Board Decision Documentation Worksheet

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

Worksheet
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

When a board decision is challenged, the question is rarely whether the board was right. It is whether the board can show what it knew, what it considered and who decided. That record either exists from the day of the meeting or it gets reconstructed from memory two years later, which is the worst possible way to defend a decision. Fill this in at the table.

Download the PDFThe PDF is a designed, printable copy for the board packet, the bulletin board or your meeting portfolio. On screen, you can tick the boxes below; nothing you tick is saved or sent anywhere.

Use one worksheet per significant decision: any expenditure over your chapter's competitive bidding threshold, any contract with a term longer than a year, any special assessment, any material alteration, any enforcement decision against an owner, any settlement, and anything counsel was consulted about. Attach it to the minutes of the meeting at which the vote was taken.

The point of each field is that a person reading the file later, with no memory of the meeting, can see the process. Write in full sentences, not shorthand.

1. The decision

Association, meeting date, and type of meeting (regular board, special board, members')

Agenda item as it appeared on the noticed agenda, word for word

The decision, stated as the motion was made

The problem or need this decision addresses

Confirm the item as written above actually appeared on the noticed agenda before you record the vote.A decision on an item that was not noticed is the most common defect in a board record. If it was added as an emergency item, say so here and note the ratification date.§ 718.112(2)(c); § 719.106(1)(c); § 720.303(2)
Confirm whether the item required a longer notice period, such as a special assessment or a rule regarding unit or parcel use.14 days — § 718.112(2)(c); § 719.106(1)(c); § 720.303(2)(c)

2. The authority relied on

Declaration, bylaw or rule provision relied on (article and section)

Statute relied on, by subsection

Who decides: board alone, board with owner approval, or owners; and if owners, the percentage required and where that requirement comes from

Confirm the board actually has authority to make this decision without an owner vote. Material alterations, borrowing, reserve waivers and some assessments frequently do not sit with the board.Deference to a board decision does not reach a decision the board had no power to make.
Confirm the vote threshold the governing documents require, which may be higher than the statute's.The documents can be stricter than the statute. They cannot be looser.

3. Alternatives considered

Option A, and why it was not selected

Option B, and why it was not selected

Doing nothing or deferring, and why that was not selected

Confirm whether this expenditure crosses your chapter's competitive bidding threshold and, if so, that bids were obtained.Condominium and cooperative: 5 percent of the budget including reserves. HOA: 10 percent of the total annual budget including reserves. Contracts with attorneys, accountants, architects, engineers, landscape architects and community association managers, employees, emergency purchases and sole-source suppliers are excepted.§ 718.3026; § 719.3026; § 720.3055
Record why the selected bid was selected if it was not the lowest. That sentence is worth more than the bid tabulation.

4. Professional advice obtained

Attorney consulted, date, and the substance of the advice in one sentence

Engineer, reserve specialist, accountant, insurance professional or other consultant, date, and the report or opinion relied on

Advice the board did not follow, and the board's stated reason

Confirm the board is entitled to rely on the professional named: reliance must be on a matter the board reasonably believes is within that person's competence, and no director may have information that makes the reliance unwarranted. If a director knows the report is out of date, say so on the record now.§ 617.0830(4), (5)(b)
Keep the attorney's written advice separate and marked privileged, and describe it above only at the level the board is willing to have read out. Quoting counsel's memorandum at length in a public record can waive the privilege.

