Florida Attorney General advisory opinions — community associations and related topics.

What these are, and what they are not

An Attorney General Opinion (AGO) is an advisory legal opinion. It is issued at the request of a public officer or agency on a question of state law affecting that officer’s own official duties — not at the request of a private association or an owner. An AGO does not bind a court, does not bind a homeowners’ or condominium association, and creates no rights an owner can enforce. Where an AGO and a statute or a court decision disagree, the statute and the court decision control.

Opinions are also not updated after issue. Several below construe statutes the Legislature has since amended, sometimes many times over. Check the current text before relying on any of them.

Opinions dated before 2000. Florida’s homeowners’-association statutes sat in Chapter 617 until they were moved to Chapter 720 by ch. 2000-258. Any opinion dated before 2000 construes a statutory scheme that no longer exists in that form — check the current text of §§ 720.301–720.407 first.

Which chapter governs matters. Florida law draws a hard line between HOA law (Chapter 720), condominium law (Chapter 718), cooperatives (719), timeshares (721) and mobile homes (723) — § 720.302(4) keeps Chapter 720 out of associations regulated under 718, 719 or 721. Many rows below are condominium, mobile-home, community-development-district or purely local-government opinions. A condominium opinion is not authority for what your HOA may do, and the reverse is equally true.

A note on the “Sunshine Law” rows

Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Law reaches public bodies, not private associations. Section 286.011(1) applies to “any board or commission of any state agency or authority or of any agency or authority of any county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision” — and Chapter 286 nowhere mentions homeowners, condominiums, community associations or parcel owners. A private homeowners’ or condominium association is not within it. (A community development district is different: it is a special district created by statute rather than a private corporation, which is why several rows below address CDD boards.)

An HOA member’s meeting and records rights come instead from § 720.303(2) — board meetings must be open to members, and so must meetings of any body with power to approve or disapprove architectural decisions for a specific parcel — and from § 720.303(4)–(5) for official records and the 10-business-day inspection window.

Note the exception that goes with the rule: § 720.303(2)(b) provides that, notwithstanding any other law, meetings between the board or a committee and the association’s attorney to discuss proposed or pending litigation, and board meetings held to discuss personnel matters, are not required to be open to anyone other than directors.