The Guide to Florida COA Laws

The association is the legal entity that administers the condominium. §718.111 sets the outer bounds of what it can and cannot do.

Boards of administration may buy and sell property, contract for services, sue on behalf of all unit owners, and purchase units at foreclosure. Real property transactions require either the procedure in the declaration or approval by 75% of the total voting interests, as boards can’t act unilaterally on real estate.

Unit owners have the right to inspect official records within 10 working days of a written request. A failure to respond on the board’s part triggers minimum damages of $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days beginning on the 11th working day, and a prevailing owner can recover reasonable attorney’s fees.

Associations managing 25 or more units must maintain and post on a password-protected website or app:

• Board meeting agendas
• SIRS findings
• Milestone inspection reports
• Building permits for ongoing construction
• Required affidavits

What this means for boards: The records obligation isn’t something you can ignore. Damages are automatic, not discretionary. Set up a records system before you need it. Document storage tools make the 10-day window manageable.

This is the most operationally demanding section in the statute. There are strict rules about meetings, the budget process, board member eligibility and term limits, elections, board member certification and education, and written inquiries.

Meetings

Associations with over 10 units must meet at least quarterly. Boards of administration must provide notice at least 48 continuous hours in advance. If your meeting is on Thursday night, you must post the announcement by Tuesday evening at the latest. Meetings to consider a special assessment or changes to rules about how owners use their units need 14 days’ written notice.

Video meetings are allowed, but the notice must include a hyperlink and a phone number, and the recording becomes an official record.

Board meetings are open to all unit owners. In addition, boards of administration can’t vote by email.

Budget Process

The board must deliver the proposed budget to every unit owner at least 14 days before the budget meeting. If the budget exceeds 115% of the prior year’s assessments, the board must simultaneously propose a substitute stripped of discretionary spending, which owners may adopt at the meeting (the 115% figure excludes reserves, non-annual expenses, and insurance).

Board Eligibility and Term Limits

Board members may serve a maximum of eight consecutive years, unless:

• Two-thirds of the votes cast approve the candidate.
• There are too few candidates.

If an owner is delinquent in assessments, has certain felony convictions, or has been suspended or removed by the DBPR, they’re ineligible.

Elections

Board of administration elections must be conducted by secret ballot. Proxies can’t be used to elect the board. Elections are only valid if 20% of eligible voters participate.

Candidates must provide written notice that they’re running in the election at least 40 days in advance. First notices of the election must be mailed to unit owners 60 days in advance.

Board Member Certification and Education

Every director must file a written certification of fiduciary duty and a certificate of completion of a state-approved four-hour curriculum, taken either within one year before being elected or appointed or within 90 days after, covering:

• Milestone inspections
• SIRS
• Elections
• Recordkeeping
• Financial literacy
• Fines
• Meeting procedures

Thereafter, directors must take one hour of continuing education annually for the duration of their term. Directors who don’t file this certification will be suspended until they comply with the statute.

What this means for boards: Miss a step, and you can invalidate an election, draw a DBPR complaint, and end up paying the other side’s attorney fees.

An important part of complying with this statute is following proper notification rules and creating written records. Mass communication tools automate the delivery of notices and create a written record.

Common expenses under §718.115 include insurance, maintenance, management, and reserves. Milestone inspection costs are the association’s responsibility under §553.899 for the portions of the building it maintains. Under §718.116, each owner is personally liable for their share.

The association holds an automatic lien on the unit if the owner is delinquent in paying assessments. Payments must be applied in a mandatory sequence, meaning interest first, then administrative late fees, then collection costs and attorney’s fees, then the delinquent assessment, regardless of how the owner designates the payment.

Late fees aren’t subject to Florida usury laws or the §718.303 fine caps. If the declaration or bylaws give the association lease-approval authority, the board may disapprove a lease proposed by a delinquent owner. Under §718.111(9), a board member, manager, or management company may not buy a unit at an association foreclosure sale or take title by deed in lieu.

What this means for boards: The payment application order is mandatory and often misunderstood. Boards can’t direct a partial payment straight to the principal. Financial tools that enforce this hierarchy eliminate a common source of disputes.

Florida has always required condo reserves, but post-Surfside, the rules changed for SIRS-covered buildings: the association must reserve for every component identified in the study, with amounts based on the SIRS findings rather than board judgment.

For SIRS components with a remaining useful life of over 25 years (or where life is not readily ascertainable), the association must still reserve the deferred-maintenance amount that the SIRS recommends.

For budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, unit owners may no longer vote to waive or underfund reserves for SIRS components. There is one narrow exception: with the approval of a majority of the total voting interests, a board that has completed a milestone inspection within the previous two calendar years may pause or reduce reserve contributions for up to two consecutive annual budgets to fund the recommended repairs. That option applies to budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2028 and is not available to developer-controlled associations.

What this means for boards: The study now drives the budget. If the SIRS says a component needs $25,000, the board must fund $25,000.

The board of administration may levy reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws, or rules. The steps below are mandatory. Skip one and the fine is invalid.

