The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) today highlights 2023 accomplishments that streamline processes and support growth for Florida businesses and professionals. In 2023, DBPR created efficiencies for Florida businesses and professionals while protecting the state’s consumers, furthering Governor DeSantis’ mission to expand career opportunities and maintaining Florida as the best place to own a business and start a professional career.
“Under Governor DeSantis’ leadership, Florida has successfully cut red tape and created efficiencies for business owners and professionals, making it easier for Floridians to open and operate a business or begin a new career,” said DBPR Secretary Melanie S. Griffin. “This year’s accomplishments translate to long-term growth for Floridians and their communities, and DBPR will continue to find ways to increase opportunity while maintaining our state’s rigorous health and safety standards.”
2023 accomplishments include:
More Than $11 Million in Tax Payer Savings
- In 2023, the Department waived licensure application fees as follows, resulting in more than $11 million in savings for Floridians:
- In 2023, House Bill 1091 was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor DeSantis, waiving certain license and application fees until 2025. This year, through DBPR’s implementation of HB 1091, more than $4.6 million in fees were waived for licensees.
- DBPR implemented additional fee holidays for multiple professional licenses in 2023, resulting in more than $4.3 million in savings for over 400,000 licensees.
- Additionally, more than $1.4 million in fees were waived for more than 3,500 applications from July – December for product manufacturers to update existing applications to comply with the 2023 Florida Building Code.
Creating Efficiencies and Removing Barriers
- DBPR’s Division of Hotels and Restaurants cut the processing time of public food service plan reviews by more than 71 percent in 2023, from an average of 21 days to less than six days.
- The Divisions of Service Operations, Technology, and Real Estate received the “2023 Program of the Year” award from Florida Tax Watch, Government Productivity Awards, for their development of two Robotic Process Automation programs.
- DBPR designed, developed, and implemented two Robotic Process Automation services, creating same-day processing for more than 3,200 Real Estate Initial Licensure Exam Applications and 6,200 Electronic Fingerprint Result files across 10 programs, saving more than 830 hours of staff time.
- DBPR’s Division of Service Operations continued to focus on employee recruitment, retention, and development. As a result of this effort, several key performance indicators significantly improved during the 2023 Calendar Year, decreasing wait times and benefitting licensees.
- Within the Bureau of Central Intake and Licensure, the average time to review a professional application was reduced from 12.42 days in 2022 to 10.98 days in 2023.
- In the Customer Contact Center, the average time that a customer waited on hold prior to speaking with a call agent was reduced by more than 63 percent, from 34:56 minutes in 2022 to 12:46 minutes in 2023.
- The DBPR Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco implemented license self-printing processes, eliminating the cost and delays associated with sending licenses by postal mail.
- The DBPR Division of Drugs, Devices and Cosmetics implemented a new Controlled Substance Reporting platform, creating a modern and streamlined reporting process for manufacturers and distributors legally required to submit monthly controlled substance distribution reports.
Supporting Florida’s Industry Growth
- Licensed public lodging establishments grew by approximately 20% statewide in 2023, increasing from more than 62,000 licensees to more than 75,000. Additionally, the number of licensed public food service establishments grew by more than 2,000 statewide, from more than 62,000 to more than 64,000.
- DBPR vacation rental licenses grew more than 35% in 2023, from approximately 37,000 in 2022 to more than 50,000 licenses this year, representing nearly 165,000 individual vacation rental units statewide. Vacation rental licenses now account for almost two-thirds of all DBPR public lodging licenses issued.
- In 2023, the Florida Athletic Commission sanctioned 123 live professional boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts events, tying with 2022 for the highest number on record.
Protecting and Educating Florida Consumers
- DBPR successfully settled three cases it prosecuted against licensees that inappropriately allowed minors to attend age-inappropriate entertainment shows of a sexual nature, enforcing Florida law and making great strides in protecting minors from future exposure to lewd and lascivious content.
- In Fiscal Year 2022-23, more than $4.4 million was awarded to more than 230 homeowners impacted by violations of their licensed contractors through the Florida Homeowner’s Construction Recovery Fund. Fiscal Year 2022-2023 awards reflect a notable increase in awarded funds, with $2.7 million awarded for 141 claims in Fiscal Year 2021-22.
