Clubhouse and Community Room Rules: Authority, Reservations, Alcohol and Liability

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 · Country clubs

The clubhouse is usually the most heavily used thing the association owns and the most reliable source of complaints. Chapter 720 says almost nothing about it. Your authority to set reservation rules, charge deposits, control alcohol and deactivate a key fob comes from the declaration and bylaws, bounded by three statutory provisions and by fair housing law. Boards that keep those four sources straight settle most clubhouse disputes without a lawyer.

Where the authority actually comes from

Chapter 720 contains no clubhouse provision. It does not tell you how many hours an owner may reserve the great room, whether wine may be served, or what a damage deposit may be. Section 720.303(1) says an association's powers include those in the chapter and, except where the chapter limits them, those in the governing documents. For the clubhouse, your declaration and bylaws are the operative law and the statute is a set of outer limits.

So the first question in a clubhouse dispute is not what the statute says but which document the rule is in. Florida courts treat the two differently. A use restriction in the recorded declaration is, in the language of Hidden Harbour Estates, Inc. v. Basso, clothed with a very strong presumption of validity, because every owner bought with notice of it. It is enforced unless it is wholly arbitrary, violates public policy, or abrogates a fundamental constitutional right.

A rule the board adopts under a general grant of rulemaking authority gets less deference. It must be reasonable, which Basso described as reasonably related to the promotion of the health, happiness and peace of mind of the owners, building on the reasonableness test the earlier Hidden Harbour Estates, Inc. v. Norman decision had set. The rule upheld in that case was a ban on consuming alcoholic beverages in the clubhouse and adjacent common areas. A dry clubhouse is not legally risky if the rule is adopted properly and applied evenly.

Before voting on any clubhouse rule, read your rulemaking clause. Some declarations grant broad authority over the use of common areas; some reach only "the operation" of facilities, which is narrower than it sounds; some require a membership vote to change the use of a recreational facility. Our overview of how Chapter 720 works covers the structure. Your own clause decides the question.

What section 720.304(1) guarantees, and what it does not

One statutory sentence does most of the work here. Section 720.304(1) provides that all common areas and recreational facilities serving a homeowners' association shall be available to parcel owners and their invited guests for the use intended. Section 720.304(3) lets an owner sue to enjoin enforcement of a provision that violates it.

Three consequences follow. Invited guests have a statutory footing at the clubhouse, so a rule excluding guests altogether is exposed. Reasonable limits on how many guests, whether a guest may use the facility without the owner present, and guest conduct are a different matter, covered in our guide to amenity guest policies.

Next, the phrase is "for the use intended," which cuts both ways. It protects the owner who wants to play cards in the card room. It creates no right to run a commercial venture, teach a paid class, or hold a political fundraiser there unless the documents allow it.

Finally, the statute speaks to availability, not scheduling. Reserving the great room for a private party makes it unavailable that evening, and that is how an orderly system works. What gets boards in trouble is a system that is not written down, not applied consistently, or that reserves the room for the same four households.

Writing a reservation policy that holds up

A defensible reservation policy is boring, specific and content neutral. Put in writing:

• Which areas may be reserved, and which stay open during a private event.
• Who may reserve: owners in good standing, and whether a tenant may reserve when the owner has delegated use rights.
• How far in advance, how long a reservation may run, and how many one household may hold in a quarter.
• Priority rules. Association business and board or committee meetings should outrank private events, and the policy should say so rather than leaving it to the manager in the moment.
• The deposit, any rental or cleaning fee, and cancellation and refund terms with dates attached.
• Whether alcohol is permitted, and on what conditions.
• Setup, breakdown, trash, noise and end times.

Content neutrality matters more than boards expect. If the policy allows private gatherings, do not sort them by subject. Denying the room to a bible study while approving a book club is religious discrimination in the terms, conditions and privileges of housing under the federal and Florida Fair Housing Acts.

