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First, whether you will own the land or rent the lot. When the owner of the home also owns the land, the home is real property and carries an RP sticker; otherwise it must carry a current license plate, and the annual registration tax is due on any mobile home, whatever its use, at the county tax collector.
A park with 10 or more lots for rent is under the Florida Mobile Home Act, overseen by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation's mobile homes division.
In a park of 26 lots or more, the park owner must give each homeowner a prospectus or offering circular approved by the division, and a lot rental agreement made without it can be voided by the homeowner until 15 days after receiving it. A lot rent increase needs at least 90 days' written notice, and only a court can decide whether an increase is unreasonable. No park owner may charge an exit fee; homeowners may meet openly and may be represented by a committee of up to five; and a park that is closing for a change of use must give at least 6 months' notice. The Florida Mobile Home Relocation Corporation pays $3,000 for a single-section home or $6,000 for a multisection home to move.
Homes built after June 15, 1976, are built to the federal HUD code and carry a data plate showing the wind zone they are built for, and a home must never be set in a zone more demanding than its rating. Florida has wind zones II and III: Zone III is Broward, Charlotte, Collier, Miami-Dade, Franklin, Gulf, Hendry, Lee, Martin, Manatee, Monroe, Palm Beach, Pinellas and Sarasota counties, and the rest of the state is Zone II. Only licensed installers may set up a home, with a permit from the county building department, and homes in both zones need longitudinal ground anchors. The state's emergency managers say it is never safe to stay in a mobile home during a high wind event.
01Hurricane wind is the main cost in a Florida home policy, and the price is set by the address, the age and shape of the roof and how the house is built, so it can differ a great deal between two homes on the same street.
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02Look it up by address on the Florida Division of Emergency Management's Know Your Zone map.
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03Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. The National Hurricane Center puts its peak on September 10, with most of the activity from mid-August to mid-October.
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04Retirees are spread across the state, but some counties are far older than others.
Read the answer →A community may limit who lives there by age only if it meets the housing-for-older-persons rules in federal and Florida law.
Yes, in addition to the homestead exemption, and every one is applied for at the county property appraiser by March 1 of the year, with late filing allowed within 25 days after the appraiser mails its notices.
Yes, with a state license and the taxes. A house of one to four units that is rented to guests more than three times in a calendar year for less than 30 days at a time, or that is advertised as regularly rented that way, is a vacation rental under Florida law, and it needs a license from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation's Division of Hotels and Restaurants, renewed every year.
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