Water Safety Requirements for the Rental of Residential and Vacation Properties

Added a requirement for public lodging establishments licensed as vacation rentals to file a certificate of compliance upon licensure and renewal, stating that their units meet safety requirements.

Added a new provision requiring the Division of Hotels and Restaurants to adopt rules to implement the new safety subsection.

Explicitly authorized the Division of Hotels and Restaurants to suspend or revoke licenses and fine licensees for non-compliance with the new safety regulations.

Updated the bill header to reflect that the Division of Hotels and Restaurants is the enforcing agency, whereas the previous version did not specify the agency.

The bill title and text were updated to explicitly include 'vacation properties' and combine the provisions of two separate bills into one legislative act.

Safety requirements were split into two categories: one for natural water bodies (requiring alarms or self-closing doors) and a new specific requirement for swimming pools on-site (requiring features defined in s. 515.27(1)).

New enforcement provisions were added for vacation rental licensees, allowing the state department to suspend or revoke licenses and impose fines for noncompliance, in addition to criminal misdemeanor penalties.

The definition of 'water body' was clarified to exclude swimming pools, creating distinct rules for natural water sources versus man-made pools.

A new construction clause was added to Section 2 to clarify that the bill does not prevent local governments from imposing additional safety requirements.