- DBPR’s Bureau of Law Enforcement celebrated its 90th year in 2023 as the second-oldest law enforcement agency in Florida. DBPR law enforcement officers conducted several interagency operations this year, including:
- a partnership with the City of Miami Police Department that resulted in the seizure of narcotics and stolen property totaling more than $1 million in value, and the seizure of more than 750 containers of “gas station heroin” statewide following Attorney General Ashley Moody’s emergency rule outlawing Tianeptine.
- advanced training for enforcement agents focused on the investigation of human trafficking, as well as participation in numerous investigations with joint state and federal task forces that have identified more than 300 individuals either trafficking or being trafficked in Florida. As a result of the Bureau’s partnership with federal agencies, there are multiple pending criminal cases and over $1.5 million in civil penalties pending against licensees.
- DBPR hosted 80 virtual and in-person educational events for Florida condominium, timeshare, and mobile home unit owners in 2023 with a combined attendance of over 2,200, covering key topics such as unit owner rights and responsibilities, board member certification and more.
- The Department increased outreach to condominium owners in 2023, providing educational materials at more than 200 locations in Florida.
- The DBPR Division of Regulation conducted a combined 840 public outreach activities and proactive unlicensed activity enforcement operations with local law enforcement agencies across the state in 2023.
- The DBPR Division of Real Estate conducted more than 2,400 investigations, more than 740 inspections and more than 200 audits, disclosing more than $400,000 in escrow account shortages.
- DBPR conducted several social media, television and radio campaigns warning Floridians against the dangers of hiring unlicensed contractors and real estate professionals that delivered nearly 32 million impressions statewide.
- In 2023, DBPR received $3.5 million in recurring funding from the Florida Legislature for an identity verification product that will reduce the risk of application fraud by integrating with the DBPR licensing system to verify identifications in real-time with customer data. The verification product also provides reports to the Department on identities verified for use in fraud investigations.
- On June 15, 2023, the Florida Building Code published an integrated Draft 8th Edition (2023) of the Florida Building Code, which is ranked #1 in the country. The new edition became effective on December 31, 2023, and builds upon the state’s rigorous safety standards for construction to better prepare the state for any potential future disasters.
Disaster Response & Recovery
- DBPR co-located with FloridaCommerce, CareerSource, the Florida Small Business Development Center Network and additional state agencies at Family Resource Support Centers, One-Stop Business Resource Centers, and Disaster Recovery Centers in the Big Bend to meet with impacted licensees and educate business owners on important business recovery resources available to them through the state.
- In partnership with Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and local law enforcement agencies, DBPR is currently working more than 1,200 cases related to unlicensed activity in the aftermath of Hurricanes Idalia, Ian and Nicole, successfully stopping fraudulent behavior in the state and preventing bad actors from taking advantage of vulnerable Floridians.
- The DBPR Division of Service Operations prioritized the processing of roofing contractor and out-of-state construction endorsement applications to ensure an abundance of qualified, licensed contractors are available to provide construction and repair services to homeowners recovering from Hurricane Idalia. In total, DBPR issued 765 new contractor licenses, with nearly 150 of these being certified or registered roofing contractor licenses.
- DBPR successfully conducted outreach to 1,350 licensees in Idalia-impacted areas to assess their post-storm needs and provide critical information on the dangers of unlicensed contracting schemes, as well as state recovery resources for businesses.
- DBPR conducted nearly 700 inspections of licensed public lodging establishments, restaurants, and alcoholic beverage and tobacco licensee establishments in impacted areas to ensure businesses were reopening and operating safely in the aftermath of the storm.
- DBPR launched an outreach campaign via social media, billboards and radio to inform residents of the dangers of unlicensed activity scams after Hurricane Idalia’s landfall, receiving nearly 9.3 million impressions.
- DBPR law enforcement officers provided 24-hour security and traffic direction at distribution sites for impacted residents in Jefferson, Madison and Suwannee counties.
