A new director's most useful tool is not a vote. It is a question asked on the record. Eight questions will surface nearly every problem an association is carrying, and the answers give you the factual base you need to vote independently rather than by following the person who speaks first. Each one below is followed by what a good answer contains and what a non-answer tells you.
Ask in writing, and ask on the agenda
How you ask matters as much as what you ask. A question raised in the parking lot gets an answer nobody can find later. A question submitted to the manager in writing and listed on the next agenda gets a considered answer, and both the question and the answer land in the minutes.
That record does two things. It gives the board a documented basis for the decision that follows, which is where the protection of the business judgment rule starts. And it protects the director personally. A director who asked about the roof reserve in March and was told the funding was on schedule is in a very different position from one who never asked.
Keep the tone flat. You are not accusing anyone. You are building the factual record that a fiduciary needs in order to act as one.
What are we insured for, and what is the deductible?
Boards ask about limits. The number that decides the association's fate in a storm is the deductible. A named-windstorm deductible written as a percentage of insured value, applied to a building schedule worth tens of millions, can exceed the association's entire reserve balance, and it is payable before the carrier pays anything.
A complete answer names every policy in force, its limits, its deductible in dollars rather than percentage, and the valuation basis. Ask specifically for the property, general liability, directors and officers, fidelity or crime, flood, umbrella and workers' compensation lines, and ask which one would respond to a claim against the board.
Ask when the replacement cost was last determined. A condominium association must have an independent appraisal or an update of a previous appraisal at least once every three years under § 718.111(11)(a), and the board sets deductibles based on available funds and predetermined assessment authority under § 718.111(11)(c). A board that has not looked at valuation since before the last construction-cost run-up is probably underinsured.
The follow-up question is the one that matters: if the deductible were triggered tomorrow, where does the money come from? Reserves, a line of credit, or a special assessment are the only three answers, and the board should know which one before it needs it.
When is our next milestone or reserve deadline?
This question has a date as its answer. If it does not, you have found something.
For buildings three habitable stories or more, § 553.899 requires a milestone inspection by December 31 of the year the building turns 30, and every 10 years after. A local enforcement agency may require it at 25 years for coastal exposure. If a phase-two inspection recommends repairs, those repairs must commence within 365 days after the report is submitted.
For condominiums and cooperatives, the structural integrity reserve study is the companion obligation. Associations under owner control existing on or before July 1, 2022 had to complete a SIRS by December 31, 2025, and the statute provides that a SIRS may in no event be completed after December 31, 2026. § 718.112(2)(g)7. An association that has completed a milestone inspection may delay the SIRS for no more than the two consecutive budget years following it. § 718.112(2)(g)9.
Ask three things: the date, the name of the professional engaged, and whether the report has been provided to owners and posted. Our guide to the milestone inspection requirements covers the sequence in detail.
What is in litigation, and what is threatened?
Ask for every open matter, every threatened matter, every demand letter received in the last two years, every insurance claim and its status, and every pre-suit mediation or arbitration demand. For each one: who is adverse, what is claimed, which carrier is defending, what has been spent, and what the next date on the calendar is.
Two things commonly turn up. First, a matter that has been quiet for eighteen months and is about to become loud. Second, a demand letter the board received and never answered, on the theory that responding would encourage it. Unanswered demand letters do not go away; they mature.
Ask whether a litigation hold is in place. Once litigation is reasonably anticipated, routine deletion of e-mail, text messages and management records has to stop, and the obligation reaches directors' personal devices where association business was conducted. Our note on litigation holds and record preservation explains what that requires operationally.
What contracts renew this year?
Ask for a schedule, not a conversation: vendor, scope, annual cost, term end date, renewal mechanism, notice period, and whether the agreement renews automatically. Most associations have at least one agreement that renews for a full additional term unless written notice is given a set number of days before expiration, and that window closes quietly.
