Hillsborough County, Florida watering rules: what applies all year

The county's Find My Watering Days and Times page gives your days and hours as they stand today. When we checked it on October 23, 2026, a district water shortage order was in force, and the page told owners to reset sprinkler timers from their usual twice-a-week schedule to the order's.³ Under the district's year-round rule, nobody waters between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m..⁴

If you have a sprinkler system, keeping it in working order is on the owner: the timer set to your days and times, and the rain shut-off device and its battery backup working.¹

• New sod and landscaping. For 30 days after it goes in, water on any day. From day 31 to day 60, even-numbered addresses water on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, odd-numbered addresses on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, and common areas and mixed or missing addresses on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. It's all during the allowed hours, and a sprinkler zone can run only if new plants cover at least half of it.³
• Watering in fertilizer or pesticide is done on your days and hours. If a certified professional applicator has posted a sign with the date of application and the dates watering is needed, you can water on any day within 48 hours of the application, during allowed hours.³
• Beds, shrubs and other plants that aren't lawn can be watered as needed with micro-irrigation, a soaker hose or hand watering under the district's year-round rule. A dry patch of lawn can be hand watered during allowed hours. A sprinkler system can be tested once a week, up to 10 minutes a zone, with someone there.⁴ The county's page gives the hours for these while an order is in force.

The county allows watering with reclaimed water on any day, but not between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Use it for lawns, gardens and individual plants, and don't let it pond or run off.³

The county bans these at all times, for every water source and every property:³

• leaving a hose running with no one there;
• hand watering a lawn on a day that isn't yours, or more than once a day;
• hosing a driveway or building to clear what a broom could;
• leaving a broken sprinkler head or leaking faucet running after you've been told about it;
• using water with no practical purpose, in a grossly inefficient way, or for a job that doesn't need it.

Citations go to the property's owner of record:¹

After three years with no violation, the next one counts as a first. A Special Magistrate holds the hearings. If a penalty isn't paid by the date set at the hearing, fees of up to $5,000 a day can be added, and a lien goes on the owner's properties until everything is paid.¹

The county hears an appeal on only three grounds: new plants covering at least half the zone that was running, watering in a certified applicator's treatment within 48 hours with a dated marker visible from the road, or an owner who was living outside Florida when the restrictions changed and watered at a time that used to be allowed. A broken timer, a tenant, rain, a power failure or not knowing the rules don't count. Send the appeal by email to waterappeals@hcfl.gov, by fax to (813) 274-6909, or by mail to Hillsborough County Code Enforcement, 3629 Queen Palm Dr., Tampa, FL 33619.¹

Report a violation to Code Enforcement at (813) 274-6600 in business hours, on the Water Conservation Hotline voicemail at (813) 224-8993 after hours, or online at HCFL.gov/AtYourService, with the address, date, time and what you saw. For questions, the Water Conservation Team is at (813) 663-3295, and a recorded summary of the restrictions is at (813) 275-7094.³