Florida

Florida HOA laws & resources.

A guide to the statutes, agencies, and resources that govern condominium and homeowners’ associations in Florida.

Contents
  1. State laws
  2. Law guide ↗
  3. Federal laws ↗
  4. Solar rights
  5. State agencies
  6. HOA information & documents
  7. Research & case law
  8. Legal resources
State laws

Laws impacting Florida associations.

Florida runs on two parallel community statutes — one for condominiums, one for homeowners’ associations — with corporate, fair-housing and debt-collection law layered around them, alongside the federal laws that apply nationwide. HOPB hosts the full text of every one of these Florida statutes, each with a plain-language guide.

Florida HOA Law Guide Browse every statute we host in full — the Condominium Act, the Homeowners’ Association Act, the Not For Profit Corporation Act, the Civil Rights and Fair Housing Acts, and the Consumer Collection Practices Act — grouped by role, with the official text and a plain-language guide for each.

Four things are worth knowing about how Florida’s HOA law works:

  • Which statute governs turns on the form of your community, not its age. A condominium is governed by Chapter 718, and there is no minimum size for the chapter to apply — § 718.102 subjects every condominium created and existing in Florida to it, though several individual sections carve out associations of 10 or fewer units. A homeowners’ association is governed by Chapter 720 only where § 720.301(9) is satisfied: membership must be a mandatory condition of parcel ownership and the association must be able to impose assessments that may become a lien. A voluntary neighbourhood association falls outside the chapter’s general operation, as do community development districts — though the flag rights in § 720.304(2) reach both. Under § 720.302(4) the chapter does not apply to an association already regulated under Chapter 718 (condominiums), Chapter 719 (cooperatives) or Chapter 721 (timeshares), or to a nonmandatory association formed under Chapter 723 — except where a provision of Chapter 718, 719 or 721 is expressly incorporated into Chapter 720. A mandatory association operating a mobile home subdivision is expressly within § 720.301(9) and is governed by Chapter 720. Section 720.302(3) also excludes a community composed of property primarily intended for commercial, industrial or other nonresidential use, and the commercial or industrial parcels within a mixed community.
  • Florida regulates condominiums, but deliberately not homeowners’ associations. Condominiums are overseen by the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes, and Chapter 718 creates a Condominium Ombudsman (§ 718.5011(1)), whose powers are set out in § 718.5012. For HOAs the Legislature took the opposite view: § 720.302(2) records its finding that it is not in the best interest of homeowners’ associations or their members to create a state agency to regulate them. The department’s dispute role is confined to election and recall disputes and presuit mediation of other covenant disputes — it is not a general HOA regulator. It has a handful of other statutory jobs: it approves the education providers and adopts the rules for the director education and continuing-education requirements in § 720.3033(1), and it supplies or approves the arbitrators for post-mediation arbitration — though read § 720.311(2) as a whole before relying on that: paragraph (c) refers to “a department arbitrator or…a private arbitrator certified by the department,” while paragraph (d) authorises a mediator or arbitrator to act only if certified “pursuant to the requirements established by the Florida Supreme Court,” and the department’s own certification rules (Fla. Admin. Code ch. 61B-83) were repealed in 2007. Reviving an expired declaration also requires state approval under §§ 720.405–720.407. Everything else runs through the association’s own procedures and the courts.
  • A fine can never be a lien in a condominium — but it can in an HOA. Section 718.303(3) is absolute: fines are capped at $100 per violation and $1,000 in the aggregate, and “a fine may not become a lien against a unit.” Section 720.305(2) says something different: “A fine of less than $1,000 may not become a lien against a parcel.” The negative implication — that a fine of $1,000 or more can be liened — is the reading most Florida practitioners take, but the statute does not say so affirmatively, and the HOA lien provision itself gives a lien only “when authorized by the governing documents” and secures assessments, interest, late charges, costs and attorney fees without listing fines (§ 720.3085(1), (1)(a)). And in an HOA the $100 per-violation and $1,000 aggregate ceilings apply only “unless otherwise provided in the governing documents,” so a declaration may set those higher — the $1,000 lien threshold is not qualified that way.
  • Before you sue, there is usually a step you have to take first. In a condominium, § 718.1255(4)(a) requires a party to a “dispute” to petition the Division for nonbinding arbitration or initiate presuit mediation before starting court litigation — though election and recall disputes are carved out, and § 718.1255(1) excludes from “dispute” anything primarily involving title, warranties, the levy or collection of assessments, evictions, breaches of fiduciary duty, or damage claims for failure to maintain. Section 718.1255(7) exempts nonresidential condominiums entirely. In an HOA, § 720.311(2)(a) requires a demand for presuit mediation for covenant enforcement, amendments, meetings and records disputes — but not for the collection of any assessment, fine or other financial obligation including attorney’s fees and costs, and not for an action to enforce a prior mediation settlement agreement. Election and recall disputes are not eligible for presuit mediation at all (§ 720.311(1)).

A handful of provisions outside these chapters decide questions that come up constantly — solar installations, transfer fees, covenants that expire after 30 years, and service animals. Those are collected on the related & miscellaneous Florida statutes page.

Solar rights

Solar rights.

