Section 720.303(4)(b) put every Florida homeowners association with 100 or more parcels on the web. By January 1, 2025 those associations had to post thirteen categories of documents on a website or make them available through a mobile application, behind a members-only area, with protected material stripped out first. The rule is not the condominium rule, and an association that copied a condominium checklist is posting the wrong list to the wrong threshold.
Which associations the rule reaches
The trigger is 100 or more parcels. An association below that number has no posting obligation under § 720.303(4)(b), though it still has every other records obligation in the section, including the requirement to keep the records, to produce them within ten business days, and to publish its retention policy.
Do not borrow the condominium answer. A condominium association crosses the website threshold at 25 or more units, and the documents it posts are listed in a different statute, § 718.111(12)(g). The two lists overlap but are not the same, and the condominium statute carries a posting deadline measured in days from receipt or creation that the HOA statute does not use. If your community has both a condominium and an HOA, or a master association over condominium sub-associations, each entity is measured on its own chapter. Our comparison of HOAs and condominium associations sets the two regimes side by side.
The statute gives the association a choice of medium. It may post on a website, or it may make the documents available through an application that can be downloaded on a mobile device. Most associations use the owner portal their management company provides, which is workable so long as the portal actually does what the statute requires and the association can get its content back when the management relationship ends.
The thirteen categories that must be posted
The list is at § 720.303(4)(b)1., lettered a. through m.
| § 720.303(4)(b)1. | Document | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| a. | The articles of incorporation and each amendment | By January 1, 2025, then kept current |
| b. | The recorded bylaws and each amendment | By January 1, 2025, then kept current |
| c. | The declaration of covenants and each amendment | By January 1, 2025, then kept current |
| d. | The current rules of the association | By January 1, 2025, then kept current |
| e. | A list of all current executory contracts or documents to which the association is a party, and a list of bids received within the past year | Bids after bidding for the related materials, equipment or services has closed |
| f. | The annual budget required by subsection (6) and any proposed budget to be considered | By January 1, 2025, then each cycle |
| g. | The financial report required by subsection (7) and any monthly income or expense statement to be considered at a meeting | By January 1, 2025, then each cycle |
| h. | The association's current insurance policies | By January 1, 2025, then kept current |
| i. | The certification of each director required by § 720.3033(1)(a) | As directors are certified |
| j. | All contracts or transactions between the association and any director, officer or corporation in which a director has an interest | As they arise |
| k. | Any contract or document regarding a conflict of interest or possible conflict of interest | As they arise |
| l. | Notice of any scheduled meeting of members and the agenda | At least 14 days before the meeting |
| m. | Notice of any board meeting, the agenda, and any other document required for that meeting under subsection (2) | No later than the date notice is required under § 720.303(2) |
Item e. is the one that catches boards out. It is a list of current executory contracts, not the contracts themselves, and it also requires a list of bids received within the past year, posted after bidding for the related materials, equipment or services has closed. Posting bids while a solicitation is still open is not required and is usually a bad idea.
The deadlines that are not January 1, 2025
Three timing rules sit inside the posting list and run on their own schedules. They are the ones an association will actually miss, because they recur.
- Fourteen days for meeting notices. Notice of a scheduled members' meeting and the agenda must be posted at least 14 days before the meeting, and the notice must appear in plain view on the homepage of the website or application, or on a separate subpage labeled "Notices" that is conspicuously visible and linked from the homepage. Burying the notice three clicks deep does not satisfy it.
- Seven days for the material to be voted on. Any document to be considered and voted on by the members at the meeting must be posted at least 7 days before it.
- After bidding closes for bids. The list of bids received within the past year goes up once bidding for the related materials, equipment or services has closed.
Posting is an addition to the notice rules in Chapter 720, not a substitute for them. The association still has to mail, deliver or electronically transmit notice as the statute and the bylaws require. A board that posts and does nothing else has given notice to the owners who happened to check the site. Our guidance on meeting notices and agendas covers the delivery side.
The members-only area
Section 720.303(4)(b)2. requires that the website or application be accessible through the Internet and contain a subpage, web portal or other protected electronic location that is inaccessible to the general public and accessible only to parcel owners and employees of the association.
Section 720.303(4)(b)3. adds the access obligation: on written request by a parcel owner, the association must provide the owner with a username and password and access to the protected sections containing the official documents.
Two practical points. First, the protected area is where the substance belongs. There is no reason for budgets, financial reports, insurance policies, contracts and director certifications to sit on the public internet, and good reasons not to. Second, credential requests are records requests in everything but name. An owner who asks in writing for a login and gets no answer for three weeks has an obvious complaint, and the association has no good explanation for the delay. Treat the request the way you would treat any other written records request and answer it promptly.
