HOA Committee Authority in Florida: Which Committees Must Meet in the Open and What They May Decide

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 · Master associations · Sub-associations

Committees do most of the useful work in a homeowners' association, and they generate most of the procedural mistakes. Chapter 720 says less about committees than boards expect. It opens two categories of committee meeting to the members, imposes an independence requirement on the committee that hears fines and suspensions, and otherwise leaves committees to your declaration and bylaws. Knowing which category a committee falls into tells you how it must meet and what it may actually decide.

What Chapter 720 calls a committee

Chapter 720 does not define "committee" with the precision boards would like. What it does is describe two functional categories and attach the board meeting rules to them. Section 720.303(2)(a) provides that the subsection also applies to the meetings of any committee or other similar body when a final decision will be made regarding the expenditure of association funds, and to meetings of any body vested with the power to approve or disapprove architectural decisions with respect to a specific parcel of residential property owned by a member of the community. Section 720.303(2)(c) repeats the same coverage for the notice requirements.

Read that language carefully, because each phrase does work.

• "Any committee or other similar body" — the label does not matter. A working group, a task force, an ad hoc panel of two directors and a manager: if it performs the covered function, it is covered.
• "When a final decision will be made" — a committee that studies, gathers bids and recommends is not making the final decision. A committee that is authorized to award the contract is.
• "Regarding the expenditure of association funds" — the trigger is spending authority, not budget size. There is no dollar threshold in the statute.
• "Vested with the power to approve or disapprove architectural decisions" — this one is not limited to final decisions. A body with the power to approve or disapprove is covered, and the approval must relate to a specific parcel owned by a member.

The practical consequence is that a social committee planning the holiday party, a landscape committee that only recommends, and a communications committee that drafts a newsletter are not opened by Chapter 720. Your bylaws may still open them, and many bylaws do. Read the bylaws before telling an owner a meeting is closed.

What "open and noticed" actually requires

When a committee meeting falls inside § 720.303(2), it inherits the whole board meeting regime, not just the obligation to let people in the room.

1. Notice content. The notice must specifically identify the agenda items. A notice that says "ARC meeting" without listing the applications to be considered does not comply.
2. Notice timing and method. Post conspicuously in the community at least 48 hours in advance, or mail or deliver to each member at least 7 days before, except in an emergency. Communities with more than 100 members may use a reasonable alternative if the bylaws provide one.
3. Electronic notice. The association may provide notice by electronic transmission to a member who has given an e-mail address or fax number, but the member must consent in writing to receive notice that way.
4. Website posting. An association with 100 or more parcels must post notice of any board meeting, the agenda and required documents on its website or application no later than the date notice is required under § 720.303(2). Committee meetings covered by that subsection should be handled the same way.
5. Right to attend and speak. Members may attend and may speak on designated agenda items. The association may adopt written reasonable rules on frequency, duration and manner, including a sign-up sheet.
6. No proxy or secret ballot. Directors may not vote by proxy or secret ballot at board meetings, except secret ballots in the election of officers. Committees acting under the same subsection should follow the same practice.

There are two exceptions. Under § 720.303(2)(b), meetings between the board or a committee and the association's attorney to discuss proposed or pending litigation, and board meetings held to discuss personnel matters, are not required to be open to members other than directors. Both are narrow. A closed session is for the discussion; a vote to spend money on the matter belongs at an open meeting with proper notice. Our guide to meeting notices and agendas works through the mechanics.

The architectural review committee

The ARC is the committee most often on the wrong side of a dispute, because it is the committee whose decisions touch an owner's own property. Three sets of rules apply at once.

Meeting rules. A body vested with the power to approve or disapprove architectural decisions for a specific parcel is covered by § 720.303(2), so its meetings must be open and noticed with specific agenda items. Deciding applications by circulating e-mails among committee members is not a meeting the members can attend, and it produces no record.

Substantive limits. Section 720.3035 constrains what the committee may require. Its authority extends only to what is specifically stated or reasonably inferred as to location, size, type or appearance in the declaration or other published guidelines and standards. It must apply standards reasonably and equitably among all owners. It may not require, as of July 1, 2026, that a building permit have been issued as a prerequisite for the association's review. It may not restrict an owner's choice among options the declaration expressly provides. Where the declaration sets no setback, county or municipal setbacks control.

Written denials. Section 720.3035(4) requires the association to give written notice specifying the rule or standard the application violated when it denies a request. The denial letter is the document that gets read aloud if the dispute goes to presuit mediation under § 720.311, so it should quote the provision rather than paraphrase it.

The fining and suspension committee

Section 720.305(2) creates the one committee whose composition the statute controls. It is not a committee of the board, and treating it as one is the mistake that voids fines.