Florida protects renewable energy devices against restrictive covenants — strongly, but within defined boundaries.

  • Energy devices based on renewable resources — Fla. Stat. § 163.04 ↗. A deed restriction, covenant, declaration or similar binding agreement may not prohibit, or have the effect of prohibiting, solar collectors, clotheslines or other energy devices based on renewable resources from being installed on buildings erected on the lots or parcels the restriction covers — so a ground-mounted array in the yard is outside the protection. An owner may not be denied permission by any entity granted power in the governing documents to approve, forbid, control or direct alteration of property, a rule § 163.04(2) writes as running “with respect to residential dwellings and within the boundaries of a condominium unit.” The association keeps one power: it may fix where on the roof collectors go, within an orientation to the south or within 45° east or west of due south, provided that does not impair their effective operation. In litigation the prevailing party is entitled to costs and reasonable attorney’s fees (§ 163.04(3)) — which cuts both ways — and the section does not apply to patio railings in condominiums, cooperatives or apartments (§ 163.04(4)).
  • Solar easements — Fla. Stat. § 704.07 ↗. This is a mechanism for creating an easement by agreement, not a freestanding right to sunlight. An easement to maintain exposure of a solar energy device must be created in writing and is eligible to be recorded and indexed in the same manner as any other instrument affecting title; it may be preserved from extinguishment by filing a notice under §§ 712.05 and 712.06. The instrument must describe the servient and dominant properties, the vertical and horizontal angles in degrees at which the easement extends, where it falls in relation to boundaries and setbacks, the point from which the angles are measured, the terms on which it is granted or will terminate, and any provision for compensation. No structure under construction on October 1, 1978 is subject to a solar easement recorded under the section.
  • Whatever the statute allows, follow your association’s architectural approval process before installing. See also the related-laws page.
State agencies

Florida agencies.

Condominiums have a state regulator and an Ombudsman; homeowners’ associations largely do not. These are the offices that matter.

  • Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes ↗ — the state regulator for condominiums, cooperatives and mobile home parks, within the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. It publishes guidance and forms for homeowners’ associations ↗, including HOA FAQs ↗ and HOA forms ↗, and takes complaints through its complaint form (PDF) ↗.
  • Condominium Ombudsman ↗ — created by § 718.5011(1), with powers and duties in § 718.5012 (official text ↗), the Ombudsman assists condominium unit owners, boards and managers, and monitors elections. Contact: ombudsman@myfloridalicense.com. The Attorney General has issued an opinion on the Ombudsman’s powers ↗.
  • DBPR ↗ — the Department of Business and Professional Regulation itself, for licensing and its other divisions.
  • Florida Commission on Human Relations ↗ — enforces the Florida Civil Rights Act and, under § 760.30, administers the Fair Housing Act (§§ 760.20–760.37). Housing-discrimination complaints go here, and must be filed within 1 year of the practice (§ 760.34(2)). Filing with the Commission is not a prerequisite to suit: § 760.35(1)–(2) lets an aggrieved person bring a civil action within 2 years of the practice whether or not a complaint was ever filed, and § 760.34(4) removes any exhaustion requirement.
  • Office of Financial Regulation ↗ — registers consumer collection agencies under § 559.553. Note that an original creditor is exempt from registering (§ 559.553(3)) but remains bound by § 559.72.
  • Florida Department of State ↗ — the Division of Corporations holds the incorporation records, registered agent and annual report for associations organised under the Not For Profit Corporation Act.
  • Office of the Attorney General ↗ — the Florida Attorney General. Advisory opinions touching community associations are collected on our AG opinion letters page; they are advisory and do not bind a court.
  • Online Sunshine ↗ — the Florida Legislature, and the official text of the Florida Statutes.
  • Administrative rules — two Florida Administrative Code chapters govern recall and election disputes in homeowners' associations, both administered by the Division: Chapter 61B-80 ↗, the arbitration rules of procedure for those disputes, and Chapter 61B-81 ↗, the substantive rules for HOA recalls. Neither is a condominium chapter. 61B-80 draws rulemaking authority from §§ 718.1255(4) and 720.311(1) and implements §§ 718.1255(3)(c), 720.303(10), 720.306(9) and 720.311(1); 61B-81 implements Chapter 720 alone. Three neighbouring chapters that once covered this ground are entirely repealed and should not be relied on: 61B-82 (rules of mediation procedure in homeowners’ associations) and 61B-83 (certification of community association mediators and arbitrators), both repealed in 2007, and 61B-85 (homeowner association reporting), repealed in 2026 — the subsection it implemented, § 720.303(13), now reads “DEBIT CARDS.”
HOA information & documents

Association information and documents.

Where to find your association’s records, its filings, and the guidance that governs how it must treat you.

Research & case law

Cases and data.

Decisions that shaped how Florida community-association law is applied, and the data sources behind it. Case links open on Google Scholar.

Legal resources

Where to get help.

Courts, lawyer referral, and free or low-cost legal help in Florida.

General information, not legal advice. Statutory references are to the 2025 Florida Statutes as published by The Florida Senate and may not reflect the most recent amendments.

Florida HOA law guide → ← All state laws