Deposits, damage charges and how they get collected

A damage deposit and a fine are different instruments. A fine is a penalty, capped at $100 per violation and $1,000 in the aggregate unless the governing documents provide otherwise, and it requires the section 720.305(2) notice and hearing process. A damage charge is compensation for actual harm, governed by what your declaration says about an owner's responsibility for damage caused by the owner, family, tenants or guests.

What works: take a refundable deposit at booking, inspect before and after with dated photographs, and apply the deposit against documented damage with an itemized statement. If damage exceeds the deposit, bill the balance under the declaration's damage provision. Section 720.305(2) is explicit that a fine of less than $1,000 may not become a lien against a parcel. Whether an unpaid damage charge can be secured by the lien turns on your declaration, and declarations vary widely.

Set the deposit at a number related to the cost of repairing the room, not one chosen to deter bookings. Have the reserving owner sign a short use agreement covering the deposit, the end time, the alcohol rule and responsibility for guests. A signed agreement turns a rule dispute into a contract dispute, which is a far better posture.

A use fee is a third instrument, and boards mix it up with both. An association may charge a fee for the use of an amenity, for particular equipment, or for a special use such as reserving the clubhouse for a private event. The authority to do it comes from the governing documents, not from Chapter 720.

Chapter 720 recognizes the fee rather than granting it. Section 720.301(1) defines "assessment" and "amenity fee" together, in a single sentence, as a sum payable to the association by parcel owners as authorized in the governing documents, and it writes the consequence into the term: if the owner does not pay, it can result in a lien against the parcel. The condition is doing the work. No provision of Chapter 720 authorizes an amenity use fee on its own, and none prohibits one. The condominium act addresses the question head on at § 718.111(4). The HOA act has no counterpart.

That makes the statutory definition of "governing documents" the thing to check. Section 720.301(8) defines the term as the recorded declaration of covenants with its recorded amendments and exhibits, and the articles of incorporation and bylaws. Board-adopted rules and regulations are not on that list. A board that sets a clubhouse rental fee by rule alone, with nothing in the declaration, articles or bylaws behind it, has created a charge that does not meet the statutory definition. That is weak ground, and it is where these disputes start.

Before you set or raise a use fee, read for four things:

• Whether the declaration, articles or bylaws authorize charges for the use of common areas or recreational facilities, in whatever words your documents use: amenity fee, user fee, charge, rental.
• Whether that authority runs to the board or requires a membership vote.
• Whether the fee is tied to the amenity or the special use it is charged for, rather than set at a number meant to discourage bookings.
• Whether the fee still leaves the amenity available in practice. Section 720.304(1) requires common areas and recreational facilities to be available to parcel owners and their invited guests for the use intended, and a fee that prices owners out sits badly against that sentence.

Be careful what you promise the board about collection. Where the declaration authorizes the fee, the § 720.301(1) definition treats it as an assessment, and § 720.3085(1) gives the association a lien for assessments when the governing documents authorize one. The chain holds on the text, but no sentence in § 720.3085 names use or amenity fees, and in our view a board should not be told the lien is settled. The remedy that is express is suspension. Under § 720.305(3), a member more than 90 days delinquent in any fee, fine or other monetary obligation may have common area and facility use rights suspended until it is paid in full.

Alcohol and host liquor liability

Section 768.125 is the Florida rule. A person who sells or furnishes alcoholic beverages to a person of lawful drinking age does not become liable for injury caused by that person's intoxication. Two exceptions: willfully and unlawfully furnishing to a person not of lawful drinking age, and knowingly serving a person habitually addicted. That is why a resident cocktail hour where adults pour their own wine is comparatively low risk. It does not answer everything.

1. Minors. The under-21 exception is the exposure that actually materializes, especially at graduation and holiday parties. Requiring a licensed, insured bartender who checks identification moves that risk to someone insured for it.
2. Selling versus furnishing. If the association runs a cash bar or sells tickets that include drinks, it may be selling alcoholic beverages, which is a licensing question under Chapter 561 rather than a Chapter 720 question. Do not improvise here.
3. Premises negligence. Section 768.125 addresses furnishing alcohol. It says nothing about a claim that the association left a wet tile floor unmarked. That proceeds on ordinary premises liability principles.
4. Your policy. A dry clubhouse is defensible. So is a BYOB clubhouse. An unwritten practice of looking the other way is what gets tested.

