Official Records: How Florida Legislation Rebuilt the Records Rules Between 2021 and 2026

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: Condominiums · HOAs · Cooperatives

This page is current through the 2026 regular session and reflects the 2026 Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026. Records law was rewritten in 2024 and extended in 2025, and then 2026 added nothing. Both records bills died in committee on March 13, 2026. What your association owes an owner who asks for documents is what HB 1021, HB 1203 and HB 913 left in place, and it differs by chapter more than most boards expect.

The sessions at a glance

Read this table from the top. The 2024 session is where most of the current text came from; 2025 added to it; 2026 left it alone.

One structural change from 2024 is worth knowing before you look anything up. Section 720.303 now splits the subject in two: subsection (4) is the official records list and retention, and subsection (5) is inspection and copying, including the exemptions and the fee caps. A citation to section 720.303(5) for the list itself is pointing at the wrong subsection.

2026: nothing passed, and that matters

Two bills would have changed records law this year. CS/SB 1498 addressed records violations and electronic voting and died in Senate Appropriations on March 13, 2026. CS/CS/CS/CS/HB 657, the community association omnibus, passed the House 108 to 2 on March 5, 2026 and died in Senate Rules on March 13, 2026. Neither is law. A client alert from spring 2026 describing new records penalties as enacted is describing a bill that failed.

The only 2026 chapter law that touched a records section is HB 797, Chapter 2026-168, the Chapter 617 rewrite, which made a conforming amendment reaching section 718.111. The history line of section 718.111 now carries both a 2026-14 citation from the reviser's bill and a 2026-168 citation from the Chapter 617 rewrite. Neither changed what is on the records list or how quickly you must produce it.

2025: HB 913 added records and moved one deadline

Chapter 2025-175 made three changes a board will actually feel.

It expanded what counts as an official record under section 718.111(12)(a). The list now expressly reaches invoices, transaction receipts and deposit slips that substantiate any receipt or expenditure, the recording of any board meeting conducted by video conference, and all affidavits required by the chapter. That last category matters more than it sounds: the officer or director affidavit acknowledging receipt of the structural integrity reserve study is now a record an owner can demand.

It extended the condominium financial report window. Under section 718.111(13) the report is prepared within 90 days after fiscal year end and delivered within 21 days after completion, but no later than 180 days after the end of the fiscal year. This is the single most frequently over-generalized change of the 2025 session. Section 720.303(7) still requires delivery no later than 120 days after fiscal year end, and section 719.104(4) still requires the same 120 days. Treating 180 days as universal makes every HOA and cooperative report late.

It required condominium and cooperative associations to create and maintain an online account with the Division, under sections 718.501(3) and 719.501(3), on or before October 1, 2025. It also set the posting clock: unless a shorter period is otherwise required, a document must be made available on the association's website or through its mobile application within 30 days after the association receives or creates the record.

2024: the checklist, the penalties, and the posting thresholds

HB 1021 and HB 1203 are the bills that produced most of the text a board reads today.

The checklist duty is the sleeper. Under section 718.111(12)(b), in response to a written request to inspect records the association must simultaneously provide the requestor a checklist of all records made available, and must maintain that checklist for seven years. This converts a records response from an informal handover into a documented event. When an owner later claims a record was withheld, the checklist either supports the association or does not, and there is no third option. Our guide to responding to records requests sets out how to build one.

The criminal penalties are real and they are tiered. Under section 718.111(12)(c), a director, board member or community association manager who willfully and knowingly or intentionally denies lawful access commits a misdemeanor of the second degree. Willfully and knowingly or intentionally defacing or destroying accounting records required to be maintained is a misdemeanor of the first degree. Refusing to release or otherwise produce records with the intent to avoid or escape detection, arrest, trial or punishment is a felony of the third degree. Destruction or refusal in furtherance of a crime is punishable as tampering with physical evidence or obstruction of justice. Chapter 720 carries parallel penalties. Chapter 719 does not.

The posting thresholds landed in the same two bills and they do not match. Condominiums reached 25 or more units, non-timeshare, under section 718.111(12)(g). HOAs reached 100 or more parcels under section 720.303(5), with the compliance date of January 1, 2025. Cooperatives were left out entirely: section 719.104 contains no website or mobile-application posting obligation at all.