5. Cost and funding source

Total cost, and whether it is a fixed price or an estimate

Operating budget line it comes from, and the amount remaining in that line

Reserve account used, and the item the reserve was funded for

Special assessment amount per unit or parcel and the payment schedule, or the loan or line of credit, lender, amount and term

Owner approval obtained for the funding source (date and vote)

Confirm that spending a reserve account on something other than the item it was funded for has the owner approval your chapter requires.Using reserves for a different purpose is one of the few board acts that can be unwound years later. Do not do it on the strength of a budget line.
Confirm the special assessment notice stated the estimated cost and a description of the purpose, if this is a condominium.§ 718.112(2)(c)3.
Confirm whether a reserve pause or reduction, or a loan to fund milestone or structural integrity reserve study work, is being relied on, and that the owner vote was taken.§ 718.112(2)(f)2.e.; § 718.112(2)(f)2.c.(II)

6. Conflicts disclosed

Director or officer with an interest, the nature of the interest, and any relative or business entity involved

Date the written disclosure was given to the board

Whether the item and the documents were listed on and attached to the agenda

Directors who left the room for the discussion and the vote

Confirm a written disclosure exists and is attached to these minutes.§ 718.3027(2); § 720.3033(2); § 617.0832
Confirm the approval vote met the threshold: two-thirds of all other directors present in a condominium, two-thirds of the directors present in an HOA.§ 718.3027(2); § 720.3033(2)
Note the date the disclosure will be given to the members, and that the members may cancel the contract or transaction by a majority vote.§ 718.3027(2); § 720.3033(2)

7. The vote, the date and who carries it out

Moved by, and seconded by

Directors voting yes (by name)

Directors voting no (by name)

Directors abstaining, and the stated reason for each

Directors absent

Date of the vote, and the effective date of the decision if different

Officer or manager responsible for carrying it out

Deadline for the first step, and the report-back date

Worksheet completed by, and date

Record each director's vote or abstention by name. A minute entry saying the motion carried does not satisfy this.§ 718.111(1)(b)
Name one person responsible for execution and one date for a report back to the board. Decisions with no owner are the ones that quietly do not happen.
Put the report-back date on a future agenda before the meeting ends.

What to attach

The noticed agenda and proof the notice was posted or mailed as required.
The contract or proposal in the form the board approved, with the certificates of insurance.
Every bid or proposal received, and the tabulation.
The engineer's report, reserve study or other technical document relied on.
Any written conflict-of-interest disclosure.§ 718.3027(2); § 720.3033(2)
The owner vote tally if owner approval was required, and the signed minutes once approved, with this worksheet filed behind them.Minutes are official records — § 718.111(12); § 719.104(2); § 720.303(4)
Post the contract or document 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 post within 30 days. Cooperatives have no posting obligation.§ 718.111(12)(g); § 720.303(4)(b)

Statutes and authorities referenced

§ 718.112(2)(c), § 719.106(1)(c), § 720.303(2), Fla. Stat. (board meeting notice and agenda)
§ 718.112(2)(c)3., Fla. Stat. (condominium special assessment notice content)
§ 617.0830, Fla. Stat. (standards for directors; reliance on professionals and committees)
§ 718.111(1)(b), Fla. Stat. (recording each director's vote or abstention)
§ 718.3026, § 719.3026, § 720.3055, Fla. Stat. (competitive bidding)
§ 718.3027, § 720.3033(2), § 617.0832, Fla. Stat. (conflicts of interest)
§ 718.112(2)(f)2.c.(II), § 718.112(2)(f)2.e., Fla. Stat. (loans and reserve pause)
§ 718.111(12), § 719.104(2), § 720.303(4), Fla. Stat. (official records)
§ 718.111(12)(g), § 720.303(4)(b), Fla. Stat. (website and application posting)

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes helps Southwest Florida boards build a decision record that stands up, and reviews the authority behind a major expenditure, assessment or alteration before the vote rather than after the challenge. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Corporate Governance page.

About this article. This article is published by Hamilton Mikes, P.A. for general educational purposes. It is not legal advice, it is not a legal opinion, and it is not a substitute for advice from a lawyer who has reviewed your association's governing documents and the facts of your situation. Reading it, downloading it, or corresponding with the firm about it does not create an attorney-client relationship. No such relationship arises until the firm and the client have signed a written engagement agreement. Please do not send confidential or time-sensitive information to the firm until a conflicts check has been completed and an engagement is confirmed in writing; information sent before that point may not be treated as privileged.

