Florida HOA Statutes: Chapter 720 Rights, Records, and Elections

Florida’s Chapter 720, the Homeowners’ Association Act, is the state law that governs mandatory-membership HOAs and sets the rules every board must follow when it collects assessments, runs meetings, enforces covenants, and disciplines owners.¹ It also tells you, the homeowner, what you can demand from your board: records, notice, a hearing, a vote, and a chance to pay before a lien becomes a foreclosure.

Which HOAs Chapter 720 Covers

Chapter 720 applies only when three things are true: the voting members are parcel owners, membership is automatic with ownership, and the association can impose assessments that become liens if unpaid.¹ A voluntary neighborhood association does not qualify. Neither does a condominium association, which lives under Chapter 718 and follows different procedures. Citing Chapter 720 at a condo board meeting will get you nowhere, and it is one of the most common mistakes Florida homeowners make.

Your Right to See the Association’s Records

Every covered HOA has to keep official records — governing documents, insurance policies, financial statements, tax returns, meeting minutes — and make them available to you within 10 business days after it receives your written request.² The association has to produce them within 45 miles of the community or inside the same county. Records are kept for at least seven years. Copy fees are allowed, but they cannot be used to lock you out.

Some categories are off-limits. The board may withhold attorney-client privileged materials, personnel files, medical records, and personal identifying information like Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, email addresses, and emergency contacts. Electronic security data, including passwords, is protected. Information collected during lease or sale approvals and visitor logs from gated entries are also exempt.³ Written employment agreements and compensation figures shown in the budget are not protected, even though personnel files generally are.

If the board refuses, the dispute qualifies for mandatory presuit mediation and a court can order compliance.

Meeting Notice and Your Right to Speak

Regular board meetings are open to members. Notice identifying the agenda has to be posted in a conspicuous place in the community at least 48 hours ahead of time, or mailed or delivered to every member at least seven days in advance if the association does not post physically.⁴ Only emergency meetings escape these timelines.

When the board plans to consider a special assessment or amend a rule that governs how you use your parcel, the notice period jumps to 14 days. That notice must be mailed, delivered, or electronically transmitted and also posted on the property.³ A special assessment approved at a meeting without proper 14-day notice is open to challenge.

You can speak on any agenda item. The board can set reasonable time limits and use a sign-up sheet, but it cannot shut member comment down entirely.⁴ Committee meetings are also open when the committee is making final spending decisions or approving architectural changes on a specific parcel.

Elections and Who Can Run

Elections happen at the annual meeting and follow the procedures in Chapter 720, which recent legislation has placed above conflicting language in the association’s own documents. If the number of candidates does not exceed the number of open seats, no formal election is required.⁵

Any member can serve, with two exceptions. Convicted felons are ineligible unless their civil rights have been restored for at least five years. And anyone delinquent on any fee, fine, or other monetary obligation to the association on the last day for nominations is barred from running, and their name is kept off the ballot.⁶ A sitting director who falls more than 90 days delinquent is treated as having abandoned the seat.

Recalling a Director

A majority of the total voting interests can remove any director, with or without cause, no matter what the governing documents say.³ Two paths get you there.

One is a written agreement or ballot circulated outside a meeting. Once enough owners have signed, you serve the association by certified mail or personal service. The board then has five business days to meet and either certify the recall or challenge it through arbitration with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Signatures stay valid for 120 days, and any owner who changes their mind must deliver a written revocation before the papers are served.

The other path, if the governing documents allow it, is a vote at a special membership meeting called by 10 percent of the voting interests. If a majority of the board is being recalled at once, the recall paperwork has to list at least as many replacement candidates as seats being cleared.

Amending the Governing Documents

Unless your declaration, bylaws, or articles set a different threshold, amending any governing document takes a yes vote from two-thirds of the total voting interests — not two-thirds of those who show up.⁶ That is a hard number to hit without real member engagement, which is intentional.

Two kinds of change require more. No amendment can alter a parcel’s proportionate voting interest or increase its share of common expenses unless the affected owner and every lienholder on that parcel sign on.⁶ Changing quorum, though, is not treated as altering voting interests.

Budgets and Financial Reporting

The board must prepare an annual budget showing estimated revenues, expenses, and any projected surplus or shortfall. Every member gets a copy or written notice that one is available free.³ Fees paid for recreational amenities have to be broken out separately, whether the amenity belongs to the association, the developer, or a third party.

Year-end financial reporting depends on the association’s size:³

Annual revenue of $150,000 to under $300,000: compiled statements.
$300,000 to under $500,000: reviewed statements.
$500,000 or more: audited statements prepared by a CPA.
1,000 or more parcels: audited statements regardless of revenue.