Two cost thresholds are worth committing to memory, because they decide whether the board can simply sign.
| Condominium | HOA | |
|---|---|---|
| Competitive bidding required when the contract exceeds | 5 percent of the total annual budget, including reserves | 10 percent of the total annual budget, including reserves |
| Authority | § 718.3026(1) | § 720.3055(1) |
| Exempt from bidding | Employees, and attorney, accountant, architect, community association manager, timeshare management firm, engineering and landscape architect services; emergencies; sole source within the county | Employees, and attorney, accountant, architect, community association manager, engineering and landscape architect services |
Separately, a community association manager or management firm that proposes to provide services beyond the management contract, or that has a financial interest in a vendor, must disclose the conflict and have it placed on the agenda of the next board meeting under § 468.4335, and a manager soliciting bids on the association's behalf must obtain multiple bids for work exceeding $2,500. Our checklist on vendor contract review takes the analysis line by line.
What is our delinquency rate, and do we have a written collection policy?
The right answer is a percentage and an aging report. Ask how many accounts are more than 90 days past due, what dollar amount that represents, how many are with counsel, and how many have a recorded lien.
Then ask for the written policy. Florida sets a sequence for condominiums that a board cannot shortcut: a notice of late assessment giving the owner 30 days to pay before attorney fees may be charged under § 718.121(5), then a notice of intent to record a claim of lien giving 45 days after receipt under § 718.121(6). The statutes prescribe the form of those letters. A board that has been sending its own version has been creating defenses.
The governance point is consistency. An association that pursues one owner and not another with the same delinquency invites a selective enforcement defense, and the cheapest protection is a written policy applied the same way every time. Our guide to building a written collection policy covers what to put in it.
What is the reserve balance against the funding schedule?
Two numbers, not one. The balance alone means nothing without the schedule it is supposed to be tracking. Ask for reserves by component, the annual contribution the study calls for, the contribution actually budgeted, and the percent funded.
Then ask the history question: has the membership ever voted to provide no reserves or less reserves than required, or to pause contributions? For condominiums, members of a unit-owner-controlled association may vote to reduce or waive reserves under § 718.112(2)(f)2.b., but for a budget adopted on or after December 31, 2024 they may not do so for items covered by a structural integrity reserve study. § 718.112(2)(f)2.b. Separately, for a budget adopted on or before December 31, 2028, an association that has completed a milestone inspection may, on approval of a majority of the total voting interests, pause or reduce reserve contributions for no more than two consecutive annual budgets to fund repairs the inspection recommended. § 718.112(2)(f)2.e.
The threshold that pulls an item into the reserve requirement is a deferred maintenance or replacement cost exceeding $25,000, or the Division's inflation-adjusted amount if greater. A study built on the old $10,000 figure is out of date.
Where do we stand on website posting and records requests?
Condominium associations managing 25 or more units, other than timeshares, must maintain a website or application and post the documents listed in § 718.111(12)(g)2. within 30 days after receiving or creating them. That list includes the declaration, bylaws, articles, rules, approved minutes, executory contracts, the annual budget, the financial report, director certifications and inspection reports. HOAs with 100 or more parcels have a parallel obligation under § 720.303(4)(b).
Ask who maintains the site, when it was last updated, and whether contracts and inspection reports are actually posted. Posting failures are easy for an owner to document and easy for a regulator to confirm.
Then ask about records requests: how many were received in the last year, how long each took, and whether any went unanswered. Condominium records must be made available within 10 working days of a written request and HOA records within 10 business days, and in both cases minimum damages of $50 per calendar day run for up to 10 days once the deadline passes. Our guide to responding to records requests sets out the response process.
What has counsel already advised on?
Ask for the list of matters on which the association has received written legal advice in the last three years, and ask to read the advice. You are a director of the client. The association is the client, not any individual director, but a sitting director acting in that capacity is ordinarily entitled to see the advice the association received.
This question prevents the most avoidable board mistake, which is re-deciding a question counsel already answered, usually in the opposite direction, because nobody at the table remembers the answer. It also tells you where the association's real exposure has been.
Handle what you learn carefully. Records protected by the lawyer-client privilege and attorney work product are exempt from owner inspection, and that protection is lost if a director forwards the memo to owners or reads it aloud at an open meeting. Our note on confidentiality and privilege explains what a director may and may not repeat.
If the answer is that the association has not consulted counsel in three years, that is worth knowing too. It usually means either an unusually quiet community or a board that has been deciding legal questions on its own.
