How a Florida HOA Architectural Review Committee Must Operate: Authority, Open Meetings, Written Decisions, and the Applications It Cannot Deny

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

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

A Florida homeowners association's architectural review committee has exactly as much authority as the declaration gives it, and no more. Section 720.3035 permits the association or its committee to review plans for the location, size, type, or appearance of improvements on a parcel, and to enforce external appearance standards, only to the extent that authority is specifically stated or reasonably inferred in the declaration or in published guidelines the declaration authorizes. Within that authority the committee must meet openly on 48 hours' notice, keep minutes, decide in writing, state the specific basis for any denial, and treat owners consistently; outside it, the committee's decisions are unenforceable, and an association that knowingly and willfully infringes an owner's architectural rights pays the owner's damages and attorney's fees. Some applications, solar collectors and conforming hurricane protection among them, the committee cannot deny at all.

Where the authority comes from

The starting point is the declaration. If it grants the association or a committee the power to approve exterior changes and to adopt guidelines, the committee has that power and the guidelines have force. If the declaration is silent on a subject, such as fences, paint colors, or roofing materials, the committee may not regulate it merely because a majority of members would like to, and guidelines adopted without declaration authority are unenforceable. Section 720.3035(2) adds a second limit: where the declaration or guidelines provide options (three approved roof colors, two fence styles), the committee may not refuse an owner's selection from among them. And section 720.3035(5) forbids the committee to enforce any policy or restriction inconsistent with the rights and privileges of an owner under the declaration or published guidelines, whether or not the policy has been uniformly applied.

The practical consequence is that the association's architectural guidelines must be written, adopted under the declaration's procedure, published to owners, and specific. "Harmonious with the community" is not a standard an owner can meet or a court can enforce; "roofs shall be flat concrete tile in one of the colors listed in Appendix A" is.

The committee and its meetings

The declaration or bylaws establish the committee, its size, and how members are appointed; many communities allow the board to serve as the committee. Under section 720.303(2)(a), a committee that has the authority to approve or disapprove architectural decisions for a specific parcel is subject to the board meeting rules: notice posted in a conspicuous place at least 48 hours in advance, meetings open to members, and minutes kept and retained as official records. Decisions made by email among committee members, or by a manager acting alone under an informal delegation, do not comply. Committee members are subject to the conflict-of-interest rules and should not vote on their own applications or those of relatives and neighbors with whom they have a dispute.

The application and decision process

A defensible process has five parts.

1. A written application on the association's form, with plans, specifications, materials and colors, a site plan showing setbacks and easements, contractor information, and the owner's acknowledgment that approval does not substitute for governmental permits or confirm compliance with easements. The form may ask whether a permit has been obtained. It may not make the permit a condition of review. Section 720.3035(1)(c), effective July 1, 2026, provides that an association or any architectural, construction improvement, or other such similar committee "may not require a building permit to be issued by a governmental authority to a parcel owner as a prerequisite for review by the association or committee concerning the construction of structures or improvements on the parcel." An association that has been telling owners to pull the permit first should revise its form, its checklist and its instructions now.
2. A completeness check by the manager against a published checklist, with prompt written notice of any missing item. The review period should not run until the application is complete, and the guidelines should say so.
3. Review against the written guidelines, not against the committee's taste. Where a proposal is not addressed by the guidelines, the committee should ask whether the declaration gives it authority to regulate the subject at all before it denies.
4. A written decision within the period the documents specify. Many declarations provide that an application not decided within a stated period (30 or 45 days is common) is deemed approved; committees must calendar those deadlines. Since 2024, the association must give the owner written notice of approval or denial, and a denial must state with specificity the rule or covenant relied on and the specific aspect of the proposal that does not conform. "Denied — not in keeping with community" is no longer lawful.
5. An appeal to the board where the documents provide one, and a record: the application, the minutes, and the decision letter, retained as official records.

Approvals should be conditioned in writing on permits, licensed contractors, construction within a stated period, restoration of common areas disturbed by the work, and, where the improvement sits in an easement or affects drainage, the association engineer's review. Conditioning approval on a permit remains lawful; what section 720.3035(1)(c) forbids is holding the review itself until the permit arrives.

