Fire district: Vacation properties should pay like businesses

INDIAN SHORES — They sat under a park pavilion and at times struggled to hear the public officials behind their fire assessments doubling or, in at least one case, nearly tripling.

“Last year I think I paid $700, and I just got assessed $2,069,” Thomas Spoden, a short-term rental owner, told the board of the Pinellas Suncoast Fire & Rescue District. “That's ridiculous. Who would I speak to about that?”

Spoden, of unincorporated Seminole, was among roughly 50 people who attended the Aug. 18 outdoor hearing with questions and complaints about the higher assessments for fire protection. The fallback venue was Chief E.D. Williams Park because the adjacent (and air-conditioned) Municipal Center was doubling as a primary election polling place.

Ceiling fans and offers of cold bottled water did little to cool off some of the evening’s attendees, several of whom came with assessment notices in hand.

Even so, the district's fire commission voted to charge nearly 1,900 qualifying vacation rentals — most of them on the barrier islands — at its commercial fire assessment rate instead of the residential rate they now pay. The change takes effect with the 2026-27 budget year, which starts Oct. 1.

The district isn't raising its assessment rates, which Fire Chief Ken Grimes said would require voter approval. Instead, vacation rentals are being moved from the residential to the commercial category. The new assessments will appear on property tax bills mailed in November.

The 19-square-mile district serves 12,721 properties in Belleair Beach, Belleair Shore, Indian Rocks Beach, Indian Shores and portions of unincorporated Pinellas County.

The change is expected to bring in about $1.2 million more a year, Grimes said. The money would go toward hiring fire inspectors and covering other costs related to short-term rentals, known legally as transient public lodging establishments, or TPLEs.

Under the commercial formula, a vacation rental will pay $386 for its first 500 square feet, 20 cents for each additional square foot and another $385 because it has a kitchen.

At the Aug. 3 Belleair Beach City Council meeting, Grimes said the district was already getting “a lot of calls” from property owners after assessment notices went out. He said he appeared before the council in part to explain the change and prepare city officials for questions from residents.

By way of example, Grimes said a typical home pays about $360 a year, while one vacation rental he reviewed would pay $951.

“It's not fair to charge every resident for those unique properties,” he told the council.

To inspect all of the rentals — plus handle scheduling, travel, reports and follow-up — the district estimates the work would require about 5,200 staff hours a year. Yet Grimes said the district has had only the equivalent of a half-time inspector available for the job.

Consequently, he said, the district has been able to inspect only a fraction of the qualifying rentals each year. Grimes estimates the full program would require about three inspectors.

Owners challenge increase

During the Aug. 18 hearing, Matthew Barrowclough questioned the basis for classifying residentially zoned properties as commercial. He also asked what “special benefit” short-term rental owners would receive for paying the much higher assessments.

“What's the evidence that supports the higher assessment?” said Barrowclough, who ran for a seat on the Indian Rocks Beach City Commission earlier this year. “Have you done the analysis and provided a public review?”

Other speakers raised more practical concerns.

One said the square footage shown on the assessment notice was about 600 square feet larger than the property's actual size. District officials said the assessment was calculated using gross square footage from property appraiser records and said the district would review it.

A property manager who said she oversees more than 200 properties questioned whether owners who recently paid registration and inspection fees would effectively be paying twice now that the higher assessment is taking effect.

Grimes and Board Chair Elizabeth “Betsey” McKenna acknowledged the concerns and said owners worried about their individual assessments should contact the district.

“I would encourage you, please, to come to the fire station and talk to people if you have questions that have not been answered here tonight,” McKenna said. “And you'll find that we are very fair and are trying to do the right thing.”

McKenna also read more than a dozen formal written objections into the record before the board voted.

More inspections planned

Florida law requires local fire authorities to enforce state fire-safety standards at qualifying lodging properties.

Pinellas Suncoast began an annual inspection program in 2023 as its way of carrying out those responsibilities, Grimes said.

Those inspections can include checking smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, exits, fire extinguishers and other safety requirements.

Grimes said the district's records now show about 1,860 residentially zoned properties operating as transient lodging establishments.

But fewer than 1,000 of them are registered to be inspected, he said at the public hearing.

“So the current system isn't working,” Grimes told the crowd.

To track down which properties qualify, the district cross-references its own registration records with state licensing data and uses software that scours vacation-rental sites online.

Grimes said the district relies heavily on Granicus, software that “crawls the web” looking for rental listings.

After three years of tracking registrations, inspections and incident calls, district officials say short-term rentals place greater demands on the district than traditional homes, particularly for inspections and enforcement.

They're not the first to try this.

West Manatee Fire Rescue also classifies vacation rentals as commercial properties for fire assessment purposes. A Manatee County circuit judge upheld that policy earlier this year after a vacation rental owner challenged it.

Fees go away

After adopting the new assessment roll, the fire commission voted to eliminate separate registration and initial inspection fees for short-term rentals.

Owners will still have to register their properties and schedule annual inspections, but there will be no charge for either. They could still face fees for repeated reinspections when violations aren't corrected.

The district currently collects about $90,000 a year from registration and inspection fees, according to Grimes. So while those fees go away, the district still expects to collect roughly $1.1 million more overall when the lost revenue is taken into account.

Besides hiring more inspectors, that extra money would go toward buying vehicles, maintaining compliance software and covering administrative costs, Grimes said.

The district's proposed budget calls for one new inspector position, with the possibility of adding a second, according to July meeting minutes.

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