What must never be posted
Section 720.303(4)(b)4. is the sentence most likely to produce a claim against an association that was trying to comply. The association must ensure that the information and records described in § 720.303(5)(g), which are not accessible to parcel owners, are not posted on the website or application. Where protected or restricted information is inside a document that must be posted, the association must redact it before posting.
The statute then gives a limited shield. The association or its authorized agent is not liable for disclosing information protected or restricted under § 720.303(5)(g) unless the disclosure was made with a knowing or intentional disregard of the protected or restricted nature of the information. That is real protection for an honest mistake. It is not protection for an association that posts a full owner ledger with e-mail addresses and phone numbers because nobody looked.
The categories in § 720.303(5)(g) run from privileged material to personnel and medical records to personal identifying information to the association's own security measures and passwords. They are covered in detail in our guide to records exempt from owner inspection. For posting purposes, the documents that most often carry protected content are insurance policies and claim material, contracts naming individuals, collection and delinquency reports, and anything produced by a vendor that includes owner contact information.
Build the redaction step into the workflow rather than relying on judgment at the moment of upload. One person reviews, a second uploads, and the reviewed version is what goes up. Redaction means removing the content, not covering it with a black box in a PDF that still contains the underlying text layer.
The retention policy goes on the site too
Section 720.303(4)(c) requires the association to adopt written rules governing the method or policy by which the official records are retained and how long each category is kept, and it requires that this information be made available to parcel owners through the association's website or application.
That is a posting obligation stated outside the (4)(b) list, which is why it gets missed. If the association is above the 100-parcel threshold and has a site, the retention policy belongs on it. Our guide to what an HOA must keep and for how long covers what the policy should contain.
Getting the rules and covenants into every member's hands
A separate obligation, added in 2024 and codified at § 720.303(15), sits in its own subsection under the heading requirement to provide copies of rules and covenants. Three duties come out of it:
- Before October 1, 2024, the association had to provide a physical or digital copy of the association's rules and covenants to every member.
- The association must provide a physical or digital copy to every new member.
- If the rules or covenants are amended, the association must provide every member with an updated copy.
The statute permits the obligation to be met by posting a complete copy on the association's website where the site is accessible to members and the association sends notice of the posting. That is the sensible route for an association that already has a compliant site, but note what it requires: a complete copy, and an affirmative notice that it is there. Posting quietly and assuming owners will find it does not discharge the duty.
This matters for enforcement, not just compliance. When an association has to prove that an owner was on notice of a restriction, a documented delivery under § 720.303(15) is a far better record than an assumption that the owner got the documents at closing years ago.
Electronic records and the duty to produce
Posting and producing are different obligations, and the second is broader. Section 720.303(5)(a) allows the association to satisfy its inspection obligation by making records available to a parcel owner electronically via the Internet, or by allowing the records to be viewed in electronic format on a computer screen and printed on request. For an association whose records live with an off-site manager, this is what solves the 45-mile problem.
The statute also settles a fight that used to be common. A member or the member's authorized representative may use a portable device, including a smartphone, tablet, portable scanner or any other technology capable of scanning or taking photographs, to make an electronic copy of the official records in place of the association providing copies. The association may not charge a fee for the use of a portable device.
Two things follow for the inspection itself. An association cannot ban phones from a records inspection, and it cannot build a copy-fee business around a right the statute makes free. Do not confuse this with the per-page copying charges the association may still impose under § 720.303(5)(g) when it is the one making the copies.
What we recommend beyond the posting list
Two kinds of association get the same advice here, for different reasons. An association with 100 or more parcels already has a site and a list, and the list is a floor rather than a ceiling. Nothing in § 720.303(4)(b) stops it from posting more than the paragraph names. An association under 100 parcels has no posting duty at all, which boards tend to read as permission to do nothing, and that is the association whose records requests take longest to answer.
Our recommendation is the same for both. Digitize every official record that is not protected under § 720.303(5)(g) and put the whole file in the members-only area: the closed contracts as well as the list of current ones, the older financial reports, the historic minutes, the permits, the amendment history, the correspondence. The documents § 720.303(4)(b)1. names are the ones a member asks for in an ordinary year. They are not the ones a member asks for when something has gone wrong, and the second request is the one that becomes a dispute.
It works because it removes both halves of the expense. The work goes first. There is nothing to retrieve, no appointment to schedule and no supervised inspection to staff, and the answer to most written requests is a link and a sentence. The disputes go with it. Very few records fights under § 720.303(5) are about whether a member is entitled to a record. They are about how long the association took, and a member who can open the file at any hour rarely starts one.
Say plainly what it does not do. It does not answer a request for a record that is not on the site. That member gets an ordinary response on the ordinary schedule. It does not extend the ten-business-day deadline, which runs from receipt whatever the portal contains, and pointing a member at a portal that does not hold what they asked for is a late response with a link attached. And it does not soften § 720.303(4)(b)4. The records described in § 720.303(5)(g)1.–9. stay off the website, and protected content inside a document that must be posted has to be redacted before it goes up. Every file added to the portal is a file that has to clear that review. An association that uploads its whole cabinet without one has not improved its position. It has published its members' personal information.
