How to Fight Selective Enforcement by Your Florida HOA

If your Florida HOA is fining you for a violation while identical violations sit untouched on nearby lots, you have a real defense. Fighting selective enforcement by your Florida HOA means documenting the ignored violations, raising the defense at the mandatory fining-committee hearing, and then, if the board refuses to back down, serving a written demand for pre-suit mediation under Chapter 720 before any lawsuit can be filed.

The Florida Supreme Court settled the underlying principle in White Egret Condominium, Inc. v. Franklin: a community restriction is valid on its face but becomes unenforceable when “arbitrarily and selectively applied.”¹ The rule can be perfectly lawful. Targeting one homeowner with it is not.

What Counts as Selective Enforcement

Selective enforcement happens when the HOA knows other residents are breaking the same covenant but singles you out for fines or compliance action. The classic example: you receive a violation notice for a visible trash can while a half-dozen neighbors leave theirs in the same spot without consequence. The problem is not the rule but the inconsistency.

This is different from waiver. Waiver is when an HOA has failed to enforce a rule against anyone for so long that a court concludes the association has abandoned it. Selective enforcement means the association is actively enforcing the rule, just not against everyone equally. You can raise either argument, but they rest on different facts, so keep them straight when you write to the board.

Board members owe a fiduciary duty to every member of the association under Section 720.303 of the Florida Statutes.² Enforcing a covenant against one homeowner while knowingly ignoring the same violation next door is inconsistent with that duty, and it is the kind of arbitrary action Florida courts have refused to protect.

Your First Chance to Fight the Fine: The Committee Hearing

Before you look at lawsuits or mediation, know that the fine itself is not final when you receive the notice. Section 720.305 sets out a specific process, and the board must follow it.

Fine amounts are capped lower than most homeowners expect. Unless your governing documents authorize higher amounts, the HOA cannot fine more than $100 per violation. For a continuing violation, the board can fine $100 per day up to an aggregate of $1,000. Fines under $1,000 cannot become a lien on your property.³

Before any fine takes effect, the association must give you at least 14 days’ written notice of your right to a hearing. That notice must describe the alleged violation, explain what you need to do to fix it, and provide the date, location, and access information for the hearing.³

Here is the part many homeowners miss. The board cannot impose the fine on its own. The hearing must go before an independent committee of at least three members who are not board officers, directors, employees, or immediate family (spouses, parents, children, siblings) of those individuals. The hearing has to happen within 90 days after the notice is issued.³

The committee votes by majority to confirm or reject the fine. If it does not approve, the fine cannot stand. This is your first and cheapest opportunity to raise selective enforcement. Show up in person or by phone, present photographs of the neighboring violations the board has ignored, and argue that the enforcement action is arbitrary. If the committee is genuinely independent, this argument has real weight. Any deviation from the statutory procedure itself is also grounds to contest the fine.

Building the Evidence

A selective enforcement defense lives or dies on documentation. You need proof the board knew about the other violations and chose not to act. Two sources of evidence matter: the association’s own records, and what you gather yourself.

Request the HOA’s Records

Under Section 720.303, the association must make its official records available within 10 business days after receiving your written request. It cannot require you to state a reason or limit your inspection to less than one eight-hour business day per month.²

Send the request by certified mail and ask for:

Board meeting minutes, which often reveal discussions about which violations to pursue and which to overlook.
Violation and fining records showing which addresses have been cited over time.
Correspondence between board members or with the management company about enforcement decisions.
The current declaration of covenants and rules, so you have the exact text of the provision cited against you.

If the association misses the 10-business-day deadline, a rebuttable presumption arises that the failure was willful, and you are entitled to minimum damages of $50 per calendar day starting on the 11th business day.²

Document the Ignored Violations Yourself

Take dated photographs or video of every property violating the same rule you were cited for. Include enough context in each image to identify the address. Keep a written log of the date, time, and location of each observation. Repeated timestamps over weeks or months make it hard for the board to argue it simply had not noticed yet.

Save every letter and email from the HOA about your violation, and keep copies of your written responses. If you spoke with a board member, write down the date, who was there, and what was said while it is still fresh. Contemporaneous notes carry far more weight than reconstructed memory.

The Demand Letter and Mandatory Mediation

With evidence in hand, write to the board. Identify the specific covenant, state that you believe it is being enforced selectively, and attach or reference the comparable violations at other addresses. Send it by certified mail.

If the board still refuses to withdraw the fine, Florida law does not let you go straight to court. Section 720.311 requires you to serve the HOA with a written demand to participate in pre-suit mediation for covenant enforcement disputes.⁴

The HOA has 20 days from the mailing date to serve a written response.⁵ The parties agree on a neutral mediator and split the mediator’s fee equally unless they arrange otherwise. Mediation is confidential; nothing said there can be used later in court.

If the session is not scheduled and completed within 90 days of the offer to mediate, an impasse is automatically declared unless both sides agree to extend. An HOA that fails to respond, refuses to agree on a mediator, does not pay its share, or fails to appear is deemed to have refused to participate. That refusal lets you file suit directly and seek reimbursement of your mediation costs.⁵

If mediation happens but does not resolve the dispute, either side can go to court. Arbitration after mediation exists as an option only if both parties agree to it.

What You Can Recover If You Win

A homeowner who proves selective enforcement typically sees the fine invalidated as arbitrarily applied. Courts can also grant injunctive relief ordering the HOA to stop the targeted enforcement, or declaratory relief clarifying that the rule cannot be enforced against you while identical violations go unaddressed.

Section 720.305 provides that the prevailing party in HOA-homeowner litigation recovers reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. A prevailing homeowner can also recover additional amounts the court determines are necessary to reimburse the homeowner’s share of assessments the association levied to fund its litigation.³ In plain terms: if the HOA taxed you to pay its lawyers to fight you, and you win, you get that money back too.

What You Risk If You Lose

Fee shifting runs both ways. If the HOA prevails, it can recover its attorney’s fees from you. That is why the strength of your documentation matters so much before you escalate past mediation. A case built on a feeling of unfairness, without specific comparable violations at specific addresses, is a case that can end up costing more than the fine.

Expert witnesses, court filing fees, and depositions add up quickly, and expert costs are generally not recoverable even by a winning party. Mediation, by contrast, involves only the shared mediator’s fee.⁴

One protection worth knowing: the HOA cannot begin accruing attorney’s fees against you until after the date the fine was noticed for payment and the time for appeal has expired.³ The board cannot retroactively charge you for legal work it did before the fine was even due.

1
Justia. White Egret Condominium, Inc. v. Franklin
2
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 720 Section 303
3
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 720.305 – Obligations of Members
4
Florida Senate. Florida Code 720.311 – Dispute Resolution
5
The 2025 Florida Statutes. Florida Statutes 720.311 – Dispute Resolution