Changes to Florida Statute 720: HOA Fines, Records, and Board Rules

Florida’s Homeowners’ Association Act, Chapter 720 of the Florida Statutes, was substantially rewritten by HB 1203, which took effect on July 1, 2024. The changes to Florida Statute 720 strengthen homeowner protections around records access, fines, parking, and elections, while imposing new education requirements and stiffer penalties on board members and community association managers.

Records Access, Deadlines, and Daily Damages

The transparency rules are where most homeowners will feel the amendments first. Associations must keep official records for at least seven years and adopt written retention rules explaining what is kept and for how long.¹ That retention policy has to 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 has to happen within 45 miles of the community or within the county where the association operates.¹ Send the request by certified mail with return receipt. If 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 of the new damages provision. A homeowner denied access to official records can recover actual damages or minimum statutory damages of $50 per calendar day, capped at 10 days. The clock starts on the 11th business day after the association received your written request.² Maximum exposure is $500, which is not a windfall, but it puts a real cost on stalling.

If law enforcement subpoenas the association’s records, the association must provide them within five business days unless the subpoena or agency sets a different timeline, and it must assist the investigation to the extent the law allows.³

Website Posting Requirements

Since January 1, 2025, associations with 100 or more parcels must maintain a website or mobile app where owners can access records digitally. The platform has to be password-protected and limited to parcel owners. Required postings include governing documents, annual budgets, financial reports, meeting notices, contracts, insurance policies, and board meeting minutes.¹

HOAs with fewer than 100 parcels are not currently required to maintain a website under Chapter 720. A separate 2026 digital access requirement applies to condominium associations under Chapter 718, which sometimes causes confusion. If your community is governed by Chapter 720 and has fewer than 100 parcels, the website mandate does not apply, though the association still has to make its records retention policy available online.

Fining Procedures and the Right to Cure

The procedural rules around fines and suspensions tightened in ways that genuinely help homeowners facing enforcement. Before imposing any fine or suspension, the board must send at least 14 days’ written notice to the parcel owner’s designated mailing or email address, informing them of their right to a hearing. The hearing has to take place within 90 days after the notice is sent.⁴

The hearing is conducted by a fining committee of at least three members appointed by the board. No committee member can be an officer, director, or employee of the association, and close family members of those individuals are excluded too. Spouses, parents, children, and siblings of anyone in association leadership cannot serve on the committee.⁴ Many associations previously stacked their fining committees with insiders, so this independence requirement is one of the more meaningful shifts.

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

Fine amounts are capped at $100 per violation. For continuing violations, 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 allow a higher amount.⁵ A fine under $1,000 cannot become a lien against the parcel.

Suspension of Voting and Common Area Rights

An association can suspend a homeowner’s voting rights if any monetary obligation is more than 90 days past due. That covers unpaid assessments, fines, or any other fee. The suspension lasts until the balance is paid in full, and no hearing is required before it takes effect for a delinquent account.⁶

The association may also suspend the right to use common areas and facilities for the same 90-day delinquency. It 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 have to be approved at a properly noticed board meeting, with written notice sent to the owner afterward.

Parking Protections in Your Driveway

The 2024 amendments added clear protections against HOA overreach on what you can park at home. Association documents cannot prohibit a property 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 statute also bars the association from prohibiting 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 generally 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

A separate provision protects first responders. 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 apply to communities with pre-existing restrictions in their governing documents can depend on whether those documents include language incorporating future amendments to the HOA Act. If you live in an older community with restrictive covenants, check your declaration for that kind of language before assuming the new statute overrides it.

Other Restrictions Associations Can No Longer Enforce

The amendments expanded the list of unenforceable clauses in HOA governing documents. An association cannot prevent a property owner from hiring any contractor or worker solely because that 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 the owner’s property.⁷ Architectural and improvement standards must be applied reasonably and equitably, which gives homeowners a basis to challenge selective enforcement.

Mandatory Education for Board Members

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

Directors also face annual continuing education requirements 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 Skipping the hours is not a minor lapse. It can affect whether votes taken at board meetings are legally valid.

Automatic Removal and Criminal Penalties for Board Members

A director or officer who is 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 director’s 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 to the board.¹⁰

A separate criminal provision targets people who block records access. A director, board member, or community association manager who knowingly, willfully, and repeatedly violates the records inspection requirements with intent to cause harm commits a second-degree misdemeanor. “Repeatedly” means 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 under Florida law.

Board members and officers must also disclose conflicts of interest, including any business or financial relationship with the association. Contracts between the association and a director, officer, or their relative can create a presumption of conflict, and the board has to document how it handles those situations.

Election Fraud Is Now a Crime

Chapter 720 now includes a dedicated fraudulent voting statute that criminalizes a broad range of election misconduct in association elections. Each of the following is a first-degree misdemeanor, 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 first-degree misdemeanor penalty applies to anyone who knowingly aids or abets election fraud, conspires to commit it, or helps an offender avoid detection after the fact. An exception protects licensed attorneys providing legal advice to a client.¹¹

Members may consent to electronic voting in writing or electronically. When a member consents to electronic notice, their email address becomes the default for all required association notices. An association that offers electronic voting must adopt procedures to ensure ballot integrity and provide a secure method for submitting votes.

Recall Timelines With Real Teeth

The recall provisions were refined to prevent boards from stalling when members vote to remove a director. 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 those five days expire.¹²

If the board meets but votes not to certify the recall, it must file a petition for arbitration with the state within five full business days of that decision. If it 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 deadlines were codified, boards could effectively stall a recall indefinitely by refusing to act.

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