HOA Architectural Review Checklist

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: HOAs

Most architectural denials that fail do not fail because the committee reached the wrong result. They fail because the committee applied a standard the declaration never gave it, or because the denial letter did not name the covenant it relied on. Work down this list once for each application, in order, and keep the completed sheet with the file.

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.

Chapter 720 was amended again in 2026. Section 11 of Chapter 2026-63 added § 720.3035(1)(c), effective July 1, 2026, and it changes how many committees intake an application. The item on building permits below is built around it. Our architectural review procedures page covers the background.

The citation under an item tells you where the requirement comes from. Your declaration and published guidelines may be stricter than the statute. They may not be looser.

Confirm the committee's authority reaches this item

Find the provision in the declaration, or in published guidelines the declaration authorizes, that gives the committee authority over the location, size, type or appearance of this particular improvement.If nothing in the documents speaks to the location, size, type or appearance of the thing the owner wants to build, the committee has nothing to apply and no ground to deny.§ 720.3035(1)(a) — review authority exists only to the extent it is specifically stated or reasonably inferred in the declaration or in published guidelines and standards authorized by the declaration
Confirm the guidelines the committee intends to apply were adopted under authority the declaration actually grants, and that they were published to owners before this application was filed.§ 720.3035(1)(a)
Confirm the committee was appointed as the declaration or bylaws require, and check any limit on its membership, terms or quorum.
Confirm the committee is applying the standards reasonably and equitably to all parcel owners, and not more strictly to this applicant.§ 720.3035(1)(a)
Check whether the committee decides or only recommends. Under some documents the board makes the final decision and the committee's vote is advisory.If the board decides, the board's meeting is the one that has to be noticed and minuted, and the denial letter goes out over the board's name.

The published guidelines you will actually apply

Pull the current version of the guidelines and confirm the applicant was given that version, not an older one.
If the guidelines give the owner options for material, size, design or location, do not restrict the owner's choice among them.This is the provision that most often defeats a denial. If the approved palette lists five colors, the committee cannot insist on the two it prefers.§ 720.3035(2)
Check whether the guidelines address this element at all, or whether the committee is applying an unwritten practice.A preference the committee has always had, but never published, is not a standard. It cannot support a denial.
Confirm the guideline being applied does not conflict with a right the declaration gives the owner.§ 720.3035(5)

Completeness of the application

Confirm the application is on the form your guidelines require and is signed by the record owner, not by a tenant or a contractor.
Confirm the plans and specifications show the location, size, type and appearance of the improvement, since those are the four things the statute lets the committee review.§ 720.3035(1)(a)
Confirm materials, colors and finishes are identified specifically enough that the committee could approve the improvement as drawn.
Confirm the contractor is identified, and licensed and insured, if your documents require it.
Date-stamp the application and record in writing the date it was received and the date it was complete.Every deadline in your documents runs from one of those two dates. An undated application is the reason most deemed-approval disputes are lost.

Survey, easements, setbacks and permits

Obtain a current survey or site plan showing the parcel boundaries with the proposed improvement located on them.
Check the plat and the declaration for drainage, utility, access and conservation easements the improvement would sit on or block.An approval that puts a structure on a drainage easement is a problem the association owns for as long as the structure stands. See our page on drainage easements.
Check setbacks, and where the declaration and the local code both set one, determine which governs before the committee votes.Section 720.3035 speaks to setback determinations and consistency with county and municipal standards. Confirm the current wording with counsel before a denial rests on it.
Confirm whether the improvement affects a stormwater system, a lake bank or a common area the association maintains.
Do not require the owner to produce an issued building permit as a prerequisite for the committee's review.This is new and it is absolute as to review. You may still tell the owner that association approval is not a permit and that the work must be permitted, and you may condition an approval on the owner obtaining whatever permits the county or city requires. What you may no longer do is refuse to review, or hold the application in a drawer, until the permit is in hand.§ 720.3035(1)(c), added by s. 11, ch. 2026-63, effective July 1, 2026

