HOA Official Records Changes: How Section 720.303(4) and (5) Reached Their Current Form

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

• Published September 26, 2026
• Reviewed by Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA, September 26, 2026
• Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026
• Applies to: HOAs · Master associations

Current through the 2026 regular session, this page traces one statute: section 720.303(4) and (5), the HOA official records law. Neither the 2026 session nor the 2025 session changed it in substance. The version your board is working under was written by HB 1203 in 2024, amended in 2023 by HB 919, and built on a records provision that has been in Chapter 720 since 1992. Knowing which session put which sentence there is how you tell a current rule from a stale form.

2026: nothing substantive, and one citation that looks like something

No bill amending the HOA records law as a governance matter passed in the 2026 regular session. Section 720.303 does carry a 2026 citation in its history line, at s. 47, ch. 2026-14. That is the reviser's bill, SB 104, effective May 12, 2026. A reviser's bill corrects internal cross references and drafting artifacts. It does not change what an association must keep or produce.

The other 2026 act that reaches an HOA is Ch. 2026-168, the rewrite of Chapter 617, the Not For Profit Corporation Act. It made a conforming amendment to the HOA director education section, not to the records section. If someone tells you HOA records law changed in 2026, ask which subsection. The answer will be one of those two citations, and neither one alters a records obligation.

CS/SB 1498, which would have addressed records violations and electronic voting, died in Senate Appropriations on March 13, 2026. The community association omnibus, HB 657, passed the House 108 to 2 on March 5, 2026 and died in Senate Rules eight days later. Do not build a records policy around either bill.

2025: the year that skipped Chapter 720 entirely

This is the point to state plainly, because it is the most common error we see in HOA compliance files. HB 913, the 2025 omnibus enacted as Ch. 2025-175, did not touch Chapter 720 at all. It reached Chapters 468, 553, 718, 719 and 721. Your HOA got none of it.

That matters because HB 913 was heavily covered, and what it did to condominium records reads like a general improvement. It expanded the condominium official records list at section 718.111(12)(a) to name bank statements, ledgers, video recordings of video conference meetings and required affidavits. It extended the condominium financial report delivery window from 120 to 180 days. It required condominium and cooperative associations to create and maintain an online account with the Division. None of those rules applies to a homeowners association.

Section 720.303 does show a 2025 citation, at s. 84, ch. 2025-6. That is a technical act, not an omnibus. A management company running both condominium and HOA portfolios will sometimes update one records policy and apply it to both. That is how an HOA ends up posting to a Division account it does not have, or answering a records request on a condominium clock.

2024: the session that rewrote HOA records

Two 2024 acts did the work. Ch. 2024-221, CS/CS/HB 1203, effective July 1, 2024, is the HOA omnibus and the source of most of what follows. Ch. 2024-202, HB 59, addressed distribution of rules and covenants to members. Section 720.303 carries both, at s. 3, ch. 2024-221 and s. 1, ch. 2024-202.

Four things came out of that session and are still the live obligations:

• The website and application posting requirement. Section 720.303(4)(b) provides that by January 1, 2025, an association with 100 or more parcels must post the listed documents on its website or make them available through an application that can be downloaded on a mobile device. The list runs from governing documents and budgets to financial reports, insurance policies, director education certificates, conflict of interest disclosures and meeting notices. Meeting agendas must be posted at least 14 days before a members meeting and 7 days before a board meeting. The site must have a members only section protected by a password.
• The written retention policy. Section 720.303(4)(c) requires the association to adopt written rules governing the method or policy by which official records are retained and the period for which they must be retained under paragraph (a). This is a board action, not a filing. Many associations that have complied with everything else in the 2024 act have never adopted this policy.
• Criminal penalties. Section 720.303(5)(d) makes it a misdemeanor of the second degree for a director, board member, association or community association manager to knowingly, willfully and repeatedly violate paragraph (a) with intent to cause harm to the association or one or more of its members. Paragraph (5)(e) makes it a misdemeanor of the first degree to knowingly and intentionally deface or destroy accounting records during the period they must be maintained. Paragraph (5)(f) makes it a felony of the third degree to willfully and knowingly refuse to release or produce association records with intent to avoid or escape detection, arrest, trial or punishment for a crime.
• The itemized records list and the retention period. Section 720.303(4)(a) sets out the items the association must maintain and states the period: at least 7 years, unless the governing documents require a longer period.

On retention, the list is worth reading against your own file room. It covers construction plans, specifications, permits and warranties; the bylaws, articles and declaration with all amendments; the current rules; minutes of board and membership meetings; the current roster of members with mailing addresses and parcel identifications; insurance policies; all association contracts; the accounting records, including itemized receipts and expenditures, member account records, tax returns and financial reports; and the acknowledgments required under section 720.3085. Two items run shorter: ballots, sign-in sheets and voting proxies are kept at least 1 year after the election, and bids are kept 1 year.

