Florida Board Member Certification Rules

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

Published September 22, 2026
Reviewed by Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA, September 23, 2026
Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026
Applies to: Condominiums · HOAs · Cooperatives

Key takeaways

Within 90 days after election or appointment, a Florida condominium or HOA director must complete a 4-hour education course from a state-approved provider and sign a written certification that he or she has read the governing documents and will uphold them.
Condominium certificates last seven years of continuous service and require one hour of continuing education each year; HOA certificates last four years and require four hours of continuing education a year (eight for associations of 2,500 or more parcels).
A director who does not comply is suspended from the board until he or she does, and the association must keep the certificates as official records (and post them online where a website is required).
The Division offers a free course, and approved providers, including Hamilton Mikes, offer classes locally.

Every director elected or appointed to a Florida condominium, cooperative or homeowners association board must, within 90 days, complete a four-hour education course from a provider approved by the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes and sign a written certification that he or she has read the association's governing documents and will work to uphold them. Directors must then complete continuing education each year. A director who does not comply is suspended from the board until he or she does. These requirements took their current form in 2024 and apply to directors serving today.

What changed in 2024

Before 2024, a new condominium director could satisfy the statute either by signing a certification that he or she had read the documents or by taking an approved course, and HOA directors had a similar choice. Legislation enacted in 2024 made the course mandatory for both, added annual continuing education, set expiration periods for certificates, and required associations to keep and, in many cases, post the certificates. Directors already serving on July 1, 2024 were given until June 30, 2025 to comply.

Condominium and cooperative directors

Within 90 days after being elected or appointed (or within one year before), a condominium director must:

Complete a four-hour education course offered by a Division-approved provider. The curriculum must cover milestone inspections, Structural Integrity Reserve Studies, elections, recordkeeping, financial literacy and transparency, levying of fines, and meeting and notice requirements.
Sign and submit a written certification to the association's secretary stating that the director has read the declaration, articles, bylaws and current written policies, will work to uphold them to the best of his or her ability, and will faithfully discharge his or her fiduciary duties to the members.

The educational certificate is valid for seven years as long as the director serves without interruption. In addition, every director must complete at least one hour of continuing education each year addressing recent changes to Chapter 718 and the Division's rules during the preceding year.

Homeowners association directors

Within 90 days after being elected or appointed, an HOA director must complete a four-hour education course from a Division-approved provider and submit the same type of written certification about the governing documents. The HOA course covers, among other topics, financial literacy and transparency, recordkeeping, levying of fines, notice and meeting requirements, and the director's fiduciary duties.

The HOA certificate is valid for four years of continuous service. Directors must also complete continuing education each year: at least four hours for associations with fewer than 2,500 parcels, and at least eight hours for associations with 2,500 or more.

Consequences of not complying

A director who fails to timely complete the course and file the certification is suspended from the board until he or she complies, and the remaining directors may temporarily fill the vacancy. A suspended director's votes should not be counted, and a board that continues to act with an uncertified director casting deciding votes invites challenges to those decisions. The requirement also matters for the association: the certificates are official records that must be retained for the director's term of service (and, for condominiums, at least five years after), and associations required to maintain a website must post them.

Where to take the course

The Division publishes a list of approved education providers and offers its own free board member certification course online. Approved providers, including law firms, management companies and industry organizations, offer live and recorded classes. Hamilton Mikes offers Division-approved condominium and HOA board member certification classes for its clients and the community; live classes let directors ask about their own communities, which the free online course cannot do. Whatever the source, keep the certificate of completion and give a copy to the association's secretary or manager.

Beyond the minimum

The statute sets a floor. A new director also benefits from an orientation with the manager and counsel on the association's current contracts, litigation, reserve schedule, insurance program and pending compliance deadlines, and from a reading of the last year of minutes. The written certification is a promise to uphold documents most directors have never read closely; a two-hour session with counsel walking through the declaration's key provisions turns that promise into something the director can actually keep.

Condominium versus HOA at a glance

	Condominium / cooperative	Homeowners association
Deadline	Within 90 days after election or appointment (or completed within the prior year)	Within 90 days after election or appointment
Course	4 hours, Division-approved provider	4 hours, Division-approved provider
Written certification	Required in addition to the course	Required in addition to the course
Certificate valid for	7 years of continuous service	4 years of continuous service
Continuing education	1 hour per year on legislative changes	4 hours per year (8 hours if 2,500+ parcels)
If not completed	Suspended from the board until compliant	Suspended from the board until compliant
Records	Retained as official records; posted on website where required	Retained as official records; posted on website where required

Frequently Asked Questions About Board Member Certification

I took a certification class three years ago. Do I have to take it again?

If you have served continuously since then, a condominium certificate remains valid for seven years and an HOA certificate for four, but you must still complete the annual continuing-education hours. If your service was interrupted, the 90-day clock restarts when you rejoin the board.

Is signing the certification form enough?

No longer. Since 2024, condominium and HOA directors must both complete the four-hour course and sign the written certification. Signing alone does not satisfy the statute.

Where do I find approved providers?

The Division's website lists approved education providers and offers its own free online course. Law firms, management companies and industry groups also hold approved classes; ask the provider to confirm its Division approval number before enrolling.

What happens if a director refuses to take the course?

The director is suspended from the board until he or she complies, and the remaining directors may temporarily fill the seat. The association should document the suspension in the minutes and not count the director's votes while suspended.

Does the requirement apply to officers who are not directors?

The statute applies to directors. Officers who are not board members are not required to certify, although many associations encourage managers and officers to attend the classes.

Do we have to post the certificates online?

Associations required to maintain a website (condominiums with 25 or more units and HOAs with 100 or more parcels) must post each director's certificate in the owner-accessible section. All associations must keep the certificates as official records.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes offers Division-approved condominium and HOA board member certification classes and advises boards on director eligibility, education compliance and governance. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Corporate Governance page.

Statutes and authorities referenced

§ 718.112(2)(d)5.b, Fla. Stat. (condominium director certification and education)
§ 719.106(1)(d), Fla. Stat. (cooperative directors)
§ 720.3033(1), Fla. Stat. (HOA director certification and education)
§ 718.111(12)(a) and § 720.303(4), Fla. Stat. (retention of certificates as official records)
Session laws: HB 1021 (2024) and HB 1203 (2024) (mandatory education; continuing education); HB 913 (2025)

About this article. This article 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 article 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 article 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 article 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 an article 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 in this article 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 article 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.

Florida Board Member Certification: What New Condo and HOA Directors Must Complete, and When