HB 607 failed for the second year running, so your license requirements didn't change. What did change: rental-application fraud is now a felony, and property tax estimates are coming to listing sites in 2027.
The Headline No One Wrote: Your License Requirements Are the Same
Every spring, Florida's legislative session produces a wave of "what's changing for real estate agents" content, and most years the honest answer is: less than the headlines suggest. This year is no exception on the biggest single item Florida Realtors tracked — but two other bills did become law, and both are worth building into how Newkirk agents advise clients right now.
Start with what didn't happen. House Bill 607 would have abolished the Florida Real Estate Commission (FREC) and the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board outright, replaced the mandatory post-licensing education requirement — 45 classroom hours for sales associates, 60 for brokers, per the Department of Business and Professional Regulation's own real estate education page — and the 14-hour continuing education requirement every renewal cycle with a simple summary email from DBPR describing the year's legislative changes. It also would have weakened Florida's "mutual recognition" agreements that let Florida licensees work more easily in other states, and vice versa.
Florida Realtors opposed the bill and, according to its own 2026 Legislative Final Report, "successfully prevented the passage of HB 607" for the second consecutive year. Chuck Bonfiglio, Florida Realtors' 2026 president and broker-owner of AAA Realty Group in Plantation, characterized the session as requiring "a focused defensive effort" to protect the industry from legislation with unintended consequences.
Bottom Line: FREC still exists, the 45/60-hour post-licensing requirement still applies to first renewals, and the 14-hour continuing education requirement — 3 hours of Core Law, 3 hours of Ethics and Business Practices, 8 hours of specialty education, under Florida Administrative Rule 61J2-3.009(2) — still applies every renewal cycle. If you heard otherwise, that was HB 607 talk, and it didn't become law.
What Actually Changed #1: Rental-Application Fraud Is Now a Felony
The session's most consequential real-world change for landlords and property managers took effect on October 1. House Bill 1293, "Fraudulent Entry of Residential Dwellings," passed both chambers of the Legislature unanimously — 110-0 in the House, 34-0 in the Senate — was signed by the governor on June 12, 2026, and became Chapter Law 2026-143. It took effect October 1, 2026.
The law makes it a third-degree felony to knowingly and willfully use forged financial documents, falsify identity information, or impersonate someone else to fraudulently obtain a rental home. Prosecutors have to prove the person acted knowingly and willfully — an honest mistake on a rental application doesn't trigger a felony charge. The law also gives landlords a faster path to remove a tenant who got in through fraud: they can issue a seven-day notice to vacate without the usual opportunity to cure the violation, though if the person refuses to leave, the landlord still has to go through Florida's formal eviction process in court.
The law has real backing data behind it. A National Multifamily Housing Council survey of 75 apartment owners, developers, and managers (conducted November 2023 through January 2024) found that 93.3% had experienced rental application fraud in the prior year, and more than 84% of those cases involved falsified income documents. Eric Garduño, government affairs director for the Bay Area Apartment Association, has pointed to AI-generated fake pay stubs and bank statements as a growing reason fraud is harder for landlords to catch by eye. Not everyone is on board, though: Charles Phillips of the St. Petersburg Tenants Union has argued the felony approach is unnecessary and that a conviction could follow an applicant into future housing and employment searches long after the original dispute — a concern worth knowing about if a client or tenant raises it.
What this means for Newkirk agents: if you manage rentals or represent landlord clients, this is a real new tool — a termination notice doesn't require the cure period it used to when application fraud is involved. But the felony threshold is "knowingly and willfully," not "made an error on a form." Encourage landlord clients to document the specific false information (not just a credit-score surprise) and to involve an attorney before issuing a fraud-based termination notice, since the legal process to actually remove someone who refuses to leave hasn't changed.
What Actually Changed #2: Listings Will Have to Show Real Property Tax Estimates
The second enacted change is smaller in the news cycle but touches every single listing. House Bill 7031-E, now Chapter 2026-239, Laws of Florida, creates a new subsection — Section 689.261(3), Florida Statutes — that took effect July 1, 2026, with compliance for listing platforms required starting February 1, 2027.
