Pet Restrictions in Florida Condos: Rules, Fines, and Exceptions

Pet restrictions in Florida condominiums are legal, common, and enforceable. Your association can cap the number of pets per unit, set weight limits, ban specific breeds, or prohibit animals altogether, and it can back those rules with fines, loss of amenity access, and lawsuits seeking removal of the animal. The one firm exception comes from federal law: assistance animals for residents with disabilities must be accommodated regardless of what the pet policy says.

What Kinds of Pet Rules Are Allowed

Rules vary sharply between buildings. The most common categories:

Number limits, often one or two pets per unit.
Weight limits, frequently 25 or 30 pounds, which effectively restricts ownership to small breeds.
Breed restrictions targeting dogs perceived as aggressive, such as Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, and Doberman Pinschers.
Species bans, such as allowing cats but not dogs, or permitting only fish and caged birds.

A boundary worth knowing: Florida law bars government-run public housing authorities from banning dogs by breed or weight, but that limit does not reach private condominium associations.¹ Your board can still adopt breed-specific rules even where the city or county cannot.

Where Your Building’s Pet Rules Actually Live

Three documents govern pets, and they sit in a hierarchy. The Declaration of Condominium, recorded with the county, is the top authority. The Bylaws sit below it, and the Rules and Regulations adopted by the board sit at the bottom. A lower document cannot contradict a higher one. If your Declaration grants owners the right to keep pets, a simple board vote cannot take that right away.

Changing the Declaration is deliberately hard. Unless it specifies a different method, amending it takes the approval of at least two-thirds of all unit owners, not just those who attend a meeting. For Declarations recorded after April 1, 1992, most amendments cannot be made to require more than a four-fifths vote.²

What Happens to Your Current Pet if the Rules Change

Florida has no statute requiring associations to grandfather existing pets when new restrictions take effect. Many associations do allow current pets to remain until they pass away or are rehomed, because forced removal invites litigation. If your association is considering a rule change, push for grandfathering language inside the amendment itself. A written provision that exempts currently registered pets is worth far more than a board member’s verbal assurance at a meeting.

Whether the change even reaches you also depends on where it lives. If it requires amending the Declaration, the supermajority vote gives pet owners real leverage to block it. If the Declaration already gives the board discretion over pet policy, stricter rules can be adopted without owner approval, and those rules can reach existing pets.

The Assistance Animal Exception

The Fair Housing Act requires condo associations to make reasonable accommodations for residents with disabilities who need an assistance animal. An assistance animal is not legally a pet, and a no-pets policy does not apply to it.³

Two categories qualify. A service animal, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, is a dog individually trained to perform specific tasks for a person with a disability, such as guiding someone who is blind, alerting someone who is deaf, or interrupting a psychiatric episode.⁴ An emotional support animal provides therapeutic benefit that alleviates one or more effects of a person’s disability, without specialized task training.³ Both are protected in housing.

What the Association Can Ask For

When the disability and need for the animal are obvious, no documentation can be required. When either is not apparent, the association may ask for reliable documentation, typically a letter from a healthcare provider with personal knowledge of the resident, confirming the disability and explaining why the animal is needed.³

HUD has set clear limits on what associations cannot demand: a specific diagnosis, medical records, a particular form, a notarized statement, or an independent medical evaluation. HUD has also warned that certificates, registrations, or licenses purchased from websites generally do not qualify as reliable documentation.⁵

Associations cannot charge pet fees, pet deposits, or pet rent for a legitimate assistance animal. Those charges are treated as barriers to the accommodation and must be waived.³ The resident is still liable for any damage the animal actually causes.

Note that misrepresenting an animal as a necessary assistance animal, or misrepresenting a disability to obtain the accommodation, is a second-degree misdemeanor in Florida, punishable by up to 60 days in jail, a fine of up to $500, and 30 hours of mandatory community service for an organization serving people with disabilities.⁶

What the Association Can Do if You Violate the Rules

The board cannot simply announce a fine and start collecting. Florida law requires specific due process first.

Notice and Independent Hearing

Before imposing a fine or suspending a resident’s use of common areas, the board must give at least 14 days’ written notice describing the alleged violation and offering an opportunity for a hearing.⁷

The hearing is not held by the board. It must go to an independent committee of at least three members who are not officers, directors, or employees of the association and are not related to any of them. If that committee does not approve the fine or suspension by majority vote, it cannot be imposed.⁷ Many pet cases end here, either because the committee finds the board overreached or because the owner resolves the situation before the hearing date.

Fines and Loss of Amenity Access

If the committee approves a fine, it cannot exceed $100 per violation. For a continuing violation like keeping an unauthorized pet, the $100 can be charged daily, but the aggregate cap is $1,000. Payment is due five days after written notice of the approved fine. Pet violation fines cannot become a lien on the unit, so the association cannot foreclose over unpaid fines alone.⁷

The association can also suspend your right to use common facilities such as the pool, gym, and clubhouse for a reasonable period. It cannot cut off access to limited common elements assigned to your unit, utility services, parking spaces, or elevators.⁷

Court Order to Remove the Pet

When fines and suspensions do not work, the association can sue for an injunction ordering removal of the animal. Florida law authorizes actions for damages or injunctive relief against unit owners who violate the declaration, bylaws, or rules, and the prevailing party is entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees.⁷ The fee-shifting runs both ways. If the association brings a weak case and loses, it pays the owner’s legal fees. If the governing documents plainly prohibit the pet and the owner fights anyway, the owner ends up with a removal order and the association’s legal bill on top.

Even Allowed Breeds Can Cause an Insurance Problem

An association’s approval of your dog does not mean your insurer approves. Most HO-6 condo policies include liability coverage for dog bites, but most insurers exclude specific breeds. Doberman Pinschers, Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Chow Chows, and wolf hybrids appear on nearly every restricted list, and German Shepherds, Huskies, and Akitas show up frequently. A dog with a prior biting history is often excluded regardless of breed.

If your dog is on your insurer’s restricted list, the options are to switch to an insurer that covers the breed, buy a separate animal liability policy, or accept no liability coverage if the dog injures someone. With dog bite claims averaging roughly $65,000 to $70,000 in recent years, going without coverage is a real financial exposure. Check the policy before the pet moves in.

If You Are Buying a Florida Condo

Read the Declaration, Bylaws, and Rules before you close. Once you close, you are bound by whatever is on the books. Florida law also requires the association to issue an estoppel certificate within 10 business days of a written request, and the certificate must disclose any open rule violation on file against the unit, including unresolved pet violations. The fee is capped at $250, plus $100 for expedited delivery within three business days.⁸ Order it, read it, and confirm that no pet-related violation transfers with the unit.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code Title XL Chapter 718 Part III 718.302 – Agreements Entered Into by the Association
2
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 718.110 – Amendment of Declaration; Correction of Error or Omission in Declaration by Circuit Court
3
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Assistance Animals
4
U.S. Department of Justice. ADA Requirements: Service Animals
5
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Fact Sheet on HUD’s Assistance Animals Notice
6
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 817.265 – Emotional Support Animals
7
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 718.303 – Obligations of Owners and Occupants; Remedies
8
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 718.116 – Assessments; Liability; Lien and Priority; Interest; Collection