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Knowledge Center

Plain-language resources on Florida condominium, HOA, cooperative and mobile home law, board governance, legislative updates and downloadable checklists.

Florida Community Association Knowledge Center

Florida community associations operate within a complex combination of statutes, governing documents, administrative requirements, contracts, permits, and operational responsibilities. Board members and community managers must regularly address questions involving governance, meetings, elections, official records, budgets, reserves, collections, enforcement, architectural review, insurance, construction, and disaster recovery.

The Hamilton Mikes Knowledge Center provides practical educational resources for condominium associations, homeowners associations, cooperative associations, mobile home communities, directors, officers, committee members, and community association managers throughout Florida.

Use the resources below to learn about common association-law issues, prepare for important board decisions, understand changes in Florida law, and identify questions that may require individualized legal guidance.

Latest Guides

40 guides are published so far. The newest twelve are below; every guide is also listed, by topic, in each section it applies to.

What Is a Florida Condominium Association?

How a Florida condominium is created, what the association is, what it owns and must do under Chapter 718, and how it differs from an HOA or a co-op.

Condominiums

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

What Is a Florida Homeowners Association?

How a Florida homeowners association is defined under Chapter 720, what it owns, what powers and duties it has, who regulates it, and the limits on its rules.

HOAs
Master associations
Sub-associations

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

HOA vs. Condominium Association

A side-by-side comparison of Florida HOA and condominium law: ownership, regulation, reserves, insurance, meetings, elections, records, fines, collections and more.

HOAs
Condominiums
Master associations

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

Reading Your Governing Documents

The order of authority among the declaration, articles, bylaws and rules; how Chapter 718 and 720 override them; Kaufman language; and the clauses boards misread.

Condominiums
HOAs
Cooperatives

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

Board Meeting Notices and Agendas

Florida condo and HOA board meeting notice rules: 48-hour posting, 14-day notice for assessments and use rules, agendas, owner rights and closed sessions.

Condominiums
HOAs
Cooperatives

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

Annual Meeting Planning

How to run a compliant Florida condo or HOA annual meeting: the 60/40/14-day notice timeline, quorum, limited and general proxies, owner rights and records.

Condominiums
HOAs
Cooperatives

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

Meeting Minutes

What condo and HOA minutes must contain under Chapters 718 and 720 (each director's vote), what to omit, closed sessions, committees, retention and access.

Condominiums
HOAs
Cooperatives

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

Director Fiduciary Responsibilities

Fiduciary duties of Florida association directors under §§ 718.111, 720.303 and 617.0830, the business judgment rule, volunteer immunity and liability.

Condominiums
HOAs
Cooperatives

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

Director Conflicts of Interest

Florida conflict-of-interest rules for condo and HOA directors: § 718.3027 and § 720.3033 disclosure, leaving the room, recusal, member cancellation and kickbacks.

Condominiums
HOAs
Cooperatives

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

Board Email and Text Messages

Chapters 718 and 720 on director emails and texts: information yes, votes no, a quorum deliberating is an unnoticed meeting, and messages may be records.

Condominiums
HOAs
Cooperatives

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

Covenant Enforcement Guide

Step-by-step covenant enforcement for Florida condo and HOA boards: authority, violation notices, cure periods, the fining committee, selective enforcement.

Condominiums
HOAs
Cooperatives

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

Arbitration and Presuit Mediation

How § 718.1255 arbitration and § 720.311 presuit mediation work: covered disputes, the demand, deadlines, fees, trial de novo and refusals to participate.

Condominiums
HOAs
Cooperatives

Jason Hamilton Mikes · September 23, 2026

Explore the Knowledge Center

Condominium Law

Guidance for Florida condominium directors, officers, and managers concerning Chapter 718, governance, official records, reserves, milestone inspections, Structural Integrity Reserve Studies, collections, enforcement, insurance, construction, and hurricane recovery.

HOA Law

Resources addressing Chapter 720, HOA meetings and elections, governing documents, covenant enforcement, fining procedures, architectural review, official records, assessment collection, stormwater systems, recreational amenities, and community operations.

Cooperative Law

Information for cooperative boards, officers, shareholders, certificate holders, and managers concerning Chapter 719, proprietary leases, governance, records, transfers, occupancy, assessments, budgeting, insurance, and disputes.

Mobile Home Community Law

Educational resources concerning Chapter 723, prospectuses, lot rental increases, homeowners’ committees, park rules, occupancy matters, home placement, infrastructure, mediation, and disaster recovery.

Board Resources

Practical guidance for directors, officers, committee members, and community association managers concerning fiduciary responsibilities, meetings, elections, conflicts, records, budgets, contracts, enforcement decisions, and board procedures.

Downloads

Downloadable tools designed to help community leaders organize meetings, elections, records requests, contract reviews, budgets, hurricane preparation, enforcement matters, and new-director orientation.

Legislative Updates

Updates concerning legislative, regulatory, administrative, and statutory developments affecting Florida condominium associations, HOAs, cooperatives, mobile home communities, boards, managers, and residents.

Manager Resources

Desk guides, comparison tables and a compliance calendar for Florida community association managers, with a clear line between manager work and work for association counsel.

Difficult Owners & Heated Meetings

Techniques from crisis negotiators, mediators and counselors for managers and boards: what to say, what to write, and how to run a heated board meeting.

The Board Minute

A blog by AnnaDanielle Carter, JD: short, practical posts for Florida association boards, built on three questions: authority, process and impact.

Popular Community Association Topics

Information for Better Board Decisions

Good governance requires more than reaching a reasonable result. A board may also need to identify its authority, provide required notice, follow meeting and voting procedures, consider conflicts, create an appropriate record, and communicate its decision effectively.

The articles and tools in this Knowledge Center provide general educational information. They are not a substitute for advice concerning the facts, governing documents, history, and legal requirements of a particular community.

Speak With a Florida Community Association Attorney

If your board is preparing to make a significant governance, financial, contractual, enforcement, construction, insurance, or recovery decision, early legal review may help identify procedural requirements and avoid preventable disputes.

Contact Hamilton Mikes or call 239-594-7227.

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.

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239-594-7227 Info@HamiltonMikes.com

Hamilton Mikes, P.A.
8850 Terrene Court, Suite 110
Bonita Springs, FL 34135

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