If You Fall Behind on Assessments

When an owner stops paying, the association cannot record a lien the next day. Chapter 720 forces a two-stage notice process that gives you time to catch up before you lose the house.⁷

Stage one is a written Notice of Intent to Record a Claim of Lien, sent certified mail, itemizing everything owed with late fees, interest, and mailing costs. You have 45 days from the date of mailing to pay. The association cannot record the lien until that window closes.

Stage two comes after the lien is on record. The association must send a separate notice of intent to foreclose, again by certified mail, and wait another 45 days before filing suit.⁷ Foreclosure then proceeds like a mortgage foreclosure. The association can also go after a money judgment for the balance without giving up the lien.

That is at least 90 days of statutory notice before anyone files anything in court. If a certified letter from the association shows up, open it, pay what you can, and talk to the board. Ignoring the notices is where things get out of hand.

Fines, Hearings, and Suspensions

When you, a tenant, or a guest breaks a rule, the board can fine and it can suspend your access to common areas. The process has guardrails that boards sometimes skip.

At least 14 days before any fine or suspension takes effect, you have to get written notice of your right to a hearing. The hearing happens in front of an independent committee of at least three members who are not officers, directors, or employees, and are not related to any of those people.⁸ If that committee does not approve the fine, the board cannot impose it. A fine issued without committee approval is unenforceable.

Fines are capped at $100 per violation. For a continuing violation the board can charge $100 per day, up to a $1,000 total unless the governing documents authorize more.⁸ Fines under $1,000 cannot become a lien on your property, so the house itself is not on the line in a routine fining dispute. The board can still cut off your pool, clubhouse, and other common-area access.

Voting rights work on a separate track. If you are more than 90 days delinquent on any fee, fine, or monetary obligation, the board can suspend your vote with no independent committee hearing — just board approval at a properly noticed meeting and written notice to you.⁸ A suspended voting interest comes out of the total when quorum, election, and approval percentages are calculated, which in a delinquency-heavy community can quietly lower the bar to pass amendments or special assessments. The suspension lifts when the balance is paid.

Mandatory Mediation Before a Lawsuit

Most HOA disputes have to go through presuit mediation before anyone can file in court. That covers fights about parcel use, common-area changes, covenant enforcement, document amendments, meeting procedures, and records access.⁹

Election and recall disputes are carved out. Those go to binding arbitration at the Department of Business and Professional Regulation or straight to court.⁹

Skipping mediation has a price. A party who refuses to participate in the full mediation process cannot recover attorney’s fees later, even after winning the lawsuit.⁹ Fees in Florida HOA litigation routinely run into the tens of thousands, so forfeiting that recovery is a serious self-inflicted wound. Show up and participate, even if you think mediation will go nowhere.

Federal Rules That Override the HOA

Two federal rules trump even the strictest Florida HOA covenants.

Satellite Dishes and Antennas

The FCC’s Over-the-Air Reception Device rule blocks any HOA restriction that unreasonably delays installation, raises costs, or stops you from getting an acceptable signal on a satellite dish one meter or smaller and certain television antennas.¹⁰ It applies to areas within your exclusive use or control, so shared roofs and common areas are still fair game for the board. The association can set reasonable safety and placement rules but cannot charge an installation fee or hold you to one dish when you legitimately need more.

Assistance Animals and Reasonable Accommodations

The federal Fair Housing Act requires HOAs to grant reasonable accommodations in their rules for residents with disabilities. The usual flashpoint is a no-pets policy, which has to yield for an assistance animal. The board can ask for documentation of the disability-related need but cannot charge a pet deposit or fee for an approved assistance animal. Physical modifications to a unit generally come out of the resident’s pocket, but the association has to let the modification happen.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 720.301 – Definitions
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Florida Senate. Florida Code 720.303 – Association Powers and Duties
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Florida Statutes. 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 Senate. Florida CS/HB 983 Bill Analysis
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Florida Senate. Florida Code 720.306 – Meetings of Members; Voting and Election Procedures
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Florida Statutes. Florida Code 720.3085 – Payment for Assessments; Lien Claims
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Florida Statutes. Florida Code 720.305 – Obligations of Members; Remedies at Law or in Equity; Levy of Fines and Suspension of Use Rights
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Florida Senate. Florida Code 720.311 – Dispute Resolution
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eCFR. 47 CFR 1.4000 – Restrictions Impairing Reception of Television Broadcast Signals, Direct Broadcast Satellite Services, or Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Services