Who actually controls the site
The compliance obligation belongs to the association. The site is usually built and run by someone else. That gap is where associations lose control of their own records.
- Put ownership of the domain, the content and the owner data in the association's name in the management or vendor agreement, and put a delivery obligation on termination in the same paragraph.
- Specify who uploads, who reviews for protected content before upload, and how fast a credential request is answered.
- Confirm the protected area is genuinely closed. Search for your own documents from a browser that is not logged in.
- Keep a dated record of what was posted and when, particularly for the 14-day and 7-day meeting items. If a member later challenges a vote, a posting log is the evidence.
- Re-check the site after every amendment, every budget adoption, every insurance renewal and every director certification. The list is not a one-time project.
Our electronic records management guidance and the association website and electronic records updates go further on vendor arrangements and on what has changed since the rule took effect.
Frequently Asked Questions About HOA Websites and Electronic Records
Does our HOA have to have a website?
Only if it has 100 or more parcels. Section 720.303(4)(b) required those associations to post the listed documents on a website, or make them available through an application downloadable on a mobile device, by January 1, 2025. A smaller association has no posting duty, though it still must keep the records, produce them within ten business days, and publish its retention policy under § 720.303(4)(c).
Can we use our management company's owner portal instead of our own website?
Yes. The statute requires a website or a downloadable application and does not dictate who hosts it. Confirm the portal has a protected area accessible only to parcel owners and employees, that the association can obtain a username and password for any owner who requests one in writing, and that the association can retrieve its content if the management relationship ends.
How far in advance do meeting notices have to go on the website?
Notice of a scheduled members' meeting and the agenda must be posted at least 14 days before the meeting, in plain view on the homepage or on a conspicuously visible subpage labeled "Notices" that is linked from the homepage. Any document to be considered and voted on at the meeting must be posted at least 7 days before it. Posting does not replace the notice the statute and bylaws require you to deliver.
What happens if we accidentally post an owner's personal information?
Section 720.303(4)(b)4. requires the association to keep § 720.303(5)(g) material off the site and to redact protected information inside documents that must be posted. The association and its authorized agent are not liable for disclosure unless it was made with a knowing or intentional disregard of the protected nature of the information. Take it down immediately and document what happened and when.
Do we have to send every member a copy of the rules and covenants?
Yes. Section 720.303(15) required a physical or digital copy to every member before October 1, 2024, requires one to every new member, and requires an updated copy to every member whenever the rules or covenants are amended. The duty can be met by posting a complete copy on a member-accessible website and sending notice that it is posted.
Can an owner photograph records at an inspection instead of paying for copies?
Yes. Section 720.303(5)(a) lets a member or an authorized representative use a portable device, including a smartphone, tablet or portable scanner, to make an electronic copy in place of the association providing copies, and the association may not charge a fee for use of the device. Per-page copying charges still apply when the association makes the copies.
Contact Hamilton Mikes
Hamilton Mikes reviews HOA websites and owner portals against the § 720.303(4)(b) posting list, drafts the retention rules § 720.303(4)(c) requires, and fixes the vendor agreements that decide who really controls an association's records. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Regulatory Compliance page.
Statutes and authorities referenced
- § 720.303(4)(b), Fla. Stat. (website or application posting; 100 or more parcels; January 1, 2025)
- § 720.303(4)(b)1.a.-l., Fla. Stat. (the documents that must be posted)
- § 720.303(4)(b)1.e., Fla. Stat. (executory contracts and bids received within the past year)
- § 720.303(4)(b)1.l., Fla. Stat. (members' meeting notice and agenda, 14 days; documents to be voted on, 7 days)
- § 720.303(4)(b)2., Fla. Stat. (protected subpage or web portal inaccessible to the general public)
- § 720.303(4)(b)3., Fla. Stat. (username and password on written request)
- § 720.303(4)(b)4., Fla. Stat. (no posting of § 720.303(5)(g) material; redaction; limited liability shield)
- § 720.303(4)(c), Fla. Stat. (retention rules made available through the website or application)
- § 720.303(5)(a), Fla. Stat. (electronic compliance with inspection; portable devices at no charge)
- § 720.303(5)(g), Fla. Stat. (records not accessible to members; copying charges)
- § 720.303(15), Fla. Stat. (copies of rules and covenants to every member and every new member)
- § 720.3033(1)(a), Fla. Stat. (director certification posted under (4)(b)1.i.)
- § 718.111(12)(g), Fla. Stat. (condominium website posting, 25 or more units, for contrast)
- Ch. 2024-221, Laws of Fla. (HB 1203, effective July 1, 2024); Ch. 2024-202, Laws of Fla.; Ch. 2026-14, Laws of Fla. (SB 104, reviser's bill)