Changes to Florida Statute 720: Records, Fines, and Recalls

Florida’s Homeowners’ Association Act, Chapter 720 of the Florida Statutes, was substantially rewritten by HB 1203, which took effect July 1, 2024. The changes to Florida Statute 720 strengthen records access, cap fines and tighten hearing procedures, protect driveway parking, require director education, criminalize election fraud, and put hard deadlines on board recalls. The practical result is more leverage for homeowners when an association ignores the rules, and more exposure for directors who do.

Records Access, Deadlines, and the New $50-a-Day Penalty

The transparency changes are the ones homeowners end up using. Associations must keep official records for at least seven years and must adopt written retention rules explaining what is kept and for how long.¹ Those retention policies must be posted on the association’s website or app.

When you submit a written request to inspect or copy records, the association has 10 business days to make them available. The inspection location has to be within 45 miles of the community or within the county where the association operates.¹ If you send that request by certified mail with return receipt and the association still does not respond within those 10 business days, the law creates a rebuttable presumption that the failure was willful.

That presumption matters because a homeowner denied access can recover actual damages or minimum statutory damages of $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days, with the clock starting on the 11th business day after the association received the request.² The ceiling is $500, but it gives boards a real reason to answer on time instead of stalling.

A separate criminal provision applies to the person obstructing access. Any director, board member, or community association manager who knowingly, willfully, and repeatedly violates the records inspection rules with intent to cause harm commits a second-degree misdemeanor. The statute defines “repeatedly” as two or more violations within a 12-month period.² A second-degree misdemeanor carries up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

If an association receives a law enforcement subpoena, it must provide the records within five business days unless the subpoena says otherwise, and it must assist the investigation to the extent the law allows.³

Associations with 100 or more parcels have been required since January 1, 2025, to maintain a password-protected website or mobile app where owners can access records digitally. Required postings include governing documents, annual budgets, financial reports, meeting notices, contracts, insurance policies, and board meeting minutes.¹ Smaller HOAs with fewer than 100 parcels are not required to maintain a full website under Chapter 720, though they must still make the records retention policy available online.

Fines, Hearings, and the Right to Cure

The procedural rules around fines and suspensions now give homeowners meaningful protection. Before imposing any fine or suspension, the board must send at least 14 days’ written notice to your designated mailing or email address, telling you of your right to a hearing. The hearing has to take place within 90 days after that notice goes out.⁴

The hearing is conducted by a fining committee of at least three members appointed by the board. No committee member may be an officer, director, or employee of the association, and close family members of those people are also excluded. Spouses, parents, children, and siblings of anyone in association leadership cannot serve.⁴ Many associations previously stacked these committees with insiders; that is no longer permitted.

If you fix the violation before the hearing, the association cannot impose the fine or suspension. This cure-before-hearing right is now written into the statute.⁴ If the committee approves the fine by majority vote, it must set a payment deadline at least 30 days out, and the association cannot charge attorney’s fees against you for board actions taken before that payment deadline.

Fine amounts are capped at $100 per violation. For a continuing violation, the board can levy a daily fine with a single notice and hearing, but the total cannot exceed $1,000 in the aggregate unless the governing documents expressly allow more.⁵ A fine under $1,000 cannot become a lien against the parcel.

Suspending Voting and Common Area Rights

If any monetary obligation to the association is more than 90 days past due, including assessments, fines, or other fees, the association can suspend your voting rights until the balance is paid in full. No hearing is required before the suspension takes effect for a delinquent account.⁶

The association may also suspend your right to use common areas and facilities for the same 90-day delinquency, but the suspension cannot block access to your parcel. You keep the right to drive and walk to and from your home, including the right to park, and the association cannot cut off utility services that run through common elements to reach your property.⁶ All suspensions must be approved at a properly noticed board meeting, with written notice sent to you afterward.

Parking in Your Own Driveway

The 2024 amendments added clear protection against HOA overreach on driveway parking. Association documents cannot prohibit an owner, tenant, or guest from parking a personal vehicle, including a pickup truck, in the owner’s driveway or any other area where they have a legal right to park.⁷

The protection extends to a work vehicle parked in the owner’s driveway regardless of official insignia or visible company markings, so long as the vehicle does not qualify as a “commercial motor vehicle” under Florida’s vehicle definitions. That distinction turns on weight and design rather than whether the truck has a company logo on it. A plumber’s pickup with a business wrap is protected. A full-sized box truck likely is not.⁷

First responders get a separate protection. An association cannot prohibit a first responder who is a parcel owner, tenant, or guest from parking their assigned first responder vehicle anywhere the person otherwise has a right to park, including on public roads within the community.⁸

How these protections interact with older governing documents can depend on whether the declaration includes language incorporating future amendments to the HOA Act. If your community has long-standing parking restrictions, that provision in your declaration is worth reading.