What to do when the answer does not come
Ask once in writing. Ask a second time on the agenda. If the answer still does not come, use the inspection right you have as an owner and request the underlying records, and say in the request that you are asking in your capacity as an owner.
Do not go around the board to owners with a grievance, and do not hire your own professional at association expense. Both damage your standing and neither produces the document. The purpose is the record, and a documented request with no response is a record the board will have to explain later.
Frequently Asked Questions About What New Directors Should Ask
Can a director be refused access to association records?
A director generally has broader access than an owner, because a director needs the records to perform the duty the office carries. A few categories stay restricted even from directors, including personnel and medical records and, in a matter where a director is adverse to the association, privileged material. A flat refusal to a sitting director is unusual and worth raising with counsel.
Should I put my questions in an e-mail to the whole board?
Send them to the manager or the president and ask that they be agendized. A discussion thread among a quorum of directors can amount to conducting board business outside a noticed meeting, and condominium directors may communicate by e-mail but may not vote on association matters by e-mail under § 718.112(2)(c). Ask in writing, decide at the meeting.
What is a reasonable deductible for a Florida association?
There is no statutory figure. Section 718.111(11)(c) requires deductibles consistent with industry standards and prevailing practice for communities of similar size, age, construction and location, and directs the board to set them based on available funds and predetermined assessment authority. The practical test is whether the association could fund the deductible tomorrow without a special assessment.
How do I find out whether our reserves are adequately funded?
Ask for percent funded by component rather than the aggregate balance. Compare the annual contribution the reserve study or structural integrity reserve study calls for against what the adopted budget actually contributes. A gap between those two numbers, repeated over several years, is the entire explanation for most special assessments.
Is there a penalty if the association's website is not up to date?
The statutes require posting but a failure is enforced through owner action and Division complaint rather than an automatic fine. The practical consequence is that a posting failure is simple to prove and tends to travel with other claims, so it strengthens whatever else an owner is alleging. Fix the posting before it becomes the first paragraph of a complaint.
Can I ask these questions at my first meeting?
Yes, and you should. Submit them to the manager in advance so they can be answered rather than deflected, and ask that they appear on the agenda. A board that treats basic questions about insurance, reserves and litigation as hostile has told you something useful in its own right.
Contact Hamilton Mikes
Hamilton Mikes helps new directors and full boards work through the insurance, reserve, contract and litigation questions above, and prepares the written answers a board can rely on. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Risk Management page.
Statutes and authorities referenced
- § 718.111(11)(a), Fla. Stat. (replacement cost appraisal or update at least every 3 years)
- § 718.111(11)(c), Fla. Stat. (deductibles consistent with industry standards; board sets amount based on available funds and assessment authority)
- § 718.111(12)(c)1., Fla. Stat. (records within 10 working days; $50 per day minimum damages)
- § 718.111(12)(c)5.a., Fla. Stat. (lawyer-client privileged records and work product exempt from inspection)
- § 718.111(12)(g)2., Fla. Stat. (documents required to be posted to the association website or application)
- § 718.112(2)(c), Fla. Stat. (board meetings; directors may communicate but not vote by e-mail)
- § 718.112(2)(f)2.a., b., e., Fla. Stat. (reserve waiver and reduction; SIRS items excluded; milestone-based pause through budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2028)
- § 718.112(2)(g)7., 9., Fla. Stat. (SIRS deadlines; 2-budget-year delay after a milestone inspection)
- § 718.121(5), (6), Fla. Stat. (notice of late assessment, 30 days; notice of intent to record a claim of lien, 45 days)
- § 718.3026(1), Fla. Stat. (condominium competitive bidding above 5 percent of the total annual budget including reserves)
- § 720.303(4)(b), Fla. Stat. (HOA website posting; 100 or more parcels)
- § 720.303(5), Fla. Stat. (HOA records within 10 business days; $50 per day minimum damages)
- § 720.3055(1), Fla. Stat. (HOA competitive bidding above 10 percent of the total annual budget including reserves)
- § 468.4335, Fla. Stat. (community association manager conflicts of interest; agenda disclosure; multiple bids above $2,500)
- § 553.899, Fla. Stat. (milestone inspections; 30 years; 365 days to commence phase-two repairs)