Community Association Litigation Attorneys

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

Florida Community Association Litigation and ADR Attorneys

Most association disputes should never see a courtroom, and Florida law is built to keep them out of one: condominium and cooperative disputes go to Division arbitration or presuit mediation before suit, homeowners association disputes go to statutory presuit mediation, and construction and insurance claims carry their own pre-suit notice requirements. The disputes that remain are the ones worth trying. Hamilton Mikes represents condominiums, homeowners associations, cooperatives, mobile home communities, clubs, marinas, and resort communities throughout Southwest Florida as plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal court, before the Division, and in mediation and arbitration, and advises boards on the litigation decisions that the business judgment rule protects only when they are made deliberately.

The Matters We Handle

Covenant and rule enforcement actions for injunctive relief and damages
Declaratory judgment actions under Chapter 86 to resolve document interpretation, maintenance responsibility, and authority questions before they become enforcement fights
Election, recall, meeting, and records disputes before the Division and in court
Construction defect and developer turnover claims, including Chapter 558 pre-suit proceedings and claims against contractors, design professionals, and their insurers
Insurance coverage disputes, appraisal, and bad-faith claims arising from hurricane and casualty losses
Contract disputes with management companies, vendors, and service providers, including construction lien claims under Chapter 713
Defense of associations, directors, and officers in suits by owners, including breach of fiduciary duty, selective enforcement, and negligence claims
Fair housing complaints before HUD, the Florida Commission on Human Relations, and the federal courts
Premises liability, employment, and other third-party claims, in coordination with the association's insurers
Disputes between master and sub-associations, clubs and communities, and neighboring properties over easements, shared facilities, and cost allocation
Appeals

Mandatory Pre-Suit Procedures

Before a condominium or cooperative association or owner files most disputes in court, section 718.1255 requires the party either to petition the Division for nonbinding arbitration or to initiate presuit mediation under the homeowners association procedure. The statute defines "dispute" to include the board's authority to require an owner to act or refrain from acting with respect to the unit, the board's authority to alter or add to common areas, and the association's failure to properly conduct elections and meetings, give notice, or allow records inspection. It excludes title disputes, warranty claims, assessment collection, tenant evictions, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and damage claims based on failure to maintain the common elements, which go directly to court. Election and recall disputes are handled on an expedited basis and may be arbitrated by the Division or filed in court.

Chapter 720 requires a homeowners association or parcel owner to serve a statutory demand for presuit mediation before filing suit over covenant enforcement, use of or changes to a parcel or common area, amendments to the governing documents, board and committee meetings, membership meetings other than elections, and records access. Collection matters and enforcement of a prior mediation settlement are exempt. The demand follows the form in the statute, offers a choice of certified mediators, and gives the responding party 20 days to respond. A party who refuses to participate may be liable for the other side's fees and costs in the ensuing lawsuit, and the statute of limitations is tolled while the process runs.

Two other pre-suit requirements recur in association practice. Chapter 558 requires an association claiming construction defects to serve a detailed written notice at least 60 days before suit (120 days for an association of more than 20 parcels), allowing the contractor to inspect and offer a repair or settlement. Property insurance suits require a notice of intent to initiate litigation to the insurer at least ten business days before filing, and reforms enacted in 2022 and 2023 eliminated one-way attorney's fees for most property insurance suits, changing the economics of every coverage dispute.

Division Arbitration

Arbitration before the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes is a formal proceeding decided by a state arbitrator on written submissions, and, where needed, an evidentiary hearing. The petition must show that the petitioner gave the other party written notice of the dispute, a demand for relief, a reasonable opportunity to comply, and notice of intent to arbitrate. The arbitrator's final order is binding unless a party files a complaint for trial de novo in circuit court within 30 days, and the prevailing party is entitled to attorney's fees and costs. Arbitration decisions are published and are frequently the only guidance available on recurring questions, such as whether a particular record is protected from inspection or whether an election notice was adequate, which is why our advice often cites them.

Attorney's Fees and the Economics of Litigation

Chapters 718, 719, and 720 award reasonable attorney's fees to the prevailing party in actions to enforce the statute or the governing documents, and most declarations contain their own fee provisions. Fee-shifting makes association litigation different from ordinary civil litigation: the side that is right can expect to recover much of its cost, and the side that is wrong pays twice. It also makes the pre-filing evaluation the most important work in the case. Before recommending suit, we assess the association's own compliance with the documents and the statutory procedures, the strength of the owner's likely defenses, the collectability of a fee judgment, and whether a declaratory action would settle the question at lower cost than an enforcement action. Proposals for settlement under section 768.79 add a second fee-shifting layer in damages cases, and we use them.

Where Cases Are Heard

Association matters in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry, and Glades counties are filed in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, in county court for money claims up to $50,000 and in circuit court for larger claims and for injunctions, declaratory relief, and foreclosures. Appeals go to the Sixth District Court of Appeal in Lakeland, which has heard the Twentieth Circuit's appeals since 2023. Fair housing, Americans with Disabilities Act, and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act claims are frequently filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Fort Myers Division. We practice in all of them.

