FL S1600

Creates section 196.2003, F.S., to provide tax abatement for residential improvements damaged or destroyed by natural disasters occurring during the 2017 calendar year.

Property owners must file applications with the property appraiser by March 1, 2019, documenting the parcel, disaster type, damage date, and months of uninhabitability; applications require sworn verification under penalty of perjury.

Property appraiser must investigate applications and issue written statements by April 1, 2019, certifying the months uninhabitable, just value as of January 1, 2017, postdisaster just value, and percent change in value.

Tax collector calculates the disaster relief credit (damage differential multiplied by timely paid 2017 taxes) and reduces 2019 taxes by that amount, carrying forward any excess credit to subsequent years.

Applies retroactively to January 1, 2017, and expires January 1, 2021; uninhabitable residential improvements receive no assessed value during the abatement period.