Special Assessment Planning Checklist: Sizing, Noticing and Levying an Assessment That Holds

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 special assessment is a one-time decision with a long tail. It has to be sized correctly, authorized by the right body, noticed with the right content, spent only on what the notice said, and accounted for when units change hands. This checklist walks the whole of it. Items that apply to only one chapter are labeled.

The largest single difference between the chapters is what happens to the money. Chapters 718 and 719 restrict special assessment funds to the purpose stated in the notice and say what becomes of a surplus. Chapter 720 does neither, which means an HOA board has to write those rules into its own resolution.

Our page on special assessment planning covers the strategy behind the numbers. This sheet is the procedure.

Sizing the assessment

• Start from a defined scope and a written estimate or bid, not a round number the board is comfortable saying out loud.
• Add an explicit contingency line and record in the minutes what it is for and how it was sized.A contingency does not offend the specific-purpose rule as long as the purpose stated in the notice is broad enough to include it. Name the project, not a single invoice.
• Decide whether the assessment funds the entire project or a defined phase, and state in the board's record what happens if bids come in over.
• Model the cash flow against the construction draw schedule rather than against the calendar year, so collections arrive before the payments do.
• Run a delinquency assumption before setting the figure. If 6 percent of owners do not pay, the assessment collects 94 percent of its face amount.Boards routinely size an assessment to the contract price and then run short by the delinquency rate. Size it to what you must collect, not only to what you must spend.
• Compare the assessment against the reserve balance and against a loan or line of credit before committing to it.For a unit-owner-controlled condominium that must have a SIRS, a line of credit or loan for capital expenses is available on approval of a majority of the total voting interests — § 718.112(2)(f)2.c.

The authority to levy

• Read the declaration and bylaws for the authority to levy and for any owner-approval requirement, percentage cap or per-unit cap.The chapter permits the assessment. Your documents decide who approves it and at what threshold. That is where almost every authority dispute is resolved.A special assessment is any assessment levied against a unit owner other than the assessment required by a budget adopted annually — § 718.103(27)
• Confirm whether the board may levy on its own or whether a stated percentage of owners must approve first.
• If an owner vote is required, calendar the members' meeting, its notice, and the proxy or ballot mechanics as a separate track from the board meeting.
• Confirm the purpose is a common expense the association is responsible for, and not a cost that belongs to individual owners under the maintenance provisions.
• Check whether the emergency powers route applies instead, and whether your chapter even has the power you are relying on.The emergency powers are narrower than boards remember and the HOA list is shorter than the condominium list. Confirm the declaration of emergency and the scope before relying on them.HOA special assessment without an owner vote in a declared emergency is § 720.316(1)(j); the condominium and cooperative equivalents sit at § 718.1265(1)(l) and § 719.128(1)(l)

The notice and the specific-purpose statement

• Give written notice of the board meeting at which the special assessment will be considered not less than 14 days before the meeting, mailed, delivered or electronically transmitted to owners and posted conspicuously on the property.§ 718.112(2)(c); § 719.106(1)(c); § 720.303(2)(c)2.
• State in the notice that assessments will be considered and the nature of the assessments.An HOA notice that says only "special assessment" without describing its nature does not meet this.§ 720.303(2)(c)2.
• For a condominium, state in the same notice the estimated cost and a description of the purposes for the assessment.This is content Chapter 720 does not require. A condominium notice that merely states the nature of the assessment, without the estimated cost, is defective even though the identical HOA notice would not be.§ 718.112(2)(c)3.
• After the levy, send or deliver to each owner a written notice of the assessment setting out its specific purpose or purposes.§ 718.116(10); § 719.108(9)
• Write the purpose statement wide enough to cover the whole of the work and its contingencies, and narrow enough to still be a purpose."Building repairs" is too wide to mean anything and invites a challenge. "Replacement of the north tower roof and associated structural repairs, including contingency" is a purpose you can spend against.
• Keep the meeting notice, the mailing or transmission record, the minutes of the levy and the post-levy notice together. This is the file you will be asked to produce.

