Running the Candidate Eligibility Screen: What a Board or Manager Checks Before a Name Goes on the Ballot

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

• Published September 25, 2026
• Reviewed by Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA, September 26, 2026
• Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026
• Applies to: Condominiums · HOAs · Cooperatives

Eligibility is a board decision with legal consequences, and it has to be made on a date certain with the same questions asked of everyone. The screen below works for a condominium, a cooperative or an HOA, but the answers diverge sharply: Chapter 718 and Chapter 719 impose statutory disqualifications the documents cannot soften, while Chapter 720 supplies only two and leaves the rest to your governing documents. Start the screen the day the candidate list closes.

Screen everyone, on one day, in writing

In a condominium or cooperative the candidate list closes 40 days before the election. That is the day to run the screen, because it is the last moment at which a problem can be fixed without re-mailing a ballot. In an HOA the closing date depends on the governing documents, and where nominations come from the floor the screen has to be capable of running in the room, on the spot.

Use a standard form and complete one for every candidate, including incumbents and including the board president. Two reasons. First, the screen is worthless as evidence if it was only applied to some people. Second, the most common eligibility problem in Southwest Florida is a sitting director who fell behind on an assessment during the year, and nobody thinks to check the incumbents.

Keep the completed forms. They are association records, and in an election challenge the question is almost always what the board knew on the day it decided and what it did with what it knew.

One caution before the screen runs. Eligibility determinations touch a person's finances and sometimes a criminal record, so the conversation belongs with the manager and counsel, not in an open email thread among directors. Our note on board email and text messages explains why that distinction matters more than boards expect.

The questions to ask, and the documents to check

1. Is the candidate an owner, or otherwise eligible under the documents? Check the recorded deed and the association's roster. In a condominium the statute does not require candidates to be unit owners, so this is a documents question, and many declarations do require ownership.
2. Did the written notice of intent arrive on time? Date-stamp everything on receipt. Keep the envelope. Email arrival times count and should be preserved.
3. Is the candidate delinquent? Pull the ledger for the unit or parcel as of the correct date, print it, and attach it to the screen form. See the comparison below on which date that is.
4. Has the candidate been convicted of a felony? Ask in writing, on the notice-of-intent form. If the answer is yes, ask when civil rights were restored and request documentation.
5. Has the candidate been suspended or removed by the Division? In a condominium this is a separate statutory disqualification under § 718.112(2)(d)3.
6. Are two co-owners of the same unit both running? In a residential condominium of more than 10 units, co-owners of a unit may not serve at the same time unless they own more than one unit or there are not enough eligible candidates.
7. Would electing this candidate exceed a term limit? Condominium directors face an 8 consecutive year limit unless owners approve. HOAs have no statutory equivalent.
8. Is the candidate current on education? This is not an eligibility question at the ballot stage. It becomes a service question 90 days after the election.

Answer each question with a document, not a recollection. A ledger printout, a deed, a date-stamped letter, a certificate of restoration of civil rights. If the file would not persuade a stranger, it will not persuade an arbitrator.

Delinquency: the same word, three different tests

This is where the chapters diverge most sharply and where boards make the most defensible-looking mistakes.

Two practical consequences follow. In an HOA the measuring date is fixed by statute, so run the ledger that day and print it that day. In a condominium the statute defines delinquency but never says when to test it, and the phrase "may not be listed on the ballot" implies the test happens no later than ballot preparation. Boards that test at the 40-day deadline and again before the ballot goes to print are on the safest ground, and a candidate who pays in between should be treated as eligible.

Do not confuse eligibility with a voting-rights suspension. They are different provisions with different thresholds. A condominium owner who is $300 behind is ineligible to run but has not lost the right to vote, because suspension requires more than $1,000 and more than 90 days. Our guide to building a collection policy covers how those thresholds interact with the rest of the collection process, and the chapter-specific treatments are in our notes on condominium candidate eligibility and HOA candidate eligibility.

