Featured CaseBrevard County Outlaws Short-Term Rentals—Rental Property Owners Denied CompensationLee v. Brevard County
Contact: R.S. Radford
Status: Settlement discussions underway.
Summary: Amortization in the American planning system is a technique for the removal of nonconforming uses after the value of that nonconforming use has been recovered—or amortized—over a period of time. (A legal nonconforming use is a use of land or building which was legally established according to the applicable zoning and building laws of the time, but which does not meet current zoning and building regulations. A use or structure can become legal nonconforming due to rezoning, annexation, revisions to the Zoning Code, or the granting of a use variance.)
In some instances zoning ordinances set time periods for phasing out different types of nonconforming uses. Since the value of the use has been amortized, no compensation is payable after the expiration of the period. Florida recognizes the amortization of nonconforming structures, such as billboards, but no court ruling applies to the process of amortizing rental property. In this case, land use officials from Brevard County went too far by denying compensation to Colleen Lee, the owner of two short-term rental homes she depended on for her retirement.
Prior to purchasing her homes, Ms. Lee obtained oral and written confirmation from the County that short-term rentals were permitted. Her County source was correct: short-term rentals had always been allowed in Brevard County. However, in May, 2005, the Board of County Commissioners—under pressure from hotel and resort interests who complained that short-term rentals were hurting their business—passed an ordinance banning the rental of residential dwellings for periods shorter than 90 days. The ordinance achieves the ban by amortizing short-term rentals, with the amortization period ending on November 29.
PLF’s Atlantic Center has challenged the ordinance as effecting an unconstitutional taking of private property for public use without just compensation.
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