Here's the mechanic, per the Florida Department of Revenue's own bulletin (PTO BUL 26-15): any online platform that chooses to display an estimated property tax figure for a residential listing has to calculate it using a standardized method, not the seller's current, soon-to-be-outdated tax bill. The Department of Revenue is building the infrastructure for that: a public web table linking to every county property appraiser's homepage and tax estimator, a formula platforms can use with property appraiser data, and an annually published countywide average millage rate platforms can use as an alternative. The Department has to publish the formula, the countywide rates, and underlying data starting December 15, 2026, and every year after. A platform that doesn't want to build its own estimate can simply link to the county property appraiser's estimator instead — but it can no longer display the seller's current tax bill as if it will carry over to a new owner.
The reasoning, according to WFTV's coverage of the law, is straightforward: a sale typically resets a property's assessed value to market value, which can raise the new owner's tax bill well above what the seller was paying — especially on a longtime-owned, homesteaded property. Showing the seller's number as if it's the buyer's number misleads purchasers on true carrying costs, and county property appraisers pushed for the fix. Florida Realtors, in its own March 2026 session recap, noted it secured liability protection for licensees and other information providers in the bill's language — meaning an agent isn't on the hook if a platform's estimate turns out to be wrong, as long as the agent didn't generate that estimate themselves.
What this means for Newkirk agents: nothing changes in your day-to-day practice before February 2027, but it's worth getting ahead of client questions now. When a buyer asks "why does the listing say $4,200 in taxes but my lender's estimate says $6,800," the honest answer — even before this law takes effect — is that the seller's tax bill reflects their purchase price and exemptions, not the buyer's future bill. Starting with this law, that explanation becomes a standardized, documented part of the listing itself rather than something an agent has to explain informally.
What Else Moved (and What Didn't) This Session
A few other items from Florida Realtors' own 2026 session tracking are worth knowing, even without a dedicated deep dive:
Florida Realtors helped get a proposed septic-system disclosure requirement removed from a Department of Environmental Protection bill, arguing it would be confusing to implement at the point of sale — consistent with the septic-disclosure concerns Newkirk covered in its legal-update post.
The state budget (HB 5001-E) includes $50 million for the Hometown Heroes Housing Program and $236.5 million for affordable housing programs generally, effective July 1, 2026 (the Hometown Heroes funding took effect upon becoming law).
Two bills that didn't pass: SB 48, which would have addressed accessory dwelling units statewide after passing the Senate but failing to reach final agreement with the House; and HB 657, dealing with HOA dissolution and related changes, which had no Senate companion bill and died without a vote.
And separately from this year's regular session, Florida's Amendment 3 property tax measure — covered in Newkirk's earlier explainer — goes before voters on November 3, 2026, with its own set of implications for landlords that are distinct from anything in this recap.
The Agent Takeaway
Florida's 2026 legislative session, now that the dust has settled, is really a story about one big non-event and two real changes. HB 607's licensing deregulation failed for the second year in a row, so nothing about your continuing education, post-licensing hours, or FREC oversight changed — don't let a client or a competing agent convince you otherwise. What did change: Florida made rental-application fraud a felony starting this month, giving landlord clients a faster, better-documented path to deal with fraudulent tenants, and starting February 1, 2027, every listing platform that shows a tax estimate will have to show a real one, not the seller's outdated bill. Build both into how you talk to clients now, before February 2027 arrives and buyers start asking why the numbers finally look different.
Sources
- Florida Realtors — 2026 Legislative Final Report — HB 607's defeat; HB 1293 and HB 7031-E summaries and liability protection; HB 5001-E budget items; SB 48 and HB 657 non-passage
- Florida Realtors — "Realtor Advocacy Triumphs During 2026 Session" (March 13, 2026) — Chuck Bonfiglio quote, HB 607 details, septic disclosure removal
- Florida Senate — Bill History, HB 1293 (2026) — vote tallies, signing date, Chapter Law 2026-143, October 1, 2026 effective date
- Bay News 9 / Spectrum News, "New Florida Rental Fraud Law Sparks Debate Over Felony Penalties, Tenant Protections" (Sept. 25, 2026) — felony threshold and notice mechanics; Garduño and Phillips quotes; NMHC fraud survey data
- Florida Department of Revenue — Property Tax Oversight Bulletin PTO BUL 26-15 — HB 7031-E implementation, Section 689.261(3) F.S., February 1, 2027 compliance date
- WFTV, "Florida Law Change Will Standardize Property Tax Estimates on Online Listings" — why the law exists and how it affects listing platforms
- Florida DBPR — Real Estate Commission Education Requirements — current post-licensing and CE requirements
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