Insurance: what you carry and what you require

This surprises boards. Chapter 720 does not require a homeowners' association to carry liability insurance. The only insurance provision in section 720.303 is subsection (11), which lets a group of at least three communities obtain windstorm coverage equal to the probable maximum loss for a 250-year windstorm event. There is no Chapter 720 counterpart to the detailed condominium insurance requirements. Your duty to insure comes from the declaration.

At each renewal, confirm general liability at limits that reflect the gatherings actually held, directors and officers coverage that responds to rule enforcement claims, liquor liability if the association ever serves, hired and non-owned auto, and an umbrella. If the clubhouse hosts children's programs, ask the agent whether the policy carries an abuse or molestation exclusion. Many do, and most boards have never read it.

Ask one more question every year: does the policy respond to a claim arising from a private event an owner rented, or treat it as an excluded exposure? That answer tells you whether your reservation policy must require the owner to buy event coverage.

Outside vendors and certificates of insurance

Caterers, bartenders, bounce house operators and fitness instructors all end up in the clubhouse, and each is a risk transfer opportunity most associations waste. A workable minimum: a written agreement, commercial general liability at a stated limit, the association named as an additional insured on a primary and non-contributory basis, a waiver of subrogation, workers' compensation or a filed exemption for a sole proprietor, an indemnity running to the association, and a certificate delivered before the vendor arrives. Verify the certificate with the agent, not with the vendor.

The instructor who has taught water aerobics for nine years without a contract is the one who produces the claim. Our guide to amenity vendor agreements works through the clauses that matter.

Access control and suspending use rights

Most clubhouses run on fobs, which makes suspension technologically easy and legally dangerous. Turning off a fob suspends the right to use common areas and facilities. Section 720.305 gives two routes, and boards routinely take the wrong one.

Two deadlines matter. If the committee approves a fine or suspension, section 720.305(2)(d) requires written notice to the owner at the designated mailing or e-mail address within 7 days after the hearing, and the committee must set a payment date at least 30 days after delivery. A board that holds the hearing and lets the paperwork sit has a problem it cannot cure later. Our walkthrough of fines, hearings and suspensions sets out the sequence.

The 90-day route suspends use of common areas and facilities. It does not let the association block a driveway, disable a transponder needed to reach the home, or cut utilities. Deactivating the single fob that opens both the pool gate and the community entrance is the shortcut that turns a collection file into a lawsuit.

Rules that cross the fair housing line

Clubhouse rules generate more fair housing complaints than any other amenity rule, because they are written quickly, after an incident, by people who are annoyed. The recurring problems:

• Age restrictions. "No one under 16 in the fitness room" and "no children in the card room" restrict families with children. Unless the community lawfully operates as housing for older persons, these are familial status problems, and federal courts reviewing comparable common area rules have struck them down as facially discriminatory.
• Housing for older persons. Qualifying is not a label the board adopts. It requires at least 80 percent of occupied units occupied by at least one person 55 or older, published policies and procedures demonstrating the intent to so operate, and age verification through reliable surveys and affidavits.
• Religion. Allowing private gatherings but excluding religious ones is discrimination in the terms and conditions of housing.
• Disability. A blanket "no animals in the clubhouse" rule yields to a reasonable accommodation. Under section 760.27, a provider may seek supporting information when the disability is not readily apparent, but may not demand a specific form, a notarized statement, or anything disclosing the diagnosis or severity of the disability.

Regulate conduct rather than people. "No unsupervised use of the fitness equipment" reaches the actual hazard. "No one under 16" reaches a protected class. Our guide on enforcement and fair housing covers the analysis, and the same discipline applies at the water, as our guide to pool rules and liability explains.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes drafts and reviews amenity rules, reservation and use agreements, vendor contracts and suspension procedures for homeowners associations and country clubs across Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties, and defends boards when a clubhouse rule is challenged. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Covenant Enforcement page.