Cocoa Beach Vacation Rental Rules

Yes: the City of Cocoa Beach requires every vacation rental in the city to register and pay a registration fee, starting with a Vacation Rental Business Tax application (Cocoa Beach Vacation Rental Registration).

The city lays out the order on its registration page. An owner or authorized agent first files the Vacation Rental Business Tax Application; once the Business Tax Receipt is issued, the next step is the Vacation Rental Registration Application. The same page links the registration ordinance, the city lease addendum, a fee list, an unofficial interactive zoning map and a safety checklist, and gives Development Services at 2 S. Orlando Ave, 321-868-3217, Monday to Friday 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, as the contact (Cocoa Beach Vacation Rental Registration).

The Business Tax Receipt is a separate city tax with its own rules. Original applications carry a non-refundable $10 application fee, applications go through the city's OpenGov portal, and BTR questions go to 321-868-3289; Development Services helps with portal trouble at 321-868-3298 (Cocoa Beach Business Tax Receipt).

Chapter 26.5 of the city code makes registration per property: a separate registration is required for each vacation rental, and each day of operating without one counts as a separate violation (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals). Registration goes through the online process of the city's third-party vendor (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

A Cocoa Beach registration packet pairs a form and fee with state and county tax accounts, a site sketch showing every parking space, and a floor-by-floor sketch of bedrooms and exits (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

Section 26.5-22 lists the submittals: the completed form; the fee; a copy of the property's transient public lodging license from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, if the registrant has one; a Florida Department of Revenue certificate of registration for sales and transient rental taxes, if held; and evidence of an account with the Brevard County Tax Collector for tourist development taxes, if held. The exterior sketch must show structures, pools, spas, hot tubs, fencing and off-street parking delineated so the spaces can be counted, and both sketches may be hand drawn. Any non-paying occupants, such as the owner's family, who will stay overnight alongside paying guests are named along with their vehicles (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

A registration is not a one-time filing. An amendment is required for a change in the number of bedrooms, an increase in maximum occupancy, a change in the number or location of parking spaces, a change of ownership, or a change in non-paying occupants or their vehicles, and modifications may carry additional fees. A registration is valid for one calendar year and must be renewed on or before January 1, and a change of ownership is subject to a new registration fee (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

Maximum occupancy in a Cocoa Beach vacation rental is the lesser of two occupants per bedroom plus two more, or eight occupants in total, and the number must appear on the registration (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

The definitions shape that count. An occupant is anyone staying overnight, including the owner or agent, so long as at least one person is paying; a bedroom needs a bed or sleeping place and a separate built-in closet or an ensuite bathroom and must meet the Florida Fire Code and Life Safety Code, and it never includes a bathroom, kitchen, dining room, main living area, exterior area or vessel. The cap does not apply while the property is owner occupied, meaning family of the owner stay without paying and no paying guests are present (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

The Fire Department's inspection checklist restates the same cap as two occupants per bedroom plus two additional occupants, not to exceed eight in total, citing Sec. 26.5-53 (Cocoa Beach Fire Department rental inspection checklist). Rentals outside the RS-1 single family district that were already operating when the eight-person cap was adopted could apply for a ten-year grandfathered occupancy by a deadline the posted PDF prints with amendment markup; a change in bedroom count ends that status, and a lapse in registration of more than 13 months abandons it (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

A Cocoa Beach vacation rental may have no more than four vehicles in total, and rental noise may not be clearly audible inside another closed-up residence (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals, Cocoa Beach required ordinances for vacation rental packets).

Parking may not block a sidewalk or use grass, dirt, sand, stone or shell areas unless they are part of an approved parking plan, and rental parking stays on the registered property or associated property. Violations draw city parking citations, and vehicles that break the approved plan or block neighborhood access can be towed at the vehicle owner's expense (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

The noise standard, as codified through Ordinance 1697 of April 17, 2025, exempts cries for help, working air conditioning, pool pumps, lawn equipment and alarms before the owner has a chance to shut them off. Three noise citations within a rolling 12 months let the special magistrate declare a noise nuisance property for 12 months; the orders can require the property manager to visit each new group on day one with a copy of the noise rules, and require a deposit of no less than $500.00 from every renter, forfeited to the city if that renter gets a noise citation. After a noise violation that the magistrate finds substantially and negatively affected neighbors, the magistrate may also require noise level detection devices whose data is kept for 180 days (Cocoa Beach required ordinances for vacation rental packets).

Penalties climb with repeats. The codified Sec. 26.5-58 says no initial warning is required before a citation, each day or instance is a separate violation, the owner is liable for guests' fines after being advised, and repeat violations that the special magistrate finds had a significant negative impact on neighbors and are irreparable or irreversible can draw fines of up to $5,000.00 per violation or per day (Cocoa Beach required ordinances for vacation rental packets).