Website posting, by chapter

This is the comparison most boards in a mixed-form community need, because the manager is often running all three.

The condominium posting list at section 718.111(12)(g)2. is long, and it grew in 2025. It reaches the declaration, bylaws, articles and amendments; the rules; approved board minutes for the preceding 12 months; the video recording or a hyperlink to the recording for any meeting conducted by video conference over the preceding 12 months; a list of executory contracts and bid summaries; the annual budget and any proposed budget; financial reports and monthly statements; director certifications; contracts or transactions between the association and a director or officer; conflict-of-interest documents; owner meeting notices and agendas posted 14 days ahead; board meeting notices and agendas; inspection reports; the structural integrity reserve study; building permits; and all required affidavits. Our page on electronic records management covers how to keep that current without creating a second, worse set of records.

Access deadlines, presumptions and fees

The three chapters use different clocks, different triggers for the presumption of willful failure, and different fee rules. The differences are not cosmetic.

Two traps live in that table. The first is the HOA presumption. Section 720.303(5) conditions the rebuttable presumption of willful failure on a request submitted by certified mail, return receipt requested. An HOA that blows a deadline on an e-mailed request has still violated the statute, but the owner does not get the presumption. The condominium and cooperative presumptions have no such condition.

The second is copy fees. Chapter 720 sets figures. Chapters 718 and 719 do not put a per-page number in the statute, which means a condominium or cooperative charging 25 cents a page is following a rule borrowed from the wrong chapter or from a rule of the Division rather than from its own statute. Our page on condominium official records requirements covers what a board may charge and how to document it.

Retention differs too. Chapter 720 requires records to be kept at least seven years unless the governing documents require longer, and Chapter 719 likewise requires seven years within Florida. Chapter 718 adds a category the other two lack: the records specified in section 718.111(12)(a)1. through 6., which include the plans and permits, the recorded declaration, the recorded bylaws, the articles, the current rules and the minutes, must be permanently maintained from the inception of the association. There is no year at which a condominium may discard its minute book.

What is exempt, and where the list lives

Every chapter has an exemption list and they are close but not identical. The condominium list is at section 718.111(12)(c)5. The cooperative list is at section 719.104(2)(c). The HOA list is at section 720.303(5)(g), items 1 through 9, in the same paragraph as the copy fee caps.

• Records protected by the lawyer-client privilege and work product prepared in connection with litigation.
• Information obtained in connection with the approval of a lease, sale or other transfer of a unit or parcel.
• Personnel records of association or management company employees.
• Medical records of owners.
• Social security numbers, driver license numbers, credit card numbers, e-mail addresses, telephone and facsimile numbers, emergency contact information, and owner addresses other than as provided to meet the association's notice obligations.
• Electronic security measures used to safeguard data, and the software and operating system the association uses.

The practical failure here is not withholding too little. It is redacting by hand under time pressure and missing a phone number on page forty. A board that sends out an unredacted owner roster has created a statutory violation that no later apology fixes. Our page on records exempt from inspection walks through the redaction sequence.

What to fix now

A board reviewing its records practice against the current law should work in this order.

1. Confirm the response clock you are actually using matches your chapter: 10 working days for condominiums and cooperatives, 10 business days for HOAs.
2. Build the checklist template if you are a condominium. It is required to be provided simultaneously with the response and kept for seven years.
3. Check your financial report calendar against the right figure: 180 days for condominiums, 120 days for HOAs and cooperatives.
4. Confirm the association has a Division online account if it is a condominium or cooperative. That obligation ran on October 1, 2025.
5. Audit the website or app against the posting list if you have 25 or more units, and against your chapter's threshold otherwise. Check the 30-day clock on anything received since the last audit.
6. Read your copy-fee schedule. If you are a condominium or cooperative charging by a per-page figure, find the authority for it or stop charging it.
7. Confirm the permanent records in section 718.111(12)(a)1. through 6. have not been culled in a storage cleanout.

Records claims are cheap to bring and expensive to defend, and the prevailing-party fee provisions are what make them worth an owner's time. The board that answers a request completely and on the record almost never sees the second letter.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes represents condominium, cooperative and homeowners association boards in Southwest Florida on records policies, inspection responses, redaction and website compliance, and defends associations when a records demand turns into a claim. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Official Records page.