Regular Versus Special Assessments: What a Florida Condominium Board May Levy, and How

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

• Published September 25, 2026
• Reviewed by Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA, September 26, 2026
• Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026
• Applies to: Condominiums

Chapter 718 treats these as two different instruments. A regular assessment is an owner's share of the common expenses set out in the annual budget the board adopts each year. A special assessment is anything else the association levies against owners, for a purpose the board identifies in advance. The distinction is not bookkeeping. It decides what notice you must give, whether the money can be spent on anything other than the stated purpose, and, in some communities, whether the board can act at all without the owners.

What each one is

An assessment, under § 718.103, is a share of the funds required for the payment of common expenses. Common expenses are the expenses properly incurred by the association in performing its duties. The annual budget converts those expenses into a number, and each owner's share of that number, collected on the schedule the bylaws set, is the regular assessment. Nothing in the process is discretionary for the owner: liability attaches to ownership, and a unit owner is liable for all assessments that come due while he or she is the owner. § 718.116(1)(a).

A special assessment is defined in the same section as any assessment levied against a unit owner other than the assessment required by a budget adopted annually. That definition is broader than most boards assume. It captures a hurricane deductible assessment, a one-time legal fee assessment, a capital assessment for a new roof, and the contingent assessment levied in connection with purchasing certain insurance. If the money was not in the adopted budget, the association is levying a special assessment and the special assessment rules apply.

The consequences of that classification run in one direction only. A special assessment carries an additional notice requirement and a hard restriction on how the money may be spent. A regular assessment carries neither, but it has to survive the annual budget process, including the 115 percent rule. Boards sometimes try to route a project through the budget to avoid the special assessment notice, or route it through a special assessment to avoid the budget scrutiny. Neither works well, and each creates its own exposure.

Regular assessments: the budget is the authority

The board's power to levy regular assessments comes from adopting the budget. The proposed annual budget of estimated revenues and expenses must be detailed and must show amounts budgeted by accounts and expense classifications. § 718.112(2)(f)1. It must also include reserve accounts for capital expenditures and deferred maintenance, which our guide on reserve funding requirements covers in detail.

The procedure has three moving parts. The meeting at which a proposed annual budget will be considered must be open to all unit owners, and it may be conducted by video conference. At least 14 days before that meeting, the board must hand deliver to each owner, mail to each owner at the last address furnished to the association, or electronically transmit to the address the owner furnished for that purpose, a notice of the meeting and a copy of the proposed annual budget. An officer, manager or other person providing the notice must execute an affidavit evidencing compliance, and that affidavit is filed among the official records. § 718.112(2)(e)1.

Miss any one of those and the adoption is vulnerable. The affidavit in particular is the association's proof a year later when an owner who did not attend says no copy of the budget arrived. It costs nothing to execute and file, and it is the difference between a defensible budget and an argument.

The 115 percent rule and the substitute budget

If the board proposes in any fiscal year an annual budget requiring assessments against unit owners that exceed 115 percent of assessments for the preceding fiscal year, the board must simultaneously propose a substitute budget that does not include any discretionary expenditures not required to be in the budget. The substitute budget must be proposed at the budget meeting before the annual budget is adopted, and the same 14-day notice and affidavit requirements apply to that meeting. § 718.112(2)(e)2.a.

Owners must consider and may adopt the substitute budget at the meeting. It is adopted only if approved by a majority of all voting interests, unless the bylaws require a greater percentage. If it is not adopted, the budget the board originally proposed may be adopted. In practice the substitute is rarely adopted: a majority of all voting interests is a high bar. The requirement still has to be met, and a board that exceeds 115 percent without proposing a substitute has adopted a budget an owner can attack.

The exclusions are where this rule is actually decided. The determination of whether assessments exceed 115 percent excludes any authorized provision for required reserves for repair or replacement of the condominium property, excludes anticipated expenses the board does not expect to incur on a regular or annual basis for the repair, maintenance or replacement of the structural integrity reserve study items, and excludes insurance premiums. § 718.112(2)(e)2.b. A budget that rises 30 percent because reserve funding and windstorm premiums went up may not cross the threshold at all once those exclusions are applied. Do the calculation on paper, keep the worksheet, and do not guess in either direction. Our guide to budgeting for structural repairs works through a year in which that calculation matters most.

One more rule for communities still in developer control: assessments may not exceed 115 percent of the prior fiscal year unless approved by a majority of all voting interests. § 718.112(2)(e)2.c. There is no substitute budget alternative in that situation.

Special assessments: the 14-day notice and the stated purpose

Two separate notice provisions apply, and boards routinely satisfy one and forget the other.