What Chapter 720 puts beyond the association's reach

Ask first whether the item is visible from the parcel's frontage, an adjacent parcel, an adjacent common area or a community golf course. If it is not visible from any of those, the association may not restrict installing, displaying or storing it.The statute names artificial turf, boats, flags, vegetable gardens, clotheslines and recreational vehicles, but says "including, but not limited to." Visibility is the test, not the type of item.§ 720.3045
Do not apply a covenant, rule or guideline that limits or places requirements on the interior of a structure that is not visible from those same vantage points.§ 720.3035(1)(b)1.
Screen the application against the hurricane protection specifications the board is required to adopt before treating a hurricane protection product as a discretionary approval.Confirm the current text of subsection (6) with counsel. It applies to all Florida homeowners' associations regardless of when the community was created.§ 720.3035(6)(a)
Check whether the improvement is one that general law or a local ordinance separately protects before a guideline is applied to it.Section 720.3045 opens with "unless prohibited by general law or local ordinance," which cuts both ways. Ask counsel where a flag, a solar installation or a display is involved.

The meeting, the notice and the decision deadline

Notice the committee meeting the way you notice a board meeting. A body with the power to approve or disapprove architectural decisions for a specific parcel meets under the board meeting rules.§ 720.303(2)(a)
Post the notice conspicuously in the community at least 48 hours in advance, or mail it at least 7 days before, and identify the agenda items specifically.§ 720.303(2)(c)1.
Hold the meeting open to members and decide the application there.An email poll among committee members is not a meeting. It produces a decision with no notice, no record and no vote anyone can point to afterward.
Calendar the decision deadline from your own documents, because Chapter 720 does not supply one.Section 720.3035 does not give the association a number of days and does not provide that an application is deemed approved if the committee is silent. If your declaration or guidelines contain a deemed-approval clause, that clause runs against you, and the date the application was received is the date that matters.§ 720.3035 sets no statutory period for the association to act
Record in the minutes the vote of each committee member on the application, including abstentions.

The written denial, consistency and the appeal

If the application is denied, provide written notice of the denial to the parcel owner.§ 720.3035(4)(a)
State in that notice, with specificity, the rule or covenant the committee relied on in denying the application.§ 720.3035(4)(a)
State in that same notice the specific aspect or part of the proposed improvement that does not conform to the rule or covenant."Does not meet community standards" is not a denial the statute recognizes. Name the provision, quote it, and then name the part of the plan that fails it.§ 720.3035(4)(a)
Before the letter goes out, pull the committee's decisions on comparable applications for the last several years and confirm this one is consistent with them.Inconsistency is what turns a defensible standard into a selective enforcement defense. If the committee is changing course, say so, and say why, in the minutes.
Tell the owner what the documents provide by way of reconsideration or appeal, and the deadline for it.Chapter 720 does not create an appeal right. If your declaration gives one, it is the only one the owner has, and the letter should say so.
Keep the application, the plans, the meeting notice, the minutes, the vote and the denial letter together in the official records.§ 720.303(4)

Statutes and authorities referenced

§ 720.3035, Fla. Stat. (HOA architectural control; covenant enforcement)
§ 720.3035(1)(a), Fla. Stat. (scope of the committee's review authority)
§ 720.3035(1)(b), Fla. Stat. (interior and non-visible elements)
§ 720.3035(1)(c), Fla. Stat. (no building permit as a prerequisite for association review; s. 11, ch. 2026-63, eff. July 1, 2026)
§ 720.3035(2), Fla. Stat. (owner's right to select among published options)
§ 720.3035(4), Fla. Stat. (written denial stating the rule relied on; damages and fees)
§ 720.3035(5), Fla. Stat. (policies inconsistent with declaration rights)
§ 720.3035(6), Fla. Stat. (hurricane protection specifications)
§ 720.3045, Fla. Stat. (installation, display and storage of items not visible)
§ 720.303(2), Fla. Stat. (board and committee meetings, notice and agenda)
§ 720.303(4), Fla. Stat. (official records)

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes reviews architectural guidelines against what the declaration actually authorizes, drafts denial letters that state the covenant relied on, and advises Southwest Florida boards on the 2026 amendments to § 720.3035. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Architectural Review 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.

HOA Architectural Review Checklist: Processing an ARC Application So the Decision Holds