Who May Serve on a Florida HOA Board: Eligibility, Delinquency, Felony Convictions and Director Education

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: HOAs

Under Florida law every member of a homeowners association is eligible to serve on the board unless something specific disqualifies them. Two things in the statute do: being delinquent in money owed to the association on the last day for nomination, and a felony conviction without five years of restored civil rights. Everything else comes from your declaration and bylaws. A separate requirement is not about getting elected at all, but about staying seated once you are: the 90-day director education certificate.

The starting point: members are eligible unless something disqualifies them

Section 720.306(9)(a), Florida Statutes, opens by providing that elections of directors must be conducted in accordance with the procedures set forth in the governing documents of the association. It then says that, except as provided in paragraph (b), all members of the association are eligible to serve on the board of directors. Those two clauses do most of the work in any HOA eligibility question.

The order matters. Eligibility in a homeowners association is a governing-documents question first and a statute question second. The Legislature set a floor in paragraph (b) that no documents can lower, then left the rest to the declaration and bylaws. Whether a particular person may run usually begins in the bylaws, not the statute book.

This is where boards that also sit on condominium boards, and managers who run both kinds of community, get into trouble. The Condominium Act builds a detailed candidate-screening process into the statute itself, with its own notice sequence and its own filing deadline. Chapter 720 does not. There is no statutory intent-to-run form for an HOA, no statutory candidate information sheet, and no statutory deadline measured backward from the annual meeting. Our comparison of HOAs and condominium associations sets the two regimes side by side.

Delinquency disqualifies a candidate, and it can cost a sitting director the seat

Section 720.306(9)(b) provides that a person who is delinquent in the payment of any fee, fine, or other monetary obligation to the association on the day that he or she could last nominate himself or herself or be nominated for the board may not seek election to the board, and may not be listed on the ballot.

Read the timing clause closely. The test is not delinquency on the day of the election, and not delinquency on some date the board picks. It is delinquency on the last day a person could be nominated under your process. Where nominations come from the floor at the annual meeting, that is the day of the meeting. Where the bylaws set an advance nomination deadline, it is that deadline. Your bylaws set the date; the statute measures the ledger against it.

Read the scope clause as well. The statute does not say "delinquent in assessments." It says any fee, fine, or other monetary obligation. That is broader than regular assessments, and it is why a board should pull a full ledger rather than an assessment aging report.

• Run each candidate's full account ledger as of the close of business on the last nomination day and keep a dated copy. That ledger is the evidence if the election is challenged.
• Publish the nomination deadline and the delinquency rule in writing before the deadline. A candidate who pays in full before the cutoff is eligible, and there is no reason to withhold that.
• Where the amount is genuinely disputed, or the charge is a fine or a legal fee rather than an assessment, get advice before striking a name. Excluding an eligible candidate is the fastest route to a rerun.

A separate rule reaches people already on the board. Under the same paragraph, a board member who becomes more than 90 days delinquent in any fee, fine, or other monetary obligation is deemed to have abandoned his or her seat. The thresholds differ: any delinquency blocks a candidacy, but it takes more than 90 days to abandon a seat. By the statute's wording the abandonment happens on its own. The board's job is to recognize it, record it in the minutes, and fill the vacancy under section 720.306(9)(c) and the documents.

Felony convictions and restoration of civil rights

Section 720.306(9)(b) also provides that a person who has been convicted of any felony in this state or in a United States District or Territorial Court, or who has been convicted of any offense in another jurisdiction which would be considered a felony if committed in this state, may not seek election to the board and is not eligible for board membership unless such felon's civil rights have been restored for at least 5 years as of the date on which such person seeks election to the board.

Three points follow. The reach is broad: state felonies, federal and territorial felonies, and out-of-state offenses that would be felonies here all count. The clock runs from restoration of civil rights, not from conviction, sentence or release. And the five years must already have run on the date the person seeks election.

What the statute does not do is tell the association how to learn any of this. Chapter 720 does not require a criminal history check, does not authorize one, and does not create a candidate affidavit. A board that starts running background checks on its neighbors has taken on problems that have nothing to do with community association law, and should talk to counsel first. The more defensible practice is to ask candidates to confirm eligibility in writing and to act on specific, credible information if it surfaces.

A different provision reaches directors who are already serving. Section 720.3033(4) requires that a director or officer who is charged by information or indictment with certain offenses, including forgery of a ballot envelope or voting certificate, theft or embezzlement of association funds, destruction of or refusal to permit inspection of official records, and obstruction of justice, be removed from office and the vacancy declared. If the charges are later resolved without a finding of guilt and without a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, the director is reinstated for any remainder of the term. This is a charging trigger, not a conviction trigger, and it operates separately from the eligibility rule in section 720.306(9)(b).

