rental registration program requires an annual inspection of each dwelling to be used as a vacation rental. While the state preempts the regulation of vacation rentals to itself, the city has the authority to enforce state building codes, he said.
“A bedroom on the ground floor is a violation of Florida Building Code,” Murphy said in regard to new construction. “It was also done without a permit, which is also a violation of the Florida Building Code. They cannot use this as a vacation rental. We have notified them they have the alternative of getting a demolition permit to demolish that,” Murphy told the commission.
“This is not the only one. There are others we suspect,” he added. “As we do these vacation rental inspections, we expect to come across more. Our position is going to be the same: You cannot rent the house out as a vacation rental because you failed the inspection.”
Murphy said any vacation rentals homeowners found to have unpermitted additional bedrooms, bathrooms or living spaces found to violate state, city and/or FEMA regulations will be told they have to demolish the illegal space in order to use the dwelling as a vacation rental.
Murphy said violating FEMA regulations could result in flood insurance rates increasing for property owners citywide.
“That affects all of us,” Commissioner Mark Short said.
Commissioner Charlie Salem asked if contractors who illegally install unpermitted ground-level bedrooms, bathrooms and living spaces could also be penalized.
In response, Murphy said, “That’s a bridge I don’t want to cross yet. Where we are is enforcing it against the homeowner. Some people have done this themselves; other people probably have used a contractor. I don’t know how far I can go legally in finding out who did the work, but I do know who owns the property. That’s cut and dry.”
