Cooperative Official Records: What Section 719.104(2) Requires You to Keep, Withhold and Produce

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: Cooperatives

Official records are where cooperative boards are most often caught out, because the rule is precise and the deadline is short. Section 719.104(2) tells you what to keep, how long to keep it, where to keep it, what to hand over, what to refuse, and what it costs when you get it wrong. The good news for cooperative boards is that Chapter 719 asks for less than Chapter 718 in two respects. The trap is assuming that means it asks for less everywhere.

What counts as an official record

Section 719.104(2)(a) enumerates the categories. It is worth reading the list once a year, because boards tend to remember the first five and forget the rest.

• Plans, permits and warranties the developer must turn over under section 719.301(4), a photocopy of the cooperative documents, and the current rules.
• Minute books, including all minutes of the association, the board and the unit owners.
• A current roster of owners with mailing addresses, unit identifications, voting certifications and, where known, telephone numbers, plus the e-mail addresses and numbers of owners who consented to electronic notice, removed on revocation.
• All current insurance policies; current management agreements, leases and other contracts to which the association is a party; and bills of sale or other documents transferring property to the association.
• Accounting records: itemized receipts and expenditures, a current account and periodic statement for each unit, all audits, reviews, accounting statements, structural integrity reserve studies and financial reports, and all contracts for work to be performed.
• Ballots, sign-in sheets, voting proxies and all other papers relating to voting.
• Rental records where the association acts as rental agent, the current question-and-answer sheet under section 719.504, affirmative acknowledgments under section 719.108(3)(b)3., and inspection reports under sections 553.899 and 719.301(4)(p).
• All other written records of the association related to the operation of the association.

That last item decides most arguments. A board that keeps its own list of what counts as official and treats everything else as private will lose. Vendor correspondence, board packets, incident reports and committee files are written records of the operation of the association. The question is never whether they are official records, but whether one of the eight protected categories keeps them from an owner.

How long you must keep them

The default is seven years, and it carries a location requirement that boards using an out-of-state management company miss: official records must be maintained within the state for at least seven years. Several categories depart from that default, in both directions.

A one-year period is a floor, not a ceiling. Ballots may be destroyed a year after the election, but a challenge filed in month eleven turns them into the only evidence the association has, and a live or reasonably anticipated dispute means a litigation hold that overrides the retention schedule.

The 15-year categories reflect the post-Surfside structural regime, which does reach cooperatives: section 553.899 covers a building three habitable stories or more subject in whole or in part to a residential cooperative under Chapter 719. See our article on structural integrity reserve studies for cooperatives.

The 10 working day rule

The records of the association must be made available to a unit owner within 45 miles of the cooperative property, or within the county in which the cooperative property is located, within 10 working days after receipt of a written request by the board or its designee.

Three details control almost every dispute under that sentence.

1. Working days, not calendar days. Weekends and holidays do not count. That is more room than the deadline first appears to give, and it is also where boards most often miscount.
2. The clock starts on receipt. Not when the manager forwards the request, and not when the board next meets. A request that arrives while the manager is away is running.
3. The place of production is fixed. Within 45 miles or within the county. A management company holding the books in Tampa cannot satisfy a Naples cooperative's obligation by inviting the owner to Tampa.

The association may adopt reasonable rules on the frequency, time, location, notice and manner of inspections and copying, but it may not require a member to demonstrate any purpose or state any reason for the inspection. Adopt those rules in advance; a procedure invented in response to one owner's request hands that owner an argument. And a board that asks why an owner wants the records has violated the statute in the asking. Our walkthrough on responding to records requests sets out a workable intake process.

A renter's rights are far narrower: a renter may inspect and copy only the association's bylaws and rules and the inspection reports described in sections 553.899 and 719.301(4)(p).

What you must withhold

Section 719.104(2)(c) lists eight categories not accessible to unit owners. This is not discretionary. A board that produces a protected record has swapped one problem for another.

• Records protected by the attorney-client privilege and attorney work product.
• Information obtained by the association in connection with the approval of the lease, sale or other transfer of a unit. This is the confidentiality backstop for every transfer application file.
• Personnel records of association employees, excluding written employment agreements and budgetary or financial records showing compensation paid, and medical records of unit owners.
• Social security numbers, driver license numbers, credit card numbers, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, emergency contact information and other personal identifying information, excluding an owner's name, unit designation, mailing address, property address and the contact information provided to fulfill notice requirements. A directory exception applies, and an owner may opt out of the inclusion of a telephone number in writing.
• Electronic security measures used by the association, including passwords.
• The software and operating system used by the association. The data those programs hold remains an official record.
• Affirmative acknowledgments under section 719.108(3)(b)3.

