Florida HOA laws: a board member’s reference.

Chapter 720, the Homeowners’ Association Act, governs residential homeowners’ associations. Most of this page comes from it.

Chapter 718, the Condominium Act, governs condominium associations and is a separate regime with its own reserve, inspection, and records rules. Chapter 719 covers cooperatives.

Chapter 617, now the Florida Nonprofit Corporation Act, governs almost every association as a corporate entity and applies wherever Chapter 720 or 718 is silent. This is the one boards forget, and it matters more this year than usual because HB 797 rewrote it effective July 1, 2026. Director and officer standards of care, conflicts of interest, remote participation, member inspection rights that cannot be stripped by bylaws, and a new derivative action framework all changed. Where Chapter 720 gives a specific rule it still controls. Where it does not, the new Chapter 617 default now applies.

Florida also licenses community association managers under Chapter 468, Part VIII. Unlike most states in the region, management here is a licensed occupation, and it is worth confirming the licensure of any firm or individual you engage.

An association may levy reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws, or reasonable rules. A fine may not exceed $100 per violation, and a fine levied for each day of a continuing violation may not exceed $1,000 in the aggregate, in both cases unless the governing documents provide otherwise. A fine of less than $1,000 may not become a lien against a parcel.

The committee is the part boards get wrong. A fine or suspension cannot be imposed without at least 14 days’ notice and an opportunity for a hearing before a committee of at least three members appointed by the board who are not officers, directors, or employees of the association, nor the spouse, parent, child, brother, or sister of one. If that committee does not approve the proposed fine by majority vote, it may not be imposed. The committee’s role is to confirm or reject what the board levied, not to substitute its own penalty.

Within seven days after the hearing the committee provides written notice of its findings to the owner at the designated mailing or email address in the official records, including how to cure the violation or fulfil a suspension, or the date a fine must be paid.

Curing ends it. If the violation is cured before the hearing, or in the manner specified in the written notice, a fine or suspension may not be imposed at all. In any action to recover a fine, the prevailing party is entitled to reasonable attorney fees and costs.

A board that fines by vote of the board alone, without a properly constituted committee, is outside the statute. Our guide to fair-process enforcement covers building a compliant process.

An association may not record a claim of lien for unpaid assessments unless it has first sent the owner written notice or demand giving 45 days to pay. The lien can be recorded on day 46.

Foreclosure requires a second and separate 45-day notice of intent to foreclose, and that notice may not be given until the first 45 days have already run. The two periods run in sequence, not in parallel, which puts the practical floor at roughly three months from first notice to a foreclosure filing.

The lien secures unpaid assessments plus interest, late fees, and collection costs as provided by statute and the governing documents. Remember the interaction with the fines rule: a fine under $1,000 cannot become a lien at all, so a delinquency built mostly of small fines is not a lien candidate.

How CMGT approaches delinquency recovery covers the operational side of running these clocks without losing the file.

Official records must be made available to a member or their authorized representative within 10 business days after receipt of a written request. Florida is unusual in putting a number and a penalty on this rather than a reasonableness standard.

Failure to comply creates a rebuttable presumption of willful non-compliance, with minimum damages of $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days, calculated from the 11th business day after receipt of the request. That is a small number that becomes a real one when a board treats records requests as optional.

Chapter 720 sets out what counts as an official record and what may be withheld. Note the new interaction with Chapter 617: as revised by HB 797, an association cannot eliminate a member’s statutory inspection right through its articles or bylaws. Where Chapter 720 gives a more specific rule it controls, but the corporate floor is now firmer than it was.

Board meetings require notice posted at least 48 hours in advance. Annual member meetings and budget meetings require 14 days. Members have the right to speak on designated agenda items, subject to reasonable rules the association adopts.

Architectural review authority under section 720.3035 rests on what the declaration or governing documents actually authorize. An association may only enforce standards that are stated in the governing documents with sufficient specificity, which is a recurring source of disputes where a committee has been applying unwritten preferences.

New since July 1, 2026: an association, architectural review committee, or similar committee may not require a government-issued building permit as a prerequisite to reviewing an owner’s proposed construction or improvements. The association can still conduct its review, apply its aesthetic standards, and approve, condition, or deny. What it can no longer do is refuse to look at the application until the owner produces a permit. Boards whose ARC intake checklist starts with “attach your permit” need to update that checklist.

Florida condominium law is governed by Chapter 718, not Chapter 720, and the two diverge in ways that matter. Fines in condominiums cannot become liens at all. Reserve, inspection, and records obligations are substantially heavier.

Since Surfside, Florida has layered on milestone structural inspections and structural integrity reserve study requirements, and has progressively restricted the ability of boards and members to waive or underfund reserves. The 2025 reform package expanded reserve requirements, inspections, governance standards, and manager accountability, with most provisions effective July 1, 2025 and expanded records and online access requirements phasing in on January 1, 2026 for a wider set of associations than before.

This area moves faster than anything else in Florida association law and is under active regulatory work, including a state task force revising the standard structural integrity reserve study form. Any condominium board should be working from current counsel guidance rather than any published summary, including this one.