The board must provide at least 14 days’ written notice identifying the violation and the hearing’s date, time, and location. A hearing must be held before an independent committee of at least three members who are not officers, directors, employees, or their relatives. If the committee does not approve by majority vote, the fine cannot be imposed.

Florida condominium association laws cap fines at $100 per day for each continuing violation, with a maximum of $1,000 in the aggregate. These caps cannot be overridden by the declaration or bylaws, and a fine may never become a lien against a unit. That’s a protection unique to condo law. Chapter 720 lets HOA fines of $1,000 or more become liens. The board of administration can suspend common-element use rights, provided it follows the same notice and committee process.

What this means for boards: Boards must treat fine enforcement as a compliance tool, not a revenue collection tool. Use violation tracking to document notice dates, committee composition, and hearing outcomes for every step.

Florida condominium association laws require unit owners and associations to attempt alternative dispute resolution (ADR) before suing over certain disputes. Covered disputes include the board’s authority to require an owner to take or not take action involving their unit, the board’s authority to alter or add to common areas, and a governing body’s failure to properly conduct elections or meetings, to give adequate notice, or to allow inspection of records. Starting July 1, 2027, an association’s failure to obtain a milestone inspection or SIRS, fund required reserves, or make the repairs they recommend also becomes a covered dispute, and those disputes must go to pre-suit mediation.

There are two tracks: non-binding arbitration through the DBPR, or pre-suit mediation under §720.311 procedures. Election and recall disputes must go to DBPR arbitration or directly to court under Florida condominium association laws. There is no mediation available in these situations.

Here are situations that aren’t covered by this statute:

• Title to a unit or common element
• Warranty interpretation or enforcement
• Levying or collecting fees and assessments
• Tenant evictions
• Directors’ breach of fiduciary duty
• Damage to a unit from the association’s failure to maintain

What this means for boards: Following these procedures is the only way to keep a covered claim alive in court. ADR also frequently resolves matters before litigation costs accrue.

The DBPR actively enforces Chapter 718. Here are the powers the agency has:

• Investigating written complaints
• Subpoenaing records
• Compelling testimony
• Auditing bank accounts
• Levying civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation
• Petitioning circuit courts
• Issuing cease-and-desist orders against developers or bulk buyers

For unit-owner-controlled associations, the division’s jurisdiction covers financial records and annual reporting, election and recall procedures, owner access to official records, and compliance with milestone inspection requirements under §553.899. Investigators must close or justify each file within 90 days.

What this means for boards: Since 2021, the DBPR has faced pressure to actively investigate condominium associations. Clean records, proper election procedures, and met inspection deadlines are your best protection if the division does come calling. In most cases, compliance comes down to documentation.

The rules about inspections apply to condominium and cooperative associations in buildings three or more habitable stories in height. “Habitable stories” are determined by the Florida Building Code, which generally excludes floors used only for parking, storage, or mechanical equipment.

Mandatory milestone inspections take place when a building is 30 years old, based on the certificate of occupancy, and then every 10 years thereafter. A local enforcement agency may require the first inspection at 25 years instead, based on local circumstances such as proximity to salt water. Check with your building department rather than assuming the 30-year date applies. Single, two, three, and four-family dwellings of three or fewer habitable stories are exempt.

Phase 1 of the inspection is visual, and it’s carried out by a licensed engineer or architect. They must complete the inspection within 180 days of the local enforcement agency’s notice, and the board must notify unit owners within 14 days of receiving that notice.

Phase 2 will only follow if the inspector finds substantial structural deterioration. This phase may involve destructive or nondestructive testing. Surface cracks or peeling alone aren’t enough to trigger Phase 2, unless the inspector can tie them to structural distress.

What this means for boards: If your building has three or more habitable stories and is approaching the 30-year mark (25 in some jurisdictions), milestone inspections apply. Your board of administration must arrange the inspection, coordinate with the enforcement agency, notify owners, and pay for the inspection of the portions of the building the association maintains. Missing timelines invite a DBPR investigation.

The SIRS is the financial companion to the inspection. The inspection evaluates the building’s condition, while the SIRS calculates the cost of maintaining and replacing structural components over time and determines the required reserve funding.

Your SIRS must analyze each structural component the association maintains, estimate the useful life and replacement cost for each, and include a baseline reserve funding plan that ensures the reserve balance never reaches zero (other schedules are allowed if sufficient). Any association subject to milestone inspections must complete one.

Associations that existed on or before July 1, 2022, and are unit-owner-controlled must have a SIRS completed by December 31, 2025. If an association must complete a milestone inspection on or before December 31, 2026, Florida condominium association laws allow it to complete the SIRS simultaneously with the milestone inspection. The SIRS completed in conjunction with the milestone inspection must be finished by December 31, 2026.

After completion, the association must, within 45 days, distribute the study or notice of its availability to each owner.

What this means for boards: The SIRS sets the reserve floor for every future budget. When you’ve finished it, you can justify assessment levels. Otherwise, you’re flying blind.