1. The 14-day meeting notice. Written notice of a board meeting at which a nonemergency special assessment will be considered must be mailed, delivered or electronically transmitted to the unit owners and posted conspicuously on the condominium property at least 14 days before the meeting. Evidence of compliance must be made by an affidavit executed by the person providing the notice and filed with the official records. § 718.112(2)(c)1.
2. The content of the notice. Notice of any meeting at which regular or special assessments against unit owners are to be considered must specifically state that assessments will be considered and provide the estimated cost and a description of the purposes for the assessments. § 718.112(2)(c)3. A notice that says "discussion of finances" does not satisfy this.
3. The written notice of the assessment itself. The specific purpose or purposes of any special assessment must be set forth in a written notice of the assessment sent or delivered to each unit owner. § 718.116(10). This is separate from the meeting notice and comes after the levy.

The 14-day requirement applies to nonemergency special assessments. Where a genuine emergency exists, the board has narrower tools, including taking up an item not on the notice by a vote of at least a majority plus one of the board members, with the emergency action noticed and ratified at the next regular board meeting. § 718.112(2)(c)1. Emergency authority is read narrowly, and a board that uses it for a project it has been discussing for six months should expect to defend that characterization. Our guide to planning a special assessment covers the sequence.

Write the purpose narrowly enough to be meaningful and broadly enough to do the job. "Roof replacement" is a purpose. "Capital improvements" is not really a purpose, and an owner challenging the expenditure will say so. Where a project has several components, state them. Where the cost is an estimate, say it is an estimate and give the basis.

The money is restricted, and what to do with what is left

This is the provision boards violate most often, usually with good intentions. The funds collected pursuant to a special assessment may be used only for the specific purpose or purposes set forth in the notice of the assessment. § 718.116(10). Not a related purpose. Not a more urgent purpose that arose after the vote. If the roof assessment produced $400,000 and the elevator fails in March, the elevator is not a roof.

The statute then tells you what to do with a surplus. Upon completion of the specific purpose or purposes, any excess funds are considered common surplus, and the board may, at its discretion, either return them to the unit owners or apply them as a credit toward future assessments. § 718.116(10). Two things follow. First, the choice is the board's, not each owner's, so a board should make it by motion and record it. Second, the surplus is released only upon completion. Money sitting in the account while the project is still open is not yet common surplus and should not be swept into operating.

The statute does not say what happens if the purpose is abandoned rather than completed, and the Division has not issued guidance that settles it. The conservative course, and the one we generally recommend, is to treat abandonment like completion for accounting purposes and return or credit the funds, or to go back to the owners with a new notice if the board wants to redirect the money. Quietly repurposing a special assessment is how a board ends up in arbitration.

Who votes on what

Chapter 718 does not require an owner vote to levy a special assessment. That surprises owners and sometimes surprises boards. The authority to levy, and any limit on it, is in the declaration and bylaws. Many Southwest Florida declarations cap the amount the board may special assess in a fiscal year without owner approval, or require a stated percentage of voting interests above a threshold. Read the actual language before every levy, because the cap is often expressed in dollars set decades ago or as a percentage of the annual budget.

The last row is the trap. A board may levy a special assessment without an owner vote and still be unable to do the work, because the work itself is a material alteration that needs 75 percent. Paying for something is not the same as being authorized to do it. Our guide to material alterations explains where repair ends and alteration begins, and it is worth reading before the assessment is noticed rather than after.

What happens when owners do not pay

Regular and special assessments are collected the same way, and the remedies are the association's strongest tool. Assessments and installments not paid when due bear interest at the rate provided in the declaration, or 18 percent per year if the declaration states no rate. § 718.116(3). The declaration or bylaws may also authorize an administrative late fee. Any payment received by the association must be applied first to interest, then to any administrative late fee, then to costs and reasonable attorney fees incurred in collection, and then to the delinquent assessment. That order is statutory and an owner cannot direct otherwise by writing "assessments only" on the check.

The association has a lien on each condominium parcel to secure payment of assessments. § 718.116(5)(a). Getting to that lien involves two notices. The association may not require payment of attorney fees related to a past due assessment without first delivering a written notice of late assessment in the statutory form, which gives the owner 30 days to pay without attorney fees. § 718.121(5). A lien may not be filed until 45 days after a notice of intent to record a claim of lien has been delivered in the statutory form. § 718.121(6). And no foreclosure judgment may be entered until at least 45 days after the association gives the owner written notice of its intention to foreclose. § 718.116(6)(b).

Where the delinquent unit is rented, the association may demand that the tenant pay future rent directly to the association until the owner's monetary obligations are satisfied, and a tenant who timely pays the association is protected against the landlord's claim for that rent. § 718.116(11)(a). This is frequently the fastest remedy available and it is underused.

Apply all of this the same way to every delinquent owner. Selective collection is the most common way an association loses an otherwise straightforward foreclosure, and a written policy applied consistently is the cure. Our guides to the lien and foreclosure process and to building a collection policy set out the sequence.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes reviews assessment resolutions, notices and collection policies for condominium boards across Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties, and we get called most often when a special assessment has already been levied and the purpose language will not stretch far enough. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Assessment Collection page.