What you may do with the money

• Spend the funds only on the specific purpose or purposes set forth in the notice.Not on a different project, not on an operating shortfall, not on legal fees in an unrelated matter, however tight the year has been.§ 718.116(10); § 719.108(9)
• Account for the assessment in a separate ledger or account so the restriction can actually be demonstrated to an owner or an auditor.
• When the specific purpose is complete, treat any excess as common surplus. The board may either return it to the unit owners or apply it as a credit toward future assessments.That is a board discretion, but it is a decision the board has to actually make and minute. Leaving the surplus sitting in the project account is not one of the two options.§ 718.116(10)
• For an HOA, note that Chapter 720 has no equivalent. Section 720.308 does not restrict the use of special assessment funds and does not say what becomes of a surplus.Put the restriction and the surplus rule into the resolution levying the assessment. Owners will hold an HOA board to the condominium standard whether or not the statute does, and a board that has written the rule down is in a much better position than one arguing the statute is silent.§ 720.308 (absence of provision)

Instalments, due dates and collection planning

• Set the due date, or the instalment dates and amounts, in the resolution itself rather than in a letter that goes out later.
• State whether the balance accelerates if an instalment is missed, if your documents permit acceleration.
• Confirm the interest and administrative late fee you intend to charge are authorized: interest at the rate in the declaration, or 18 percent a year if the declaration is silent, and an administrative late fee of up to the greater of $25 or 5 percent of each delinquent instalment.§ 718.116(3); § 719.108(3); § 720.3085(3)
• Apply payments in the statutory order: interest first, then the administrative late fee, then costs and reasonable attorney fees incurred in collection, then the delinquent assessment.The order is mandatory and it applies even where an owner writes "special assessment only" on the check.§ 718.116(3); § 719.108(3); § 720.3085(3)(b)
• Calendar the collection sequence at the time of the levy, not at the first missed instalment: the 30-day notice of late assessment, then the 45-day notice of intent to record a claim of lien.§ 718.121(5), (6); § 719.108(3)(c), (4)(a); § 720.3085(3), (4)

Estoppels, closings and units changing hands

• Tell the manager and counsel the day the assessment is levied, so estoppel certificates stop understating the balance that afternoon.
• Confirm the estoppel certificate itemizes the special assessment and the amounts scheduled to become due after the date of issuance.§ 718.116(8); § 720.30851
• Watch the effective period. A certificate hand delivered or sent electronically is effective for 30 days; one sent by regular mail is effective for 35.A levy that falls inside that window is where associations lose money, because the certificate the buyer relied on did not carry it. If a levy is imminent, say so on the certificate.§ 718.116(8); § 720.30851
• Issue estoppel certificates within 10 business days after a written or electronic request.§ 718.116(8); § 720.30851; § 719.108(6)

The defects that force a rescission

• Confirm the meeting that levied the assessment was noticed not less than 14 days out, and that you can prove both the mailing and the posting.
• Confirm the notice stated the nature of the assessment, and for a condominium the estimated cost and a description of the purposes.§ 718.112(2)(c)3.; § 720.303(2)(c)2.
• Confirm the board had a quorum and that each director's vote is recorded in the minutes.
• Confirm the purpose in the post-levy notice matches the purpose in the meeting notice and in the minutes, word for word where you can.A purpose that grows between the meeting notice and the assessment letter is the single most common reason a board has to rescind and start again.
• Confirm no director with a conflict of interest voted, and that any disclosure was listed on the agenda and attached to the minutes.§ 720.3033(2); § 617.0832
• If any of the above fails, rescind and re-levy correctly rather than defending it. A rescission costs one 14-day cycle. A defective assessment can cost the project.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes helps Southwest Florida boards size, authorize and notice special assessments, and draws the resolutions and owner notices that make the levy defensible. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Assessment Collection page.