How to Transfer a Key West Transient Rental License
- Krystal Sheehan
- 12 hours ago
- 7 min read
DYK: A Key West transient rental license belongs to the property, not to the person who owns it. It does not walk out the door with your seller, and it does not automatically land in your name at closing either.
Three things have to happen: the city license record and business tax receipt get moved into your name, the Florida state lodging license gets issued to you brand new because state law says it cannot be transferred to anybody, and three tax accounts get opened. Miss one and you own a licensed house you are not yet allowed to rent.
That gap between "this house has a transient license" and "I can legally take a booking on Friday" is where these deals go sideways. Key West stopped issuing new residential transient licenses years ago, so the license attached to a house is often the single most valuable thing you are buying, worth more than the pool and the off-street parking put together. It is also the part of the transaction that almost nobody walks you through before you sign.
What do people actually mean by transferring a transient license?
Two completely different things, and mixing them up is expensive.
The first is a change of owner. The house sells, the license stays attached to the dwelling unit, and the paperwork is reissued in the buyer's name. This happens at the counter with the city's Licensing Division, it is routine, and it is what almost everyone typing this question needs.
The second is moving a transient unit from one property to a different property. That is not a counter transaction at all. That is a land use application under Section 122-1338 of the city code. It goes to the Development Review Committee, then to the Planning Board, and it can be denied. People who have heard that licenses "can be moved around" are thinking of this, and they usually have no idea what is involved.
Let's start with the first...
Does the transient license stay with the house when it sells?
Yes, the license stays with the property. No, that does not mean you inherit the right to rent on day one.
Think of it the way you think of a legal nonconforming use. The right lives with the dwelling unit. The permission to operate a business out of it lives with a person, and that person is currently your seller. At closing you buy the first and you have to go apply for the second.
This is why "it conveys with the property" and "it transfers automatically" are not the same sentence, even though sellers and listing agents use them interchangeably. The license conveys. The operating authority does not.
What does the buyer actually have to file?
In this order, and start before you close, not after:
Confirm the license exists and is current. Do not accept a screenshot. Ask the city's Licensing Division to confirm the address, the license type, and that the business tax receipt is not delinquent. A transient license that has been sitting unrenewed is a very different asset than one in good standing.
Confirm the license type matches what you plan to do. A standard Key West transient license and a special Truman Annex license are not the same product. More on that below, because it is the trap of the moment.
File the city's transfer of transient unit and license application. This is the Licensing Division form that moves the license record and the business tax receipt into your name. Bring the recorded deed or the closing statement, because the city needs evidence of the sale.
Apply for your own Florida vacation rental license through DBPR. Not a transfer. A new application in your name. See the next section for why.
Open a Monroe County tourist development tax account with the Tax Collector, and register for a Florida sales tax number with the Department of Revenue.
Get your Monroe County business tax receipt in addition to the city one. Both, not either.
Do steps one and two during your inspection period (a good real estate agent will do this for you!)
Why does the state license not transfer, ever?
Because Florida law says so, in one flat sentence. Fla. Stat. 509.241(1) provides that a public lodging license "may not be transferred from one place or individual to another."
There is no workaround and no grace built into that sentence.
The previous owner's DBPR vacation rental license dies with their ownership. You apply for a change of ownership license as a new applicant (and you are supposed to have it before you commence operation).
Per the DBPR lodging fee schedule, that is a $50 application fee, which applies to new applications and change of ownership applications alike, plus the annual license fee. For a single vacation rental unit the license fee is $170 for a full license year or $90 for a half year.
Two to twenty five units runs $180 for a full year.
Two hundred and twenty dollars is nothing against a Key West purchase price. Renting for six weeks while you wait for it because nobody told you to apply is not nothing.
What does it cost to move the license into your name?
Here is the money side, with the sources, because this is the part every page on this topic leaves blank.
What | Who charges it | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Transferring the local business tax receipt to you on a sale | City of Key West | Capped by state law at 10 percent of the annual tax, and never less than $3 or more than $25 |
New state vacation rental license, single unit | Florida DBPR | $50 application fee plus $170 for a full license year, or $90 for a half year |
City of Key West annual business tax receipt | City of Key West | Set in the city's fee schedule, confirm the current amount |
Monroe County business tax receipt | Monroe County Tax Collector | Set by the county, confirm the current amount |
Tourist development tax account | Monroe County Tax Collector | No fee to open the account |
Florida sales tax registration | Florida Department of Revenue | No fee to register online |
What if you want to move a license from one building to another.
This is the other transfer, and it is a genuine land use process, not a form.
Section 122-1338 of the city code governs the transfer of transient units between properties. A City of Key West Planning Board staff report on one of these applications lays out what has to be shown. The sender unit must have been obtained lawfully under the regulations in effect. Transient use has to be an allowed zoning use on the receiver site.
Long story short, it's a complicated process and one that is best handled by a real estate attorney.
What do you owe in tax once you are actually renting?
Twelve and a half percent on the rent, split between two agencies.
Tax | Rate | Paid to |
|---|---|---|
Florida sales and use tax, including the Monroe County surtax | 7.5% | Florida Department of Revenue |
Monroe County tourist development tax | 5% | Monroe County Tax Collector |
Total on any stay of six months or less | 12.5% | Both of the above |
The Monroe County Tax Collector applies the 5 percent tourist development tax to rentals of six months or less. It is due on the first of the month after the reporting period and delinquent after the twentieth. Late costs 10 percent of the tax for each month or part of a month, with a minimum of $50 and a maximum of half the tax due. File the return even in a month with no bookings.
The thing that surprises new owners is that the booking platforms do not necessarily handle all of it. Depending on the platform and the year, the county tourist development tax can land back on you to collect and remit directly. Confirm which taxes your platform is actually remitting for your property, in writing, before your first guest checks out.
What this means if you are buying
Key West is not a market where you get to fix this after the fact. The June 2026 median sale price here was about $1.26 million, up 28 percent year over year. A meaningful slice of what you pay above a comparable unlicensed house is the license itself, and the license is the one component you cannot go buy at Home Depot if it turns out not to be there.
So the diligence is simple and it is not optional.
Verify the license with the city, not with the listing. Verify the license type, not just its existence.
Get the actual permitted minimum stay in writing, because nightly, weekly and monthly are three different businesses with three different numbers. Ask for the last two years of business tax receipts and the rental history that goes with them. Find out who is paying the September 30 renewal. Get the original receipt at the closing table. And file your DBPR application early enough that your first booking is not sitting in front of a state license that has not been issued yet.
I seen a buyer close on a house they was a nightly rental and find out afterward that the permitted minimum was a full month. The house was still a good house but the spreadsheet was not the same spreadsheet.
If you want the rest of the picture on how these licenses work day to day, start with the difference between transient and non-transient rentals in Key West, then read what to know before buying a vacation rental in the Florida Keys and how to get a rental property ready for season.
And if you are looking at a house with a license attached, send me the address before you write the offer. I will pull the license status and the type and tell you what you are actually buying, which is not always what the listing says you are buying.
Krystal Sheehan · Brokered by eXp Realty · Licensed in Florida · krystal@kskeywest.com
Verified September 2026. Fees, tax rates and license rules change; confirm current figures with the City of Key West Licensing Division, the Monroe County Tax Collector and DBPR before you rely on them.
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