Director Education and Automatic Removal

The old shortcut that let newly elected or appointed directors simply certify they had read the governing documents is gone. Every new director must now complete a state-approved educational curriculum within 90 days of taking office, through a provider approved by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.⁹ The certification is valid for four years, after which the initial course must be retaken.

Continuing education is now tied to community size. Directors in associations with fewer than 2,500 parcels must complete at least four hours of continuing education each year. Directors in associations with 2,500 or more parcels must complete at least eight hours annually.⁹ Four hours a year is not optional, and skipping it can call the validity of board votes into question.

Directors and officers also have to disclose conflicts of interest, including any business or financial relationship with the association, and contracts between the association and a director, officer, or their relative create a presumption of conflict that the board must document.

A director or officer formally charged by information or indictment with a felony involving theft or embezzlement of association funds or property is automatically removed from office. The board fills the vacancy until the term ends or the charges are resolved; if the charges are dropped or the director is acquitted, they can be reinstated for the remainder of their term. Anyone with pending felony charges of this type cannot be elected or appointed.¹⁰

Criminal Penalties for Election Fraud

Chapter 720 now has its own fraudulent voting statute. All of the following are first-degree misdemeanors, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine:

Making or procuring a false oath or affirmation connected to voting
Committing or helping commit fraud in connection with any vote cast or attempted
Changing or attempting to change a ballot, voting certificate, or ballot envelope to prevent a member from voting as intended
Using menacing, threatening, or corrupt tactics to influence how a member votes
Giving or promising anything of value to influence a vote, except food served at a meeting or items of nominal value used as campaign advertisements
Using or threatening force, violence, or coercion to compel a member to vote or not vote

The same penalty applies to anyone who knowingly aids or abets election fraud, conspires to commit it, or helps an offender avoid detection afterward.¹¹

On the procedural side, members may consent to electronic voting in writing or electronically. If a member consents to electronic notice, their email address becomes the default for all required association notices, and any association offering electronic voting must adopt procedures protecting ballot integrity.

Recall Deadlines That Force a Board to Act

The recall provisions now run on a tight clock. After a recall vote at a member meeting, the board must hold a meeting within five full business days to decide whether to certify the recall. If the board fails to hold that meeting in time, the recall takes effect automatically when the five days expire.¹²

If the board meets but votes not to certify, it must file a petition for arbitration with the state within five full business days of that decision. If the board neither certifies the recall nor files for arbitration within that window, the replacement directors elected at the members’ meeting take office automatically.¹² Before these timelines were codified, boards could effectively stall a recall indefinitely.

Other Clauses That Are No Longer Enforceable

The amendments expanded the list of clauses that cannot be enforced in governing documents. An association cannot prevent you from hiring any contractor or worker solely because the person is not on the association’s preferred vendor list, and it cannot require contractors to hold a professional or occupational license as a condition of entry to your property.⁷ The association must also apply architectural and improvement standards reasonably and equitably, which gives you a basis to challenge selective enforcement.

Clauses giving a developer unilateral power to amend governing documents after control has transitioned to the homeowners remain prohibited, and clauses preventing the association from suing the developer are void as against public policy.⁷

1
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 720.303 – Association Powers and Duties
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Florida Senate. Florida Code 720.303 – Association Powers and Duties
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Florida House of Representatives. Florida Code 720.303 – Association Powers and Duties
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Florida House of Representatives. Florida Code 720.305 – Obligations of Members
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The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 720.305 – Obligations of Members
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Florida Senate. Florida Code 720.305 – Obligations of Members
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Florida Senate. Florida Code 720.3075 – Prohibited Clauses in Association Documents
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The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 720.318 – First Responder Vehicles
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Florida Senate. Florida Code 720.3033 – Officers and Directors
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Florida Senate. Florida Code 720.3033 – Officers and Directors
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Florida Senate. Florida Code 720.3065 – Fraudulent Voting Activities Relating to Association Elections
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LII / Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code 61B-33.002 – Recall of Directors at a Member Meeting