## Facts

- The City of Miami Beach, a home-rule municipality under the 1968 Florida Constitution and its charter, adopted Ordinance No. 1791 in October 1969, titled “Housing and Rent Control Regulations.”
- The ordinance regulated rents in housing with four or more rental units, with exceptions including hotels, motels, public housing, condominiums, cooperative apartments, and certain other specified facilities; it also exempted housing completed after December 1, 1969.
- The City justified the ordinance based on findings of an inflationary spiral and housing shortage and stated an intent to protect residents from exorbitant rents.
- Fleetwood Hotel, Inc. and other affected lessors sued for declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging the ordinance was unconstitutional and unlawful, including because state statutes already regulated aspects of landlord–tenant relations.
- In the circuit court, both sides moved for summary judgment; the court invalidated the ordinance, finding the City lacked power to enact rent control, the ordinance involved unlawful delegation, and it conflicted with Florida landlord–tenant statutes.
- The City took a direct appeal to the Supreme Court of Florida.

## Issues

1. Whether a home-rule municipality has authority under Article VIII, section 2 of the Florida Constitution and its charter to enact a comprehensive rent-control ordinance without express state authorization.
2. Whether the ordinance was invalid due to unlawful delegation of legislative authority to an administrative body.
3. Whether the ordinance conflicted with state landlord–tenant statutes governing possession and eviction procedures.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed the judgment invalidating Ordinance No. 1791.
- The court held the City lacked authority under the home-rule provision and the city charter to enact a rent-control ordinance absent a specific legislative grant.
- Because lack of municipal power was dispositive, the court found it unnecessary to decide the delegation and statutory-conflict grounds.

## Legal Principles

- Home-rule authority permits municipalities to conduct municipal government and perform municipal functions, but it does not authorize regulation outside matters of municipal concern absent express state authorization.
- Comprehensive rent control is treated as a subject of statewide economic and landlord–tenant policy, not a purely municipal matter, unless the Legislature specifically delegates authority to municipalities.
- General welfare and police-power language in a municipal charter does not, by itself, confer power to implement a broad rent-control scheme that alters landlord–tenant economic relations addressed by state law.

## Conclusion

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the invalidation of Miami Beach’s rent-control ordinance, holding that a home-rule municipality may not adopt comprehensive rent regulation without an express delegation of authority from the state.


City of Miami Beach v. Fleetwood Hotel, Inc., 261 So. 2d 801 (Fla. 1972)