Redact rather than refuse. A board that withholds an entire ledger because one page holds a protected item has not complied. Redact, produce the rest, and tell the owner in writing what was withheld and why. That letter also protects the board if the refusal is challenged. Our page on records exempt from inspection shows how the condominium list differs.

Copies, phones and what you may charge

The right to inspect includes the right to make or obtain copies at the reasonable expense of the member, and the association may charge its actual costs for preparing and furnishing documents. Chapter 719 sets no per-page cap. That differs from condominium practice, where a per-page figure is commonly quoted, and it cuts both ways: more flexibility, and less cover if the charge looks punitive.

Two rules keep a copy charge defensible: base it on something you can show, such as an invoice or a per-page cost the association actually incurs, and adopt it in writing before it is applied to a request. A charge invented for a difficult owner will not read as an actual cost.

The portable device provision has largely retired the copy-charge fight anyway. The association must allow a member or authorized representative to use a smartphone, tablet, portable scanner or similar technology to make an electronic copy in place of the association providing copies, and may not charge for the device. A board that refuses to let an owner photograph records at an inspection has violated the statute directly.

Prospective purchasers and lienholders are separate. Under section 719.104(2)(d) the association need not provide them information beyond what the chapter requires, and may charge a reasonable fee not exceeding $150 plus the reasonable cost of photocopying and any attorney fees incurred in responding in good faith.

Website and app posting: there is no cooperative rule

There is no cooperative counterpart and no threshold. That is worth stating plainly, because published guidance gets it wrong often enough to cost boards money.

Section 718.111(12)(g) requires an association managing a condominium with 25 or more units, not containing timeshare units, to post digital copies of an enumerated list of official records on its website or mobile application within 30 days after receiving or creating the record. Chapter 719 contains no analog, at any unit count, for any record.

What section 719.104(2)(b) says is permissive: the association may offer the option of making records available to an owner electronically via the Internet, or by allowing them to be viewed on a computer screen and printed on request. May, not shall. It is an alternative way to satisfy the inspection obligation, not a separate posting duty.

So a cooperative posting records online does it because its documents require it or because the board chose to, and a cooperative posting nothing is fully compliant. What it cannot do is treat a website as a substitute for producing records within 10 working days of a written request, or for the physical posting of meeting notices required by section 719.106(1)(c) and covered in our guide to cooperative board meeting requirements.

What failure costs

The penalty structure has three layers, and they stack.

1. A presumption. Failure to provide access within 10 working days after receipt of a written request creates a rebuttable presumption that the association willfully failed to comply. The board starts the dispute in the wrong position.
2. Statutory damages. A member denied access recovers actual damages or minimum damages of $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days, beginning on the 11th working day after receipt. Calendar days for the damages, working days for the deadline; the two are not interchangeable.
3. Attorney fees. A person who prevails in an enforcement action recovers reasonable attorney fees from the person in control of the records who knowingly denied access. The fee exposure, not the $500, is what makes a records case worth bringing.

There is a separate personal penalty for destruction. A person who knowingly or intentionally defaces or destroys required accounting records, or fails to create or maintain them, with intent to cause harm to the association or a member, is personally subject to a civil penalty under section 719.501(1)(d). Personally means the individual, not the association. One point in the board's favor: Chapter 719 does not carry the criminal penalties the Legislature added to the condominium records statute. That is a real difference, and not an invitation.

Finally, the handoff. An outgoing board or committee member must relinquish all official records and association property in his or her possession or control to the incoming board within five days after the election, and a willful and knowing failure draws a civil penalty under section 719.501(1)(d). Five days, not five business days. Handle it in the post-election transition, not in an argument three months later.

Building a records practice that holds up

Associations that handle records well do the same five things.

1. Adopt a written inspection rule covering frequency, time, location, notice and manner before the first difficult request, and confirm it says nothing about the owner's purpose.
2. Log every written request on the day it arrives and calendar the tenth working day. Most failures are calendaring failures, not legal ones.
3. Keep an index of what the association holds and where, mapped to the retention table above.
4. Redact and produce rather than refuse, and put the basis for any withholding in writing.
5. Confirm the records are maintained within Florida, especially if the manager or accountant is out of state.

A records request is often the first move in a larger dispute, usually an election challenge or a fight over an assessment. Handling it cleanly does not end the dispute, but mishandling it adds a claim with fee shifting attached. One related obligation is easy to miss: cooperative associations, like condominium associations, must create and maintain an online account with the Division under section 719.501(3). That is an account with the regulator, not a public website, and it is separate from everything in section 719.104.

For community association managers: see An owner asked for association records: what does the manager do next? and Official Records Compared in the Manager Resource Center.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes helps cooperative boards and managers in Southwest Florida build records policies, answer difficult inspection requests, and defend claims when a request was missed. If a records demand has arrived and the tenth working day is close, call 239-594-7227 or visit our Official Records page.