Annual Budget Planning Checklist: Building a Condominium, Cooperative or HOA Budget That Survives Adoption

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

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

A budget is adopted once and lived with for twelve months. Almost everything that goes wrong with one is fixed in September and October, not in December. This checklist runs the cycle backward from the adoption date, through the reserve schedule and the notice, to the vote and the distribution. Items that apply to only one chapter are labeled.

The three chapters do not run the same budget. Chapter 718 now requires the board itself to propose a substitute budget when assessments exceed 115 percent, Chapter 719 still sends that question to a special meeting called by owners, and Chapter 720 has no 115 percent rule at all. The reserve votes differ too. Where an item says "condominium" or "HOA," it means that chapter only.

Our page on annual budget planning covers the strategy. This sheet is the mechanics.

The calendar, working backward from adoption

• Fix the adoption date first. A condominium board must adopt the annual budget at least 14 days before the start of the association's fiscal year.Chapters 719 and 720 do not carry the same outside date. Your bylaws usually do, and that date is the one that binds you.§ 718.112(2)(f)1.
• Count back 14 days from the budget meeting for the notice and the copy of the proposed budget.§ 718.112(2)(e)1.; § 719.106(1)(j)
• Count back further still for the reserve study or SIRS update, the insurance renewal quotes and the vendor contract renewals, so the numbers in the draft are real before it leaves the office.
• Schedule the budget or finance committee work, and notice those meetings, because a committee that makes a budget recommendation to the board meets under the board meeting rules.§ 720.303(2)(a); § 718.112(2)(c)
• If the budget will need an owner vote on reserves, calendar that members' meeting and its notice separately from the board's budget meeting.They are two different meetings with two different notices. Boards that try to do both in one evening usually get the reserve vote wrong.

The reserve schedule and the SIRS funding recommendation

• Pull the most recent structural integrity reserve study and take the recommended annual reserve amount from it rather than from last year's budget line.§ 718.112(2)(g)
• Confirm the SIRS states, for each item, the estimated remaining useful life, the estimated replacement cost or deferred maintenance expense, and a recommended annual reserve amount that reaches that cost by the end of the remaining useful life.§ 718.112(2)(g)
• Confirm every item the statute requires is in the reserve schedule: roof, structure, fireproofing and fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and exterior painting, windows and exterior doors, and any other item with a deferred maintenance expense or replacement cost over $25,000.The threshold is $25,000, raised from $10,000 by HB 913 in 2025, or the Division's inflation-adjusted amount if that is greater. A reserve schedule still built on the $10,000 figure is carrying items it no longer has to carry, and may be missing the inflation adjustment.§ 718.112(2)(f)2.; § 718.112(2)(g)
• Confirm the reserve budget separately carries roof replacement, building painting and pavement resurfacing regardless of the amount of the deferred maintenance expense or replacement cost.§ 718.112(2)(f)2.
• For a cooperative, use the same $25,000 threshold, but note the cooperative SIRS deadline was December 31, 2024, a year ahead of the condominium date.The outside date is the same for both: no SIRS may be completed after December 31, 2026.§ 719.106(1)(k)
• For an HOA, first ask whether reserves have been established, by the developer or by an affirmative vote of a majority of the total voting interests, because that is what makes reserve funding mandatory in Chapter 720.An HOA with no established reserves has no statutory reserve funding obligation. Once reserves are established, the board must include them in the budget for the next fiscal year and each year after. There is no HOA equivalent of the SIRS.§ 720.303(6)

The notice and the copy of the proposed budget

• For a condominium, hand deliver, mail or electronically transmit the notice of the budget meeting and a copy of the proposed annual budget at least 14 days before the meeting.§ 718.112(2)(e)1.
• For a cooperative, do the same: notice not less than 14 days before the meeting, with copies of the proposed annual budget.§ 719.106(1)(j)
• For an HOA, do not assume the same rule. Chapter 720 requires the association to provide each member a copy of the annual budget or written notice that a copy is available on request, and sets the 14-day mailed notice for meetings at which special assessments or rules on parcel use will be considered, but does not set a 14-day pre-budget-meeting delivery requirement for the proposed budget.Most HOA bylaws supply a period anyway, and most managers deliver 14 days out as a matter of practice. Follow the bylaws, and do not tell owners the statute requires something it does not.§ 720.303(6)(a); § 720.303(2)(c)2.
• Post the board meeting notice conspicuously at least 48 hours in advance, with the agenda identifying the budget item.
• Confirm which owners have consented to electronic notice, in the form the chapter requires.HOA consent must be in writing — § 720.303(2)(c)

Line items and what the budget must show

• Show the amounts budgeted by accounts and expense classifications, including at a minimum the applicable expenses listed in s. 718.504(21).A one-page budget with eight lines on it does not meet this. The list in s. 718.504(21) is the floor, not a suggestion.§ 718.112(2)(f)1.
• Show reserve accounts for capital expenditures and deferred maintenance in addition to annual operating expenses.§ 718.112(2)(f)1.
• State the estimated revenues and expenses for the year and the estimated surplus or deficit.§ 720.303(6)(a)
• For an HOA, set out separately all fees or charges the association pays for recreational amenities.§ 720.303(6)(a)