Scope and currency. This article addresses Florida law as applied to Florida community associations, and the firm is licensed to practice in Florida only. Nothing here should be taken as a statement of the law of any other jurisdiction. Florida's community association statutes have been amended in every regular session since 2021, and subsection numbering has moved more than once in that period. Each article states the edition of the Florida Statutes it was written against. The law may have changed after that date, an appellate court may have construed a provision differently, and an administrative rule or a local ordinance may impose requirements this article does not address.

Your governing documents control. Much of what governs a Florida association is not in the statutes at all. Declarations, articles of incorporation, bylaws, rules, plats and recorded amendments differ from community to community, and on many questions they set the rule while the statute sets only a floor or a default. A procedure that is correct in one association may be a breach of the documents in the association next door. No general article can tell you which is which for your community.

Why general information is not advice. Legal questions are resolved by applying the law to particular facts as a judge, jury, arbitrator or hearing officer finds them. An outcome that appears clear in the abstract frequently turns on the documents, the chronology, the board's own prior conduct, and the procedural posture, none of which an article can anticipate. A lawyer supplies what information cannot: the judgment to identify which facts matter, the experience to know how a court or the Division is likely to treat them, the ability to choose among the courses of action actually available, and the advocacy to carry the association's position through negotiation, hearing or trial.

The standard of care, and the protection the statute attaches to counsel. A director of a Florida community association is held to the standard in section 617.0830, Florida Statutes: to act in good faith, in a manner the director reasonably believes to be in the best interests of the corporation, and to discharge the duties of the office with the care an ordinary prudent person in a like position would reasonably believe appropriate under similar circumstances. That standard is measured against the decision the board actually faced, on the record actually before it. The same statute supplies the protection that goes with the duty. Under section 617.0830(4) and (5)(b), a director who has no knowledge making reliance unwarranted is entitled to rely on information, opinions, reports and statements prepared or presented by legal counsel retained by the association as to matters the director reasonably believes are within counsel's professional competence. The Legislature has written the prudent course into the statute. A board that obtains advice on its own documents and its own facts, and acts on that advice, is standing on ground the statute expressly protects. Nothing on this website confers that protection. General information, however carefully prepared, is not advice on your declaration, your amendments, your board's history or your dispute, and a director who relies on it in place of counsel forgoes a statutory protection that was available for the asking.

Personal exposure is real. Service on an association board is usually uncompensated, but volunteer status is not itself immunity. Under section 617.0834, Florida Statutes, a director or an officer is not personally liable in monetary damages for a statement, vote, decision, or failure to act in that role unless two things are both true: the director or officer breached or failed to perform the duties of the office, and that breach was a violation of the criminal law, a transaction from which the director or officer derived an improper personal benefit, conscious disregard or willful misconduct in a proceeding brought by or in the right of the corporation, or recklessness or bad faith in a proceeding brought by anyone else. That protection turns on how the director acted, not on whether the director was paid. Chapters 718, 719 and 720 add consequences of their own, including removal from office, civil penalties assessed against the individual for certain willful and knowing violations, and in defined circumstances criminal liability. Whether any of that reaches a particular director depends entirely on the facts and on the director's conduct. The practical point is narrower and more useful: the decisions that generate this exposure — levying an assessment, enforcing a covenant, denying a transfer, withholding a record, entering a unit, terminating a contract, signing for construction work — are precisely the decisions on which general information is least adequate, and on which counsel costs least relative to what is at stake.

No guarantee; prior results. The firm makes no representation or warranty that the information in this article is complete, current or applicable to any particular matter, and disclaims liability to any person for any action taken or not taken in reliance on it. Any description of prior results does not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other matter; every case turns on its own facts, documents and record.

Do not act on this article alone. If your association faces a decision of consequence, obtain advice from a Florida-licensed attorney who has read your governing documents and the relevant record before the board votes, signs, sends or forecloses. Hamilton Mikes, P.A. represents community associations throughout Southwest Florida and can be reached at 239-594-7227.

Board Decision Documentation Worksheet: Building the Record at the Time of the Decision