Association Budget & Reserve Attorneys, FL

Reviewed by Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA · September 23, 2026 · Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026

Florida Community Association Budgeting & Financial Reporting Attorneys

Financial planning directly affects the long-term health of every community association. Budgeting decisions influence reserve funding, maintenance obligations, capital projects, insurance planning, and future assessments. For Florida condominiums, budgeting is now also a matter of statutory compliance: reserve funding for structural components is mandatory, waivers that boards relied on for decades are no longer available, and the annual budget must reflect what the engineers have found.

Hamilton Mikes assists boards with the legal issues affecting budgeting, reserves, financial disclosures, special assessments, and long-term financial planning. We do not replace the association's accountant or reserve specialist; we make sure the board's financial decisions are authorized, properly noticed, correctly adopted, and defensible.

The Annual Budget

Chapter 718 requires a condominium association's proposed annual budget to be detailed and to show the amounts budgeted by account and expense classification. Owners must receive notice of the board meeting at which the budget will be considered, together with a copy of the proposed budget, at least 14 days in advance. If the adopted budget requires assessments exceeding 115 percent of the prior year's assessments, a specified percentage of owners may petition for a special meeting to consider an alternative budget, subject to statutory exclusions for reserves and non-recurring expenses. Homeowners associations under Chapter 720 and cooperatives under Chapter 719 follow their own notice and adoption procedures, shaped heavily by their governing documents.

We help boards:

Calendar the notice, posting, and adoption requirements so the budget cannot be challenged on procedure
Reconcile the budget with the reserve schedule, the insurance appraisal, and pending construction or milestone-inspection obligations
Adopt budgets that correctly classify operating expenses, reserves, and non-recurring items
Respond to owner petitions, alternative-budget demands, and challenges before the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes

Reserves and the Structural Integrity Reserve Study

Florida's reserve requirements changed fundamentally after the Champlain Towers South collapse. For condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or more in height, a Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS) performed by a licensed engineer or architect must identify the structural components to be reserved for, including the roof, load-bearing walls and primary structural members, floor, foundation, fireproofing and fire protection systems, plumbing, electrical systems, waterproofing and exterior painting, windows and exterior doors, and any other item with a deferred maintenance or replacement cost exceeding $25,000 (adjusted annually for inflation) that affects structural integrity. The study must be updated at least every ten years.

For budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, associations may no longer vote to waive or reduce funding for these structural reserves. Reserves for non-structural components may still be waived or reduced by a majority vote at a duly called meeting, but the structural reserves must be funded as the study recommends. The Legislature has since added flexibility for associations funding milestone-required repairs, including the use of loans and lines of credit and limited adjustments to reserve contributions, and the details continue to evolve each session.

Homeowners associations are not subject to SIRS. Under Chapter 720, reserves are mandatory only if the developer established them or the members vote to require them, but many HOA declarations impose reserve obligations of their own, and boards of communities with roads, lakes, gates, and clubhouses are increasingly expected to fund them.

Our attorneys help boards understand what the study requires, how the reserve schedule must appear in the budget, what owner votes remain available, and how to communicate large reserve increases to owners who did not expect them.

Special Assessments, Loans, and Lines of Credit

When reserves and operating funds are not enough, boards turn to special assessments and borrowing. Chapter 718 requires the notice of any meeting at which a special assessment will be considered to state the specific purpose of the assessment, and the funds collected may be used only for that purpose. Governing documents frequently add their own limits on the board's authority, sometimes requiring an owner vote above a stated dollar amount. Association loans require careful attention to the documents' borrowing authority and to lender requirements regarding the assignment of assessment revenue.

We review the authority for each funding decision, prepare the notices and resolutions, and coordinate with lenders and accountants so the money is available when the contractor needs to be paid.

