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/STAY · LOCAL RULES · COCOA BEACH, FL

Cocoa Beach vacation rental rules

Every vacation rental in Cocoa Beach, condos included, registers with the city every year and is inspected every year. The city prices registration by the number of guests and hands you a packet to post with your own details.

Checked on Nov 11 2026 against the official pages below

The three things to know

PERMIT

Yearly city registration plus a business tax receipt: $219.45 per allowed guest for a house ($1,755.60 for 8), $146.30 per guest for multifamily, inspections included. You need your DBPR license, Florida tax certificate and county tourist tax account first.

DOOR NOTICE

In a prominent spot: the owner's or agent's name, address and phone, the most guests, the city's packet (trash, sea turtles, noise, driving), the most vehicles with a parking sketch, trash days and times, and the nearest hospital. An evacuation map goes by each bedroom door, and a city contact sticker by the front door.

TAX

5% Brevard County tourist tax, filed monthly with the Clerk of Court since Oct 1 2025 (not the Tax Collector anymore), plus 6% Florida sales tax and Brevard's 1% surtax to the state. No official page we read says platforms collect the county tax.

Print the door notice

This prints your part of the posting from sec. 26.5-63. Post it with the city's packet (link below), your parking sketch, and an evacuation map beside each bedroom door.

The city's papers (print them as they are)

Type what you know. Anything left empty prints as a line to write on, so it works as a blank form too. What you type stays on this phone.

CITY OF COCOA BEACH VACATION RENTAL

House information

Provided as required by City of Cocoa Beach Code sec. 26.5-63.

    City of Cocoa Beach Code sec. 26.5-63. Page made free at headedin.com/stay/rules/cocoa-beach/

    Prints one letter page. Post it in a prominent spot with the city's packet and your parking sketch.

    What the rules say

    Who needs to register
    • The city: "All Vacation Rentals in the City of Cocoa Beach are required to register with the city", condos included.
    • Apply online: first the city business tax receipt, then the registration. File the form with an email address (the city's notices there count as received), your DBPR license, Florida tax certificate, county tourist tax account, a site sketch with parking and a floor sketch (sec. 26.5-22).
    • Good for one calendar year; renew yearly, and fines must be paid first (secs. 26.5-24, -25).
    • Inspection after the first registration and every year after renewal (sec. 26.5-26).
    • Fees (city Exhibit C): $219.45 per allowed guest for single-family, $146.30 for multifamily; $250 reinspection, ownership change or agent change; $500 late renewal. Renting unregistered: $250 the first day, then $500 and $1,000 a day.
    • We found no minimum stay in the city code.
    What has to be posted
    "In each vacation rental, there shall be provided, in a prominent location, the following written information"Sec. 26.5-63(a)
    1. The owner's or agent's name, address and phone.
    2. The most guests.
    3. The city's document with its trash, sea turtle, noise and driving rules.
    4. The most vehicles, with a sketch of the off-street parking.
    5. Trash pickup days and times.
    6. Where the nearest hospital is.

    "Next to the interior door of each bedroom", an evacuation map at least 8½ by 11 (sec. 26.5-63(b)). The city's contact sticker goes near the front door (sec. 26.5-43).

    Guests, parking, noise and turtles
    • Guests (sec. 26.5-53): the lesser of 2 per bedroom plus 2, or 8.
    • Vehicles (sec. 26.5-55): 4 in all, boats, motorcycles and trailers included; no parking on grass, dirt or sand unless your approved plan allows it.
    • Noise (sec. 26.5-56): nothing "clearly audible within any other residence" with its doors and windows closed. The city's addendum: no outdoor music 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
    • Sea turtles: the city code (sec. 15-44) sets lighting rules May 1 to Oct 31; the city's lease addendum says March 1 to Oct 31. Plan for March 1.
    • Phone: available 24/7 to police, fire and emergency crews (sec. 26.5-43).
    • Lease states the guest and vehicle limits, the posted parking sketch, the duty to evacuate on an order, and attaches the city's addendum (sec. 26.5-54).
    Taxes
    "Effective October 1, 2025, the Brevard County Tax Collector will no longer be collecting tourist tax."Brevard County Tax Collector
    • The Brevard Clerk of Court now collects the 5% tourist development tax on stays of six months or less, monthly by the 20th, filed online. (The city code still names the Tax Collector.)
    • Florida sales tax 6% plus Brevard's 1% surtax go to the Department of Revenue: 12% in all.
    • We found no official page saying platforms collect the county tax; ask yours before you skip filing.

    House rules go in your listing

    For bookings made from Nov 20 2026, Airbnb wants every house rule in the listing itself; signs in the house can only repeat them. This notice only carries what Cocoa Beach requires, so it adds no new rules. Put quiet hours, parking and the rest in your listing first.

    Official sources, read Nov 11 2026

    Plain-words summary, not legal advice. Rules and fees change, and the official page always wins. Checked Nov 11 2026.

    Help us get it right

    Host in Cocoa Beach? If a rule, fee or form here has changed, or we missed something, tell us. We check every note against the official source before we change a page, and we put the new checked date on it.

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