Felony convictions and restoration of rights

All three chapters use substantially the same rule. A person convicted of a felony in Florida, in a United States District or Territorial Court, or of an offense in another jurisdiction that would be a felony if committed in Florida, is not eligible for board membership unless the person's civil rights have been restored for at least five years as of the date the person seeks election.

Three things boards get wrong here. The clock runs from restoration of civil rights, not from conviction, release or the end of probation. Five years must have elapsed already as of the election, not at some point during the term. And the disqualification reaches out-of-state offenses measured by Florida's felony definition, which means a conviction labeled something else elsewhere may still count.

The board is not an investigator. Ask the question on the notice-of-intent form, ask for documentation if the answer is yes, and send anything ambiguous to counsel the same day. Do not run background checks on candidates as a matter of course, do not ask about arrests, and do not ask about charges that did not result in conviction. Those questions create problems the statute never asked you to take on.

If a candidate declines to answer, say so to counsel rather than deciding at the table. Whether silence can support a disqualification is not a question with an obvious answer, and the wrong call either way is expensive.

Co-owners, entities, tenants and term limits

• Co-owners. In a residential condominium association of more than 10 units, co-owners of the same unit may not serve on the board at the same time unless they own more than one unit or there are not enough eligible candidates. Chapter 720 contains no equivalent, so in an HOA this is a governing-documents question.
• Units owned by an entity. Where a unit is owned by a corporation, partnership, trust or LLC, who may run is a documents and voting-certificate question rather than a statutory one. Get the voting certificate or the entity's designation in the file before the ballot prints.
• Tenants and non-owners. Chapter 718 does not itself require a candidate to own a unit. Most declarations do. Read yours rather than assuming either way.
• Term limits. A condominium board member may not serve more than 8 consecutive years unless approved by an affirmative vote of unit owners representing two-thirds of all votes cast in the election. Chapter 720 imposes no statutory term limit, so an HOA term limit exists only if the documents create one.
• Division suspension or removal. A person suspended or removed by the Division under Chapter 718 is not eligible, and this is easy to miss because the association may never have been told.

How to communicate a disqualification without creating a second problem

Most defamation exposure in association elections comes from how a disqualification is announced, not from the disqualification itself. The safe practice is narrow, written, and sequenced.

1. Tell the candidate first, privately, in writing. One factual sentence, the statutory citation, and the document relied on. "Our records show an unpaid balance of $412.00 on the account for Unit 214 as of January 31, 2027. Under § 718.112(2)(d)3. a person delinquent in the payment of any assessment due to the association is not eligible to be a candidate and may not be listed on the ballot."
2. Say what would cure it, if anything would. If payment before the ballot prints restores eligibility, say that and give the date.
3. Do not characterize. No "failed to pay," no "refused," no "has a history of." State the balance and the date. The moment the letter explains why the person is unfit, it has left the safe harbor of a factual report.
4. Tell the community nothing beyond the ballot. Owners see who is on the ballot. They do not need a notice explaining who is not on it or why. If asked at a meeting, the answer is that the board applied the statutory eligibility criteria and the specifics concern the individual owner's account.
5. Route the felony cases through counsel entirely. A letter from the association describing a person's criminal record, even accurately, is a letter you want a lawyer to have written.

If the disqualification is contested, remember the forum. Election disputes in both condominiums and HOAs are not eligible for presuit mediation; they must be arbitrated by the Division or filed in court, and a petition challenging the legality of the election of a director is handled on an expedited basis. §§ 718.1255(5) and (6); § 720.311(1). Expedited means the association's file has to be complete already.

Where the answer is genuinely unclear, the cheapest move is a short call before the ballot prints rather than a defense after it mails. Our note on when to call the association attorney describes the handful of moments in a board year when that call reliably pays for itself, and the eligibility screen is one of them.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes runs eligibility questions for condominium, HOA and cooperative boards before ballots print, and drafts the disqualification letters that keep a close call from becoming a claim. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Corporate Governance page.