Financial Reporting and Owner Disclosures

Chapter 718 requires a condominium association to prepare an annual financial report within 90 days after the end of the fiscal year, at a level determined by the association's total annual revenues: a report of cash receipts and expenditures, compiled financial statements, reviewed financial statements, or audited financial statements at the highest revenue tier. Owners may vote to reduce the required level, but not for more than three consecutive years, and the report must be delivered or made available to owners within statutory deadlines. Associations subject to the website-posting requirement must also post the report online. Chapter 720 imposes a parallel structure on homeowners associations.

Related obligations include the year-end reserve disclosure, the response to owner requests for accounting records, and the preparation of estoppel certificates for closings, which must be delivered within statutory deadlines and may charge only the fees the statute permits.

Financial Controls

The firm's recovery of $10.3 million for 35 associations defrauded by their management company, and its recovery of more than $500,000 for a country club victimized by wire fraud, taught us that budgeting also means control. We help boards adopt financial-control policies covering dual signatures, bank statement review by directors, management company access to accounts, wire-transfer verification, fidelity coverage in the amounts the statute requires, and the audit rights every management agreement should contain.

Communities We Serve

Condominium Associations

We advise Condominium Associations regarding annual budgets, reserve accounts, audited financial statements, special assessments, reserve funding requirements, and Structural Integrity Reserve Study obligations.

Homeowners Associations

We assist Homeowners Associations (HOAs) with reserve planning, budgets, special assessments, capital projects, and long-term financial strategies.

Cooperative Associations

We help Cooperative Associations address reserve requirements, budgets, financial reporting, special assessments, and capital expenditures.

Master Associations

We advise Master Associations concerning assessment allocation, reserve planning, shared infrastructure costs, and budgeting among affiliated communities.

Frequently Asked Questions About Association Budgets and Reserves

Can our condominium association still waive reserves?

Only in part. For buildings three stories or more, funding for the structural components identified in the Structural Integrity Reserve Study may not be waived or reduced in budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024. Reserves for other components, such as pavement or non-structural amenities, may still be waived or reduced by a majority vote at a duly called meeting of the owners.

What happens if our budget increases assessments by more than 15 percent?

Under Chapter 718, if the adopted budget requires assessments exceeding 115 percent of the prior year's assessments, owners holding at least ten percent of the voting interests may petition for a special meeting to consider an alternative budget. Reserve contributions and non-recurring expenses are excluded from the calculation. We help boards prepare for that possibility before adopting the budget.

What level of year-end financial report does our association need?

It depends on total annual revenues. Chapter 718 sets tiers running from a simple report of cash receipts and expenditures for the smallest associations to audited financial statements for those at the highest revenue tier. Owners may vote to reduce the level, but not for more than three consecutive years. Your accountant can identify the tier; we make sure the vote and the delivery deadlines are handled correctly.

Does the board need an owner vote to levy a special assessment?

Not under the statute, but often under the governing documents. Many declarations require owner approval above a dollar threshold or for particular purposes. Regardless of who approves it, the meeting notice must state the specific purpose of the assessment, and the funds may be used only for that purpose.

Can the association borrow to fund SIRS or milestone repairs?

Yes, if the governing documents permit borrowing and the lender's requirements can be met. Recent legislation has expressly recognized loans and lines of credit as tools for funding structural reserves and milestone-required repairs. We review the documents, prepare the board resolutions, and negotiate the loan terms that affect the association's assessment rights.

What controls should a board have over the management company's access to funds?

At a minimum: fidelity coverage in the statutory amount for everyone who handles funds, monthly bank statements sent directly to a director, dual authorization for large disbursements, written wire-transfer verification procedures, and audit and records-return rights in the management agreement. Most association fraud we have litigated exploited the absence of one of these controls.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Contact Hamilton Mikes, P.A. at 239-594-7227 for assistance with budgets, reserves, special assessments, and financial reporting. Related services: Regulatory Compliance, Corporate Governance, Assessment Collection, and Construction.

About this page. This page 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 page 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 page 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 page 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 a general page 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 on this page 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 page 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.

Budgeting and Financial Reporting