Boards should also stop assuming that every improvement produces a permit to condition on. Effective July 1, 2026, section 553.79(1)(g) requires a local government that issues building permits to exempt the owner of a single-family dwelling, or the owner's contractor, from the permit requirement for work on the owner's property valued at less than $7,500. The exemption does not reach property in a flood hazard area as defined by the Florida Building Code, or electrical, plumbing, structural, mechanical or gas work, and a project may not be divided into more than one project to come under the threshold. Section 553.79(1)(h) adds a second exemption for temporary residential hurricane and flood protection walls and barriers meeting the conditions that paragraph lists. Both exemptions require the owner or contractor to submit a written request to the local enforcement agency. A condition the owner cannot satisfy is a denial by another name, so guidelines should state that the permit condition applies only where a permit is in fact required. Our HOA stormwater responsibilities guide explains why work near lakes and drainage easements needs the engineer's review.

Applications the committee cannot deny

Florida law removes several subjects from the committee's discretion regardless of what the declaration says:

• Solar collectors and renewable energy devices. Section 163.04 voids any covenant or rule that prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting solar collectors, clotheslines, or other renewable energy devices. The association may determine the specific location of a roof-mounted collector, but only if the determination does not impair its effective operation, and it may not require a location outside the statute's orientation limits. An application for a code-compliant, properly permitted solar installation is approved; the committee's role is limited to reasonable placement within the statute.
• Hurricane protection. Under section 720.3035(6), every homeowners association board must adopt hurricane protection specifications for each structure or other improvement on a parcel, which may address color, style, and other factors consistent with the community's appearance and the building code, and the board may not deny an application for the installation, enhancement, or replacement of hurricane protection that conforms to those specifications. An association that has not adopted specifications has no basis to deny any code-compliant hurricane protection.
• Flags. Owners may display the United States flag and the flags section 720.304(2) protects in the manner the statute allows, including on a freestanding flagpole within the statute's size limits.
• Florida-friendly landscaping. The declaration may not prohibit it, and guidelines requiring turf or particular plantings must yield to section 373.185.
• Interiors and items not visible. Under section 720.3035(1)(b), the association may not regulate the interior of a structure that is not visible from the frontage or adjacent parcels, and may not require approval of a central air-conditioning, refrigeration, heating, or ventilating system that is not visible from the frontage. Under section 720.3045, it may not restrict items on a parcel, such as artificial turf, boats, flags, vegetable gardens, clotheslines, and recreational vehicles, that are not visible from the frontage, an adjacent parcel, an adjacent common area, or a community golf course.
• Reasonable modifications for disability. Fair housing law requires the association to permit reasonable modifications, such as ramps and railings, at the owner's expense, with only the conditions the law allows.

Applications that fall within these categories should be identified on intake and approved, with reasonable conditions where the statute permits them, rather than sent through the ordinary review.

Condominiums

Condominium architectural questions are governed by the declaration and section 718.113 rather than section 720.3035. Owners may not alter the common elements or limited common elements, or make unit changes affecting them, except as the declaration provides, which normally means with the board's written approval on conditions. Two owner rights are statutory: to install hurricane protection meeting the board's adopted specifications, and to install an electric vehicle charging station in a limited common element parking space at the owner's expense. Our material alterations guide covers the board's own alterations and the 75 percent vote.

Enforcing against unapproved work

An improvement built without approval, or in violation of an approval's conditions, is a covenant violation enforced through the notice, hearing, and fining sequence in our covenant enforcement guide, and, where fines do not produce compliance, through an action for injunctive relief requiring removal or modification. Time matters more here than elsewhere: laches and estoppel defenses strengthen with every month the association knew of a completed structure and did nothing. Boards should also consider after-the-fact approval on conditions where the work would have been approved had it been submitted; insisting on removal of a compliant fence because the form was not filed is the kind of decision section 720.3035(3) was written for.

Liability for getting it wrong

Section 720.3035(4)(b) entitles an owner whose architectural rights have been unreasonably, knowingly, and willfully infringed or impaired to recover damages, costs, and reasonable attorney's fees. Denying an application the guidelines plainly permit, enforcing an unwritten standard, refusing a statutory solar or hurricane protection installation, or applying the guidelines to one owner and not another are the cases that meet that standard. Committee members acting in good faith within the guidelines are protected by the business judgment rule and the association's D&O coverage; committees that improvise are not.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes drafts architectural guidelines, hurricane protection specifications and application forms, trains committees, and defends architectural decisions for associations throughout Southwest Florida. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Architectural Review page.