Residents in unincorporated Seminole County are launching a grassroots effort to regulate Airbnbs in Seminole County and across central Florida.
Tom Alderson , who has lived in the Longwood neighborhood off of Lazy Acres Lane for 40 years, said there was no discussion or written notice when strangers started to show up at the home next door to his.
“They’ve rented out the house by the room, they’ve rented out the barn by the room,” Alderson said.
“The thing that concerns me most of all is we don’t know who is next door.”
County records show that the home at 315 Lazy Acres Lane was purchased last November.
The owners are listed as Luo Shengwen and Han Xiao Fang.
Neighbors said at least one of the investors lived in the home with his family for a few months before leaving for his home in Bejing, China.
The home is listed as a single-family waterfront property, not a vacation rental property.
"The county does not regulate vacation rentals advertised on Airbnb," said Rebecca Hammock, Seminole County's planning and development division manager. However, she said, “a true bed and breakfast is regulated by zoning.”
According to Hammock, the state passed a law in 2011 that any jurisdiction that did not already have regulations in place for the operation of vacation rentals “was prohibited from restricting the use of homes as vacation rentals.”
Hammock said that leaves the opening for Airbnbs in Seminole County.
“Since the county did not have any regulations at the time, we cannot prohibit the use of a home or a portion of a home as a vacation rental," she said.
Orlando real estate attorney Moses Dewitt said that while the state has a statute in place to address short term-term rental properties, the question of taxes and licensure have not been addressed in every county.
“This Airbnb is more of a unique animal at this point. There just haven’t been laws that have adapted to address it,” Dewitt said.
Residents said the idea that strangers are driving through their neighborhood is unsettling.
Diana Rodolfo has lived in the neighborhood for the last 12 years. Her home backs up to the rental property.
She calls it a violation of security. “I deal with no privacy now,” Rodolfo said. ”I walk through my backyard now and people are staring at me.”
WKMG-TV checked Airbnb.com and found the property listed on the site, along with photographs and a room-by-room description of the accommodations.
Depending on where you live in Florida, homeowner can use a home as an Airbnb rental property.
There are exceptions, including homeowners' association communities that prohibit “short-termrentals.”
Orange County enforces code violations, with more than 20 Airbnb complaints documented over the last few weeks.
In Miami Beach, vacation and short-term rentals are prohibited in all single-family homes.