• Composition. At least three members appointed by the board who are not officers, directors or employees of the association, and who are not the spouse, parent, child, brother or sister of an officer, director or employee.
• Notice. The parcel owner must receive at least 14 days' written notice of the right to a hearing before a fine or suspension may be imposed.
• Timing. The hearing must be held within 90 days after issuance of the notice.
• Veto power. If the committee, by majority vote, does not approve a proposed fine or suspension, it may not be imposed. The board cannot overrule the committee.
• Post-hearing notice. Within 7 days after the hearing, the committee must provide written notice to the parcel owner at the designated mailing or e-mail address in the association's official records.
• Payment date. The committee must set a date by which the fine must be paid, which must be at least 30 days after delivery of that written notice.
• Amount and lien. A fine may not exceed $100 per violation, up to $1,000 in the aggregate unless the governing documents provide otherwise, and a fine of less than $1,000 may not become a lien against a parcel.

The independence requirement is strict and is where associations most often fail. A committee that includes a director's spouse, or a member who is also the association's part-time maintenance employee, is not a valid committee, and a fine it approves is vulnerable. Recruit the committee before you need it, document each member's lack of disqualifying relationship, and replace members as board composition changes. Our detailed walkthrough of the HOA fining committee covers the hearing itself.

Note what the committee does not do. It does not investigate, prosecute or decide whether to pursue a violation. The board proposes the fine or suspension; the committee's role is to approve it or not after the owner has had a hearing. A committee that is asked to draft the violation notice has lost the independence the statute was written to create.

What a board may and may not delegate

Delegation is a corporate question before it is a Chapter 720 question. The board is the body Chapter 617 and your bylaws charge with managing the association, and the directors' fiduciary relationship to the members under § 720.303(1) does not transfer with the task.

A workable rule of thumb: a committee may be delegated the gathering of information, the application of a standard the board has already adopted, and recommendation. Final authority to bind the association should stay with the board unless the declaration or bylaws expressly grant it to the committee.

Two delegations are particularly risky. A committee with an open checkbook is making final decisions regarding the expenditure of association funds, which opens its meetings under § 720.303(2) and rarely matches what the bylaws authorize. A committee asked to interpret the declaration is doing legal work that belongs with counsel. The boundaries of the board's own power are set out in our guide to HOA board authority.

Committee charters

Chapter 720 does not require a charter. Adopting one is still the cheapest governance improvement available to an HOA board, because it settles in advance every question that otherwise gets argued in front of an angry owner.

A workable charter is one page and states:

1. The committee's name and the provision of the bylaws or declaration that authorizes it.
2. Its purpose in one sentence, and an express statement of whether it recommends or decides.
3. Whether it has authority to spend association funds, and if so, the dollar limit and the account.
4. How many members, how they are appointed, term length, and any disqualifying relationships.
5. Whether its meetings are open under § 720.303(2), under the bylaws, or as a matter of board policy, and how notice will be given.
6. Who keeps the minutes and where they are filed.
7. The date the board adopted the charter and the date it will be reviewed.

Point five deserves a deliberate answer rather than a default. If the committee only recommends and the bylaws do not require open meetings, the board may choose to open them anyway. That is a policy choice, and it should be recorded as one so that a later closed meeting is not treated as a change in the rules. Sample language and structure are in our note on committee charters.

Committee records and minutes

Section 720.303(4)(a) lists the official records. The minutes expressly named are the minutes of all meetings of the board of directors and of the members. Committee minutes are not separately itemized, but the list ends with a catch-all covering all other written records of the association not specifically included which are related to the operation of the association. Committee applications, denial letters, bid tabulations, hearing notices and minutes fall inside that catch-all.

Treat committee records as official records, because that is how they will be treated when an owner asks for them.

• Official records must be maintained within Florida for at least 7 years, and ballots, sign-in sheets, voting proxies and related papers for at least 1 year.
• Bids received by the association for work to be performed are official records and must be kept for 1 year.
• Records must be made available for inspection or copying within 45 miles of the community or within the county, within 10 business days after a written request.
• Failure to provide access within 10 business days after a written request sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, creates a rebuttable presumption of a willful failure to comply, and minimum damages of $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days begin on the 11th business day.
• A member may use a smartphone, tablet or portable scanner to photograph or scan records, and the association may not charge for use of the device.

Two protections matter for committees. Information the association is not permitted to disclose under § 720.303(5)(g) must not be posted on the association's website or application, so an ARC packet containing owner contact details needs review before it is posted. And a record covered by attorney-client privilege, such as counsel's advice to a committee on a denial, should be routed and labeled deliberately. Which documents are and are not producible is covered in our guide to HOA official records requirements.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes helps homeowners' association boards in Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties structure committees, draft charters, and run architectural review and fining hearings that hold up when they are challenged. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Corporate Governance page.