Illegal Short-Term Rentals: What CAMs Can Learn From Miami's Brickell Bay Case

In August 2026, the City of Miami sent a cease and desist letter to the board of The Club at Brickell Bay, a 43 story condominium at 1200 Brickell Bay Drive, ordering the building to stop all illegal short-term rentals immediately. According to reporting from WSVN 7News, the city's preliminary investigation found more than 300 vacation rental listings tied to a building that was only approved for 30. Assistant City Manager Barbie Hernandez wrote that the operation created a serious life safety concern, since the building was not approved for the fire, life safety, and disability requirements that apply to transient lodging.

This is not a citywide ban on short-term rentals. Miami still permits vacation rentals in parts of the city. What happened at Brickell Bay is enforcement action against one building where the volume of listings, by the city's own account, ran roughly ten times past what its permits allow.

For CAMs, LCAMs, and community association boards across Florida, the details matter less than the pattern behind them. This case is a clear example of what happens when an association cannot answer a basic question quickly: who is actually occupying each unit, and under what terms.

What Happened at The Club at Brickell Bay?

Residents at the building told WSVN that roughly 85 percent of its units have been converted into short-term rental listings since the pandemic, with renters cycling through so frequently that lobby waits and elevator congestion became routine complaints. Some owners reportedly altered interior layouts, enclosing dining rooms and common areas to add sleeping space, which allowed listings to advertise far more occupants than the units were designed to hold.

The city's letter gave the association's officers 10 days to respond after it was delivered. It cited violations of both state and local law tied to operating what amounted to unlicensed transient lodging inside a residential condominium, and it flagged the association's business tax receipt and certificates of use and occupancy as improperly obtained for that use, based on separate reporting cited in coverage of the case.

None of this required a new ordinance or a change in Florida law. It required the city to look closely at one building and act on what it found.

Why This Story Matters for CAMs

Most Florida associations are not dealing with anything close to 300 unauthorized listings. But the underlying problem is common: rental activity that outpaces what the association can actually see.

A board or CAM managing a mid size condominium or HOA usually knows the rules on paper. Governing documents may cap the number of times a unit can be rented per year, require board approval before a lease starts, or set a minimum lease term. What is harder to maintain is a live, accurate picture of which units are currently leased, which leases have expired, which renters were actually approved, and which units may be operating outside the rules.

When that picture lives across spreadsheets, email threads, paper applications, and whatever the property manager remembers from the last board meeting, enforcement becomes reactive. Associations act only after a complaint escalates, the same pattern residents described enduring for years before Miami's Brickell Bay building saw any city action.

Where Short-Term Rental Enforcement Breaks Down

A few operational gaps show up again and again in associations trying to manage rental compliance:

• No immediate visibility into who is occupying each unit. Owners are not always required to notify the association the moment a tenant moves out, and short-term platforms make it easy to fill a unit again within days.
• Difficulty confirming whether a lease was ever approved. Boards may have approved an occupant months ago, but nothing ties that approval to what is happening in the unit today.
• No reliable way to see which leases have expired. Some Miami area associations have described a workaround where a resident signs a lease that technically meets a 30 day minimum, then effectively re-rents the unit night by night once that lease is on file. Without a system flagging expirations and renewals, that pattern is nearly invisible until neighbors complain.
• Incomplete records when a violation needs to be reviewed. If a board wants to fine a unit or pursue enforcement, Florida condominium law requires notice and a hearing before an independent committee under Fla. Stat. Section 718.303. That process depends on documentation. An association that cannot produce a clear record of the violation and prior communication is in a weaker position to enforce anything.
• Pressure without process. Residents escalate complaints to the board, the board asks the CAM for answers, and the CAM is stuck manually cross referencing units, owners, and whatever lease paperwork happens to be on file.

What CAMs Need to Track

A workable rental compliance process depends on having a small set of facts current for every unit, not just the ones currently causing complaints.

At minimum, that record should include the unit and its owner, the approved tenant or occupants on file, the lease start and expiration dates, the minimum lease duration required under the governing documents, whether the application and board approval process was completed, whether the lease has been renewed or has lapsed, supporting documents such as the signed lease and any approval letter, any exceptions or grandfathered rental rights tied to the unit, and a record of prior communication or enforcement action related to that unit.

None of this is exotic. It is the same information most declarations already require owners to submit. The difference between an association that can act with confidence and one that gets caught flat footed, the way Brickell Bay's board reportedly was after refusing city inspectors access, is whether that information sits in one place the CAM and board can actually pull up.