There is no permanent tier. Chapter 718 keeps six categories of condominium records permanently under section 718.111(12)(a)1. through 6. Chapter 720 does not. That does not mean an HOA should destroy its declaration at year eight. It means the 7 year floor is a floor, and the governing documents, not the statute, are where a longer period has to come from. Our guide to HOA official records requirements works through the list item by item.

2023: the layer underneath

Boards that date everything to HB 1203 miss a session. CS/CS/HB 919, enacted as Ch. 2023-228 and effective October 1, 2023, amended section 720.303 at s. 2, along with sections 720.3033, 720.305 and 720.3065. The bill summary describes it as revising HOA provisions on official records, fines and suspensions, attorney fees and costs, liens, and removing and reinstating certain officers and directors. It also added criminal penalties for fraudulent voting activity and rules on commingling and remittance of association funds.

For records specifically, 2023 is where the structure began to take its present shape, and 2024 finished it. If you are reconstructing why a sentence is in the statute, check both chapter laws before assuming HB 1203 wrote it.

Older sessions still show in the history line and still matter for context: s. 6, ch. 2021-91 (SB 56, assessment notices), s. 20, ch. 2021-99 (SB 630, the 2021 community association act) and s. 20, ch. 2022-269 (SB 4-D, the post Surfside act, which reached section 720.303 even though its structural provisions did not create HOA obligations).

The inspection clock, in order

Section 720.303(5) is the part a board actually operates. The sequence is short and each step has a number attached.

1. The records must be maintained within Florida for at least 7 years and made available for inspection or photocopying within 45 miles of the community or within the county in which the association is located.
2. Access must be given within 10 business days after the board or its designee receives a written request from a parcel owner.
3. Failure to provide access within those 10 business days, where the request was submitted by certified mail, return receipt requested, creates a rebuttable presumption that the association willfully failed to comply.
4. A member denied access is entitled to actual damages or minimum damages. The minimum is $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days, calculated beginning on the 11th business day after receipt of the written request.
5. A member may use a portable device, including a smartphone, tablet, portable scanner or other technology capable of scanning or taking photographs, to make an electronic copy, and the association may not charge for that use.

The certified mail condition is the detail most often missed in the other direction. It does not excuse a late response. It only determines whether the presumption of willfulness attaches, which is what drives the damages and fee exposure. A board that treats an ordinary e-mailed request as optional because it did not arrive by certified mail is still in breach. Our page on records request mistakes covers how these claims are actually built.

The practical response discipline is unglamorous: date stamp every request on arrival, calendar the eleventh business day, and answer in writing even when the answer is that a document is exempt. See responding to records requests for the workflow.

Copy fees: the only per page cap in Florida association law

Section 720.303(5)(g) sets the charges, and Chapter 720 is alone in doing so. Chapters 718 and 719 set no per page figure in the statute at all.

Two consequences follow. First, an HOA management agreement that sets a per page copy charge above 25 cents is inconsistent with the statute for HOA records, whatever it says. Second, because the personnel charge only starts after the first half hour, the cost of an ordinary request is usually close to nothing, which removes most of the argument for delay.

What is exempt from inspection

The exemptions sit in the same paragraph as the copy fees, section 720.303(5)(g), which is itself a small trap when someone cites the paragraph for one purpose and assumes it does not cover the other. The protected categories are, in substance:

• Records protected by the attorney-client privilege and materials prepared in anticipation of litigation.
• Information obtained in connection with the approval of a lease, sale or other transfer of a parcel.
• Information about the times of entry and exit of guests in a gated community.
• Personnel records of employees, excluding written employment agreements and budgetary compensation information.
• Medical records of parcel owners.
• Social security numbers, driver license numbers, credit card numbers, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, emergency contact information, addresses other than the parcel address, and other personal identifying information.
• Electronic security measures used by the association, including passwords.
• The software and operating system used by the association, though the data in it remains subject to inspection.
• Any affirmative acknowledgment under section 720.3085.

Redaction is the tool, not refusal. A document is rarely exempt as a whole. Our page on records exempt from inspection works through the redaction decisions, and electronic records covers how e-mail, text messages and cloud storage fit the definition.

What to check before the end of 2026

1. Confirm the board has adopted a written records retention policy under section 720.303(4)(c), and that it uses the 7 year period with the 1 year items called out separately.
2. If the community has 100 or more parcels, compare the website or application against the section 720.303(4)(b) list and confirm the password protected owner section works.
3. Replace any records form or policy that says 10 working days, references a Division online account, or cites a 180 day financial report deadline. All three are condominium rules.
4. Confirm the copy fee schedule matches section 720.303(5)(g), including no personnel charge under 25 pages.
5. Check that requests are date stamped on receipt and that the eleventh business day is calendared.

The statute is published free by the Legislature at leg.state.fl.us, and flsenate.gov carries each annual edition, which is the fastest way to see what a history line citation actually did.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes advises homeowners and master association boards across Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties on records requests, retention policies and website posting compliance, and rewrites board forms when the statute moves. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Official Records page.