The 115 percent rule and the substitute budget

• Compare the proposed assessments against 115 percent of the assessments for the preceding fiscal year.§ 718.112(2)(e)2.a.
• Exclude from that computation any authorized provision for required reserves, anticipated expenses the board does not expect to be incurred on a regular or annual basis for the items listed in paragraph (g), and insurance premiums.Insurance premiums are excluded. In a year where the premium is what moved the number, the budget may clear 115 percent without triggering anything, and a board that forgot the exclusion may propose a substitute budget it never needed.§ 718.112(2)(e)2.b.
• If the condominium budget does exceed 115 percent, propose a substitute budget at the same time, containing no discretionary expenditures that are not required to be in the budget.This is a board duty. The board proposes both budgets simultaneously. It does not wait for owners to petition for one.§ 718.112(2)(e)2.a.
• Understand what it takes to adopt the substitute: approval by a majority of all voting interests, unless the bylaws require a greater percentage. If no substitute budget is adopted, the budget the board originally proposed may be adopted.§ 718.112(2)(e)2.
• For a cooperative, run the older mechanism: the substitute budget question goes to a special meeting of the unit owners called on the application of 10 percent of the voting interests.Chapters 718 and 719 no longer work the same way here. Do not run a cooperative budget on a condominium calendar.§ 719.106(1)(j)
• For an HOA, do not build a budget calendar around a 115 percent rule. Chapter 720 does not contain one.§ 720.303(6) (no equivalent provision)

The reserve vote and what may no longer be waived

• For a condominium, a vote to provide no reserves or less reserves requires a majority vote of the TOTAL voting interests of the association.§ 718.112(2)(f)2.
• Confirm what can no longer be waived: for a budget adopted on or after December 31, 2024, members of a unit-owner-controlled association that must obtain a SIRS may not vote to provide no reserves, or less reserves than required, for the items listed in paragraph (g).This is the change that ends the annual reserve waiver most condominium boards ran for twenty years. The waiver still exists for items outside paragraph (g).§ 718.112(2)(f)2.
• If the association completed a milestone inspection within the previous 2 calendar years, consider the pause: on approval of a majority of the total voting interests, the board may temporarily pause reserve contributions, or reduce reserve funding, for no more than 2 consecutive annual budgets.The pause is available only for a budget adopted on or before December 31, 2028. It sunsets. A board planning a pause for the 2029 budget is planning something the statute will not allow.§ 718.112(2)(f)2.e.
• Consider a line of credit or a loan as the alternative. A unit-owner-controlled association that must have a SIRS may secure one to fund capital expenses, on approval of a majority of the total voting interests.The line of credit or loan must be sufficient to fund the cumulative amount of previously waived or unfunded reserves. It keeps the building on schedule. It does not keep the assessment flat.§ 718.112(2)(f)2.c.
• For an HOA, the waiver vote is a different number: reserve funding may be waived or reduced by a majority vote at a meeting at which a quorum is present, not by a majority of the total voting interests.In a 600-home community those are wildly different thresholds. Running an HOA waiver as though it needed a condominium turnout wastes a season. Running a condominium waiver as though a quorum meeting would do produces a waiver that is not valid.§ 720.303(6)
• Diverting reserve funds to another purpose: a condominium or cooperative needs a majority of the total voting interests; an HOA needs a majority vote at a meeting at which a quorum is present.Three chapters, two different thresholds, one line item. Write the threshold into the meeting notice so nobody counts the wrong way on the night.§ 718.112(2)(f)3.; § 719.106(1)(j); § 720.303(6)

Insurance, contracts and the items that move the number

• Get the insurance renewal quotes in hand before the draft is final. In Southwest Florida the premium line moves the whole budget.
• For a condominium, confirm the coverage rests on the replacement cost of the property as determined by an independent insurance appraisal or an update of a prior appraisal, redetermined at least once every 3 years.§ 718.111(11)(a)
• Set the deductibles at a duly noticed board meeting, following the budget meeting notice procedure in § 718.112(2)(e).The deductible decision carries the budget meeting's notice requirement, which means 14 days and a mailing, not a line added to next Tuesday's agenda.§ 718.111(11)(c)
• List every contract that renews, escalates or expires during the budget year, with its renewal date and its notice-to-terminate deadline.Our page on contract renewal and termination covers the notice windows that quietly auto-renew a management or landscaping agreement.
• Flag anything in the budget year that will cross a competitive bidding threshold: 5 percent of the total annual budget including reserves for a condominium or cooperative, 10 percent for an HOA.§ 718.3026(1); § 719.3026(1); § 720.3055(1)
• Identify capital work the budget cannot absorb, and decide now whether it will be a special assessment, a loan or a deferral, rather than in March when the roof is open.

Adoption and distribution

• Adopt the budget at the noticed meeting and record the vote of each director, including abstentions.
• For a condominium, confirm the adoption date is at least 14 days before the start of the fiscal year.§ 718.112(2)(f)1.
• Distribute the adopted budget to owners and post it to the association website or app if your association is required to maintain one.Condominiums with 25 or more units and HOAs with 100 or more parcels. Cooperatives have no website or app posting obligation at all.§ 718.111(12)(g); § 720.303(4)(b)
• Calendar the financial report deadline now, using the right number for your chapter: condominium 180 days after fiscal year end, HOA 120 days, cooperative 120 days.The 180-day window that came in with HB 913 is condominium only. Applying it to an HOA or a cooperative makes the report 60 days late. Our page on reviewing financial reports sets out what each report has to contain.§ 718.111(13); § 720.303(7); § 719.104(4)
• Keep the meeting notice, the mailing record, the proposed budget, the minutes and the adopted budget together in the official records.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes works with Southwest Florida boards and managers through budget season, on reserve schedules, SIRS funding recommendations, the reserve vote and the notices that have to go with them. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Budgeting and Financial Reporting page.