Fort Lauderdaleculture & etiquette

Florida's constitution prohibits a personal income tax, which is the headline reason people move here. The offsetting cost is property insurance, and in coastal Broward it is the single largest surprise in anyone's budget: a windstorm-exposed house here is insured very differently from an inland one, and premiums have run into thousands of dollars a year even for modest homes. The market has improved — the state regulator approved a rate decrease for Citizens for 2026 and a series of new insurers have entered — but 'improved' is from a very high base. Get an actual quote on the actual address before you commit to anything, buying or renting.

A standard homeowner's or renter's policy excludes flood. In a mapped FEMA high-risk zone — which covers a very large share of Fort Lauderdale, a city averaging around nine feet above sea level — flood cover is a condition of any federally backed mortgage, and renters need their own contents policy because the landlord's covers the building, not your possessions. Look the specific address up on FEMA's flood map service before you sign, not the neighbourhood.

Broward County has 31 incorporated municipalities plus unincorporated areas, and the postal service uses 'Fort Lauderdale' for addresses in several of them. Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Lauderdale Lakes and Lauderdale-by-the-Sea are separate cities with their own mayors, police arrangements, building departments, rental rules and municipal property tax rates. The county handles schools, the property appraiser, the tax collector and the courts for all of them — but everything municipal turns on which city you are actually in.

New residents must obtain a Florida driver licence within 30 days of establishing residency, surrendering the out-of-state one. Separately, Florida requires you to hold insurance from a Florida-licensed agent before you can title and register a vehicle, and the statute frames that as within 10 days of establishing residency — so the insurance step comes first, not last. Florida is a no-fault state requiring personal injury protection, which is not how most of the country works.

The Social Security Administration verifies your status against DHS records that lag entry by one to two weeks, so going in on day two usually wastes the trip. Only work-authorised people qualify; everyone else files IRS Form W-7 for an ITIN. The card is free.

After the 2021 Surfside collapse, Florida required milestone structural inspections for condominium buildings three storeys and higher at 30 years — 25 years within three miles of the coast — plus a structural integrity reserve study, and it banned boards from waiving those reserves. Fort Lauderdale's beachside and Intracoastal stock is exactly the age and location that regime targets, and special assessments running from five figures to well over a hundred thousand dollars per unit have followed. A cheap older condo near the water is frequently cheap for this reason. Ask for the inspection report, the reserve study and the last two years of board minutes before you offer.