The Florida theme park hub is one of the fastest-growing metro regions in the country, and a collection of landlords, apartment managers, and real estate agents want to stop voters from passing a referendum that would institute rent control for a year there. The Florida Apartment Association and the Florida Association of Realtors last week filed a lawsuit against Orange County, Florida, to challenge a ballot measure that would have limited the amount that landlords may raise rents.
It would be the first such proposition in the Sunshine State in many years if voters approved it in the upcoming election. The groups claim that Florida law forbids rent control regulations unless there is an emergency and that the existing state of affairs in the county where Orlando is located does not meet that requirement. Additionally, they claim that the ordinance may unintentionally worsen the issue by prohibiting the development of new apartment buildings and other types of housing.
The groups claimed in court documents that it would be against the public interest as well as the interests of the plaintiffs and their members to let Orange County execute the Rent-Control Ordinance, which is illegal and void. The rent control policy was narrowly adopted earlier this month by Orange County’s Board of County Commissioners; it will now be put to a vote in November. Rent increases in multi-unit buildings are restricted by the code to the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index.
Luxury apartments, single-family residences, and vacation rentals are exempt from the ordinance’s requirements. For a first offense, violators of the ordinance risk fines of up to $1,000 per day, with a maximum of $15,000 per offense. Under some circumstances, landlords would be entitled to ask for an exception to the rules. The asking-rent-per-unit in Orange County has increased from $1,357 in 2020 to $1,697 in 2021, the biggest increase since 2006, and the county may have a shortage of up to 26,500 housing units, according to the commissioners’ resolution.
During a committee hearing last month, Stephanie Porta, a cofounder of the social justice organization Florida Rising, said: “Renters have been urging this commission to do something about the impending emergency we are in right now. “Hardworking Orange County citizens are being priced out of their communities as corporate landlords, real estate investors, and developers are boosting prices and generating record profits.”
Before the Florida statute regulating them was written, the city of Miami Beach implemented rent control measures in the 1960s and 1970s. The Orange County ordinance would be the state’s first of its kind in many years. Oregon and California have implemented laws regulating rent, as have major cities like St. Paul, Minnesota, and Portland, Oregon.
