Walton County pushes issue of increasing short term rental fees to Aug. 27

FREEPORT, Fla. ( WMBB ) — A meeting in Walton County Monday was aimed to increase registration fees for short-term rental properties, but was left without a decision.

Impacting South Walton more than other areas, the county looked to change the current short-term rental annual fee from $125 to $300 per unit.

The new registration fee law took place in 2023. The county said only 60 percent of properties followed through.

To offset operation costs and demand of product, the county wanted to raise the fee more than double.

Some rental properties that are in the 60 percent said they should not be punished for following the rules.

“But we’re at 60% compliance rate, my homeowners did everything asked of them. And as a result of doing everything that has to be done. We’re gonna tell them we put it up to 300?” said Amy Wise-Coble, rental property operator.

“If there’s that much opportunity out there, let’s go ahead and hold those people accountable before we start charging the 60% of people more. Because it almost feels like we were penalizing the people who have complied. But we’re not really doing anything for the people who haven’t complied,” said Dylan Bozarth, rental property operator.

In comparison, Walton charges the least of the surrounding counties with Okaloosa charging a minimum of $500 per property.

The board decided to push the vote to the Aug. 27 meeting in South Walton.

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