Director education: the certificate every director files within 90 days

Section 720.3033(1)(a) requires that, within 90 days after being elected or appointed to the board, each director submit a certificate of having satisfactorily completed the educational curriculum administered by a department-approved education provider. It applies to directors who were elected and to directors appointed to fill a vacancy, and the 90 days run from election or appointment, not from the annual meeting or the start of a fiscal year.

The certificate is valid for up to 4 years, and a director must complete the education specific to newly elected or appointed directors at least every 4 years. A director who serves continuously does not take the course once and stop. The statute also specifies the content: training relating to financial literacy and transparency, recordkeeping, levying of fines, and notice and meeting requirements.

Note what is absent. The provision requires the course. It offers no alternative of signing a written statement that the director has read the governing documents and will uphold them. Orientation packets assembled a few years ago often still contain that form. It does not satisfy section 720.3033(1).

Missing the deadline has a specific consequence. Under section 720.3033(1)(b), a director who does not timely file the certificate is suspended from the board until he or she complies, and the board may temporarily fill the vacancy during the suspension. Suspension is not removal; the seat comes back when the certificate is filed. But a suspended director cannot act in the meantime, which can quietly disable a five-member board that seated three new directors in March.

Section 720.3033(1)(c) adds a records obligation. The association must retain each director's educational certificate for inspection by the members for 5 years after the director's election, and failure to have it on file does not affect the validity of any board action. That protects the association's decisions without excusing the director. Certificates belong in the official records.

Continuing education: 4 hours a year, or 8 in a large association

The new-director course is not the end of it. Section 720.3033(1)(a)5. requires continuing education annually in addition, and the hours depend on the size of the community:

• Fewer than 2,500 parcels. A director must complete at least 4 hours of continuing education annually.
• 2,500 parcels or more. A director must complete at least 8 hours of continuing education annually.

The measure is parcels, not members, residents, votes or households. Most Southwest Florida homeowners associations fall well under the threshold, but master associations and large golf communities should count rather than assume.

Section 720.3033(1)(d) directs the department to adopt rules implementing the curriculum and the continuing education requirement, so approved providers, course length and proof of completion are set administratively. Before buying a package of courses, confirm the provider is currently department-approved for Chapter 720 director education. A course built for condominium directors is not automatically the right course. Our guide to orienting a new director covers what else belongs in the first 90 days.

Where Chapter 720 says nothing

Several of the questions boards ask most often have no answer in the statute. That is not a gap to fill by analogy to the Condominium Act. It is a delegation to your documents.

• Co-owners of the same parcel. Chapter 720 does not restrict two owners of the same lot from serving at the same time. The Condominium Act contains a co-owner restriction; Chapter 720 has no equivalent. If your community limits one seat per lot, that limit lives in the declaration or bylaws.
• Term limits. Chapter 720 imposes none. A director may serve indefinitely unless the governing documents say otherwise. The Condominium Act is different, and copying its rule into an HOA election is an error.
• Whether a director must be a member. Section 720.306(9)(a) says all members are eligible. It does not say only members are eligible. Most documents settle the point by requiring directors to be members, and many address spouses, trustees and designees of corporate or trust owners. Read that language before rejecting a candidate for not being on the deed.
• Residency and occupancy. Nothing in Chapter 720 requires a director to live in the community or occupy the parcel. Seasonal ownership is common here and the statute is indifferent to it.

Who decides whether a candidate is eligible

Chapter 720 does not say. It contains no election committee, no inspectors of election, and no officer designated to rule on qualifications. It phrases the delinquency disqualifier in operational terms: an ineligible person may not seek election and may not be listed on the ballot. Someone applies that before ballots are printed, and in practice that someone is the board.

That makes it a board decision, subject to the same fiduciary standard as any other, and reviewable afterward by a department arbitrator if a member challenges the election. The window is short: section 720.306(9)(a) requires that any challenge to the election process be commenced within 60 days after the results are announced. Our guide to challenging an HOA election explains where that petition goes.

Section 720.306(9)(b) also provides that the validity of board action is not affected if a board member is later determined to be ineligible. That protects the association's past decisions. It does not cure the seat, and it is not a reason to be casual at the front end.

A defensible eligibility decision looks like this:

1. Identify the last day for nomination under your bylaws and put it in writing well before it arrives.
2. Pull each candidate's full ledger as of that day and save a dated copy in the election file.
3. Apply the two statutory disqualifiers and any qualification the documents add, and nothing else.
4. If a candidate appears ineligible, say so in writing, state the provision relied on, and allow a cure before the ballot goes to print where a cure is possible.
5. Decide at a properly noticed board meeting and record the vote and the reasoning in the minutes rather than settling it by email.
6. Call counsel before excluding anyone. The call costs a fraction of a rerun election.

Directors making these calls are exercising the same fiduciary duties they exercise in a vendor or collection decision, and the record they leave is what protects them.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes advises homeowners association boards and managers across Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties on candidate qualification, director education compliance and the election provisions of their own governing documents, usually well before the nomination deadline rather than after a challenge. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Corporate Governance page.