Building a More Consistent Rental Compliance Workflow

A more consistent approach usually follows a similar sequence regardless of the size of the community.

Start by reviewing the governing documents with association counsel to confirm what rental restrictions currently exist, whether they were properly adopted, and whether they apply the same way to condominium units under Chapter 718 as they would to homeowners association lots under Fla. Stat. Section 720.305. Condominium and HOA statutes are not identical, and the enforcement mechanisms available to a board differ between the two.

From there, put the rental requirements in writing for owners in plain language, not buried inside a 40 page declaration. Centralize lease and occupancy records so the CAM is not searching three inboxes to answer a simple question about a unit. Monitor upcoming lease expirations and renewals before they lapse quietly. Document potential violations as they are identified, with dates and specifics, rather than relying on memory when a board meeting comes up. Escalate consistently according to the association's actual procedures, so enforcement does not depend on which resident complained loudest. Maintain board ready records so directors can review a rental compliance summary in minutes instead of asking the CAM to reconstruct it from scratch.

This is where centralized lease tracking changes the day to day workload for a CAM. Instead of checking a spreadsheet against an inbox against a filing cabinet, active, pending, expiring, and renewed leases live in one system tied to the unit. TenantEvaluation's LeaseTracking module helps CAMs monitor lease status by unit, automate reminders ahead of expirations and renewals, and keep a documented history the board can reference if a rental question ever needs to go further. It does not identify Airbnb or vacation rental listings on its own, and it is not a substitute for legal review. What it does is remove the manual guesswork about which leases are current, which have lapsed, and which units need a closer look.

Paired with unit visibility across the whole property, this kind of system gives a board something Brickell Bay's association reportedly did not have for years: a straightforward answer to who is actually living in each unit and under what terms.

When to Involve the Board and Legal Counsel

None of this replaces legal judgment. Deciding whether a specific rental arrangement violates a declaration, whether a fine can be levied, or whether an association has grounds for injunctive relief is a legal question, and it depends on the specific governing documents and facts involved.

Association counsel should be involved as soon as a CAM identifies a pattern that looks like a rule violation, not after the situation has escalated to the point Brickell Bay reached, where residents described city complaints going unanswered for years before reporting from the Miami Herald prompted action. Counsel can confirm whether the declaration's rental restrictions were properly adopted, what notice and hearing steps Chapter 718 or Chapter 720 require before a fine or suspension, and whether local city or county short-term rental ordinances add another layer of exposure beyond the association's own rules.

The CAM's job is not to make that legal determination. It is to make sure the board and its attorney have accurate, organized records the moment they need them, so the response does not depend on someone scrambling to reconstruct months of lease history under pressure.

Better Lease Visibility Starts With Better Records

The Brickell Bay case became a citywide story because the gap between what the building was permitted to do and what was actually happening became too large to ignore. Most associations will never reach that scale, but the same gap, even a smaller version of it, is what makes rental enforcement inconsistent and reactive everywhere it shows up.

A community's rental policy is only as strong as the records supporting it. Boards that can quickly show which leases are active, which have expired, and which units were never properly approved are in a far stronger position to enforce their own rules, whether that means addressing a single problem unit or responding to a city inquiry.

See how LeaseTracking helps CAMs centralize lease activity and stay ahead of renewals and expirations, as part of a broader resident onboarding platform built for HOAs, condominiums, and the management companies that run them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a Florida HOA or condo association restrict Airbnb rentals?
Generally yes, if the restriction is properly included in the declaration or validly adopted through an amendment. Condominium associations operate under Chapter 718 and HOAs operate under Chapter 720, and the specific process for adopting or enforcing a rental restriction differs between the two. Associations should confirm their current restrictions with legal counsel before taking enforcement action.

How can condo associations enforce short-term rental rules?
Enforcement typically starts with documenting the violation, then following the notice and hearing process required before a fine or suspension under Fla. Stat. Section 718.303. Consistent, well documented lease and occupancy records make it far easier to support that process if a violation is challenged.

What records should associations maintain for rental compliance?
At minimum, associations should track the unit and owner, approved tenants, lease start and expiration dates, minimum lease terms, approval status, renewal status, supporting documents, and any communication or enforcement history tied to that unit.

How can CAMs identify unauthorized or expired leases?
Centralized lease tracking that flags upcoming expirations and renewals by unit makes it far easier to catch a lapsed lease or a rental arrangement that no longer matches what the board approved, rather than relying on complaints to surface the issue after the fact.

Schedule a Demo to see how TenantEvaluation helps CAMs, boards, and community associations keep lease and occupancy records organized from application to move in. Schedule a Demo