Each Cocoa Beach vacation rental must post, in a prominent spot, the owner or agent's contact details, the maximum occupancy, the vehicle limit with a parking sketch, trash days, the nearest hospital and the city's ordinance addendum (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

Section 26.5-63 also requires a building evacuation map of at least 8.5 by 11 inches next to the interior door of every bedroom. The written rental agreement must state the maximum occupancy and vehicle limit, note that the parking sketch is posted, require guests to evacuate on any state or local evacuation order, and attach the city's lease addendum of ordinance excerpts covering solid waste pick-up, sea turtles and sea turtle lighting, and noise (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

The city's Required Ordinances for Vacation Rental Packets document opens with Sec. 15-44, which makes it unlawful for oceanfront owners or occupants to let direct lighting illuminate the ocean beach so as to be a hazard to fledgling sea turtles, from dusk to dawn between May 1 and October 31, and then prints the vacation rental noise and violation sections (Cocoa Beach required ordinances for vacation rental packets). The Cocoa Beach sea turtle nesting guide explains the lighting rules in more depth.

Cocoa Beach inspects each vacation rental after initial registration and after every renewal, and the Fire Department publishes a reference checklist of what it looks for (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals, Cocoa Beach Fire Department rental inspection checklist).

The inspection verifies compliance with the Florida Building Code and the Florida Fire and Life Safety Codes that governed when the Cocoa Beach property was built (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

The checklist, from the Fire Department at 50 South Orlando Ave (321-868-3330), starts with hardwired UL 217 smoke alarms with battery backup in each sleeping room and the hallways leading to them, installed by a certified electrician, with interconnected detectors in buildings of 4 stories or more. It asks for hardwired emergency lighting at the main exit that runs at least one hour, a charged and tagged fire extinguisher re-inspected annually, outdoor grills at least 10 feet from any structure, and no LP, propane or charcoal grills on balconies or patios of multi-family buildings (Cocoa Beach Fire Department rental inspection checklist).

Water and escape items follow: door alerting devices on exits that open to a pool or canal, a pool hook and life safety ring where there is a pool, locking gates, deadbolts that open from inside without a key, and bedroom escape openings of at least 5.7 square feet, no less than 20 inches wide or 24 inches high, with a sill no more than 44 inches off the floor. A carbon monoxide detector is required where gas appliances are present (Cocoa Beach Fire Department rental inspection checklist).

The ordinance sets the scheduling rules. Inspections are by appointment; an owner who blocks a scheduled inspection pays a re-inspection fee first, and failing to make the unit available within 20 days of written notice is a daily violation. Owners or agents must also answer the listed phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for police, fire or emergency calls, while other city contacts are expected Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

No: Florida law bars a local ordinance adopted after June 1, 2011 from prohibiting vacation rentals or regulating how long or how often they are rented, and Cocoa Beach's chapter says it does neither (Florida Statutes section 509.032, Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

Section 509.032(7)(b) of the Florida Statutes states that a local law, ordinance or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals, and exempts rules adopted on or before June 1, 2011. The same subsection keeps the authority of a local government to inspect public lodging for compliance with the Florida Building Code and the Florida Fire Prevention Code (Florida Statutes section 509.032). Chapter 26.5 cites that history, from House Bill 883 in 2011 to Senate Bill 356 in 2014, and says it is aimed at life safety and compatibility concerns instead (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals).

Enforcement focuses on advertising. Under the codified Sec. 26.5-58, renting or advertising a vacation rental without a current registration, or advertising it for more guests than its registration allows, is unlawful, and screenshots of a listing reviewed by a code enforcement officer create a rebuttable presumption of a violation (Cocoa Beach required ordinances for vacation rental packets).

The two city documents are worth reading together. The Chapter 26.5 PDF, whose file name reads 2-28-25 Final, still shows amendment markup, including blank dates such as April __, 2025, while the required-ordinances packet prints the noise and violation sections as adopted through Ordinance 1697 on April 17, 2025 (Cocoa Beach Chapter 26.5, Vacation Rentals, Cocoa Beach required ordinances for vacation rental packets). Development Services at 321-868-3217 can confirm which text applies to a given property (Cocoa Beach Vacation Rental Registration).

Last verified: October 21, 2026, through fresh reads of the Cocoa Beach vacation rental registration and Business Tax Receipt pages, the Chapter 26.5 ordinance PDF, the required-ordinances packet, the Fire Department rental checklist and Florida Statutes section 509.032.