Defending the Association

When an owner sues the association or its directors, the first call after counsel is to the directors' and officers' insurer, because late notice is the most common reason coverage is denied. The insurer may appoint defense counsel, defend under a reservation of rights, or agree to the association's chosen counsel; we review the policy and the tender so that the board understands its position before it agrees to anything. Claims against individual directors are evaluated under the business judgment rule and the volunteer-director immunity in Chapter 617, and we move early to dispose of claims that challenge decisions the board was entitled to make. In fair housing matters, which can end in administrative enforcement, federal court, and uninsured penalties, we represent the association from the first agency notice through conciliation and, when necessary, trial.

Litigation Governance

Litigation is a board decision with statutory consequences. Meetings with counsel about proposed or pending litigation are the principal exception to the open-meeting requirement, and litigation files are exempt from owner inspection until the matter concludes, but the decision to sue, to settle, and to fund the case belongs on the agenda of a noticed meeting. Owners are entitled to know that the association is in litigation, prospective purchasers will ask about it in estoppel and resale disclosures, and a special assessment to fund a case must follow the same notice rules as any other. We help boards adopt litigation budgets, define settlement authority, communicate with owners without waiving privilege, and document the deliberations that the business judgment rule will later protect.

Communities We Serve

Condominium Associations

We represent Condominium Associations in Division arbitration, presuit mediation, and litigation under Chapter 718, including enforcement, election and records disputes, construction and turnover claims, and insurance litigation.

Homeowner Associations

We handle Homeowner Associations' statutory presuit mediation, covenant and architectural enforcement suits, declaratory actions, and defense of owner claims under Chapter 720.

Cooperative Associations

We represent Cooperative Associations in the arbitration and mediation procedures Chapter 719 borrows from the condominium act and in disputes over share transfers and occupancy rights.

Mobile Home Communities

We advise park owners and homeowners' associations in Mobile Home Communities on Chapter 723's mediation requirements for lot rental disputes and represent them in the litigation that follows when mediation fails.

Clubs, Marinas, Resorts, and Mixed-Use Communities

Disputes involving Country Clubs and Golf Communities, Marinas and Waterfront Communities, Timeshare Condominiums, Hotel Condominiums, Master Associations, Sub-Associations, and Mixed-Use Developments frequently turn on contracts, easements, and cost-sharing agreements rather than the association statutes, and often on arbitration clauses that route the case away from court entirely. We litigate and arbitrate those matters under the Revised Florida Arbitration Code and the agreements at issue.

Frequently Asked Questions About Association Litigation

Should the association immediately file suit?

Rarely. Most association disputes must first go through Division arbitration or statutory presuit mediation, and most of those resolve there. Exceptions include emergencies requiring immediate injunctive relief, collection matters, and claims the statutes exempt from pre-suit procedures. Even then, a demand letter that states the association's position and the consequences of ignoring it frequently produces compliance at a fraction of the cost.

Is mediation required?

For homeowners associations, presuit mediation is required by section 720.311 for covenant enforcement, use, amendment, meeting, and records disputes, and a party that refuses to participate risks paying the other side's fees. For condominiums and cooperatives, the choice is between Division arbitration and presuit mediation. Courts also routinely order mediation before trial. Mediation is confidential, and settlements reached there are enforceable contracts.

When should legal counsel be involved?

Before the first formal notice is sent. The statutory pre-suit steps, the fee-shifting rules, and the defenses available to owners all turn on what the association did in the weeks before the dispute became a case. A short consultation at that stage costs far less than repairing a defective notice or an improperly imposed fine after the owner's lawyer has found it.

Who pays the association's attorney's fees?

If the association prevails in an action to enforce the statute or documents, the losing party is generally ordered to pay the association's reasonable fees, and in collection matters the fees are secured by the lien. If the association loses, it pays the owner's fees. Defense costs in suits against the association are usually covered by directors' and officers' insurance once the claim is tendered.

Can owners attend meetings about the lawsuit?

Meetings between the board and the association's attorney to discuss proposed or pending litigation may be closed to owners, and the attorney's files are exempt from records inspection until the case concludes. The decisions to file, settle, or specially assess for litigation are made at open, noticed meetings, and owners are entitled to know that litigation is pending.

How long do association lawsuits take?

The figures below are our practice estimates, drawn from the matters this firm has handled in the Twentieth Circuit and before the Division. None of them is a statutory period, and none is a deadline a board can hold anyone to. Division arbitration: about nine months. Presuit mediation: 60 to 90 days. A contested circuit court case: about 12 months to trial, with an appeal adding roughly another year. Uncontested enforcement and collection cases are much faster. Any particular case can run well past these ranges. We give boards a schedule and budget before the case begins and update both as it proceeds.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Contact Hamilton Mikes, P.A. at 239-594-7227 to evaluate a dispute before it becomes a lawsuit, or to respond to one that already has. Related services: Covenant Enforcement, Construction, Insurance, Fair Housing, and Assessment Collection.

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.

Litigation and ADR