Chapter 723 mediation is the last step on the lot rental increase calendar and the first step of any lawsuit. It begins with a petition filed with the Division within 30 days after the last scheduled meeting between the park owner and the homeowners' committee. It is confidential, informal, and cheap by the standards of litigation. It is also mandatory in a real sense: under section 723.0381(1), a civil action may not be initiated unless the dispute has first been submitted to mediation under section 723.037(5).
Where mediation sits on the calendar
Mediation does not start a dispute. It closes out a sequence that began with a notice: 90 days' written notice of an increase, a service reduction or a rule change, then a meeting between the park owner and the homeowners' committee no later than 60 days before the effective date, and perhaps a second meeting if the committee disagreed about the comparable parks.
The 30-day petition clock runs from the date of the last scheduled meeting. Not from the notice, not from the effective date, and not from the day the increase first appears on a statement. If the parties used the second-meeting mechanism, the last scheduled meeting is the second one. If they agreed in writing under section 723.037(4)(d) to continue a meeting, the continued session counts. Our guide to the lot rental increase procedure lays out the full calendar.
One awkward fact in that sequence is worth naming. The meeting happens 60 days before the effective date and the window is 30 days long, so in a park that met exactly at the deadline the window closes roughly 30 days before the increase takes effect. Homeowners who wait to see the new rent on a bill have usually waited too long.
Who may petition, and what the petition must carry
Under section 723.037(5)(a), within 30 days after the date of the last scheduled meeting a majority of the affected homeowners may designate, in writing, that the change is unreasonable and petition for mediation. The grounds are fixed: the increase is unreasonable, the increase makes the resulting lot rental amount unreasonable, a decrease in services or utilities is not accompanied by a corresponding decrease in rent, or a change in the rules and regulations is unreasonable.
Section 723.037(5)(c) gives the park owner the same right in the same period. A park owner who expects a challenge and wants the market rent question answered before the effective date can file first.
The petition is filed with the Division on a form the Division adopts by rule. Section 723.037(5)(b) requires the homeowners to serve the park owner with a certified copy of four things:
- the petition for mediation on the Division's form;
- the written designation by a majority of the affected homeowners, which must include the lot identification for each signature;
- the notice or notices of the lot rental increase, reduction in services or utilities, or change in rules and regulations being challenged as unreasonable; and
- the records that verify the selection of the homeowners' committee under section 723.037(4).
Under section 723.037(5)(g), the Division must dismiss a petition if the park owner and the mobile home owners fail to comply with the subsection. That turns the service list into a deadline rather than a formality. The fourth item is the one communities most often cannot produce, which is why the designation of the committee should be documented the day it happens.
Section 723.037(5)(d) allows consolidation. When a dispute involves a rental increase for different homeowners at different rates or on different rental terms, all such increases in a calendar year for one park may be considered in one mediation proceeding. A park that staggers increases by phase does not get four separate mediations.
The Division's role and selecting the mediator
Section 723.038(1) gives the parties two routes. Either party may petition the Division to appoint a mediator and initiate proceedings, or the parties may agree to immediately select a mediator and initiate proceedings under the criteria in subsections (2) and (4). Section 723.037(5)(f) says the same from the other side: as an alternative to Division appointment, the park owner and the mobile home owners may by mutual agreement select a mediator under section 723.038(2) and (4). Chapter 2024-123 added the private-selection route.
If the Division appoints, section 723.038(2) requires it, on receipt of a petition, to appoint a qualified mediator and notify the parties within 20 days after the appointment. Mediators come from the list of circuit court mediators meeting Florida Supreme Court qualifications, or from the Florida Growth Management Conflict Resolution Consortium list. Under section 723.037(5)(h) the park owner may file objections within 10 days, and the Division assigns a mediator within 10 days where none was privately selected.
What the Division is not is an adjudicator. It receives the petition, tests it for compliance, appoints the mediator, and receives the mediator's report. Under section 723.005 it has no power to enforce section 723.033, the section that defines an unreasonable lot rental amount. No one at the Division is going to rule that the rent is too high.
Cost, and who pays it
Section 723.038(4) is the cost rule and it is short. The parties shall each pay a $250 filing fee to the mediator appointed by the Division or selected by the parties, within 30 days after the Division notifies the parties of the appointment. The $250 filing fee is used by the mediator to defray the hourly rate charged for mediation of the dispute, and any portion of the filing fee not used is refunded to the parties.
Two things follow. First, the exposure is symmetrical and small. Five hundred dollars between them funds the mediator's time, and what is not spent comes back. Second, the statute as printed addresses the filing fee, not what happens when the mediator's hourly charges exceed it. Treat allocation of any excess as a term to agree on in writing before the session rather than a question the statute answers.
The homeowners' side has a practical wrinkle. The committee acts for all the affected homeowners, so the $250 is a community expense that arrives before any subscription or assessment machinery exists. Under section 723.079(3), an association's power to levy assessments does not arise until it has purchased the park. Plan the funding the same week the committee is designated.
How the mediation is conducted
Section 723.038(7) sets the tone: mediation under the section is an informal and nonadversarial process, and either party may submit to the opposing party, at least 10 days before the mediation, a written request for information. There is no discovery in the litigation sense and no rules of evidence.
What the parties may present is bounded by what they already said. Section 723.037(5)(e) lets them supplement the information disclosed at the committee meetings but not change it. A park owner who justified an increase on rising insurance and taxes at the 60-day meeting does not arrive at mediation with a new theory, and a committee that raised only comparables does not open a new front on deferred maintenance.
Section 723.038(3) requires the mediator to comply with Division rules and to notify the Division in writing within 10 days after the mediation has concluded. Under section 723.038(9), a mediator appointed by the Division or selected by the parties has judicial immunity in the same manner and to the same extent as a judge.
The parties keep control at both ends. Section 723.038(5) lets them agree to select their own mediator, agree to waive mediation, or, for the petitioning party, withdraw the petition before mediation. A waiver is a decision with consequences under section 723.0381 and should not be signed casually.
Confidentiality, and the standard the mediator applies
Section 723.038(8) gives each party a privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent any person present from disclosing, communications made during the proceeding. The privilege does not cover communications made in furtherance of a crime or fraud, or as part of a plan to commit one.
The practical effect is that positions taken at mediation do not become admissions at trial, which is what makes a candid discussion of the park's operating numbers possible. It is also why the written summary prepared under section 723.037(4)(b)1. matters: that document was created at the committee meeting, outside the privilege, and it survives a failed mediation.
On substance, section 723.033(7) provides that an arbitrator or mediator under sections 723.037, 723.038 and 723.0381 must employ the same standards set out in section 723.033. That is the test a court would apply: a lot rental amount in excess of market rent is unreasonable; market rent is what would result from market forces absent an unequal bargaining position; comparable parks are those in the competitive area offering similar facilities, services, amenities and management; and the mediator may weigh the consumer price index, operating costs, taxes and prior disclosures.
A mediated resolution is not agency action. Section 723.038(6) provides that a resolution reached in mediation is not final agency action, and that the parties may enforce a written agreement in circuit court as a contract. Draft it as a contract, because that is what it is.
When mediation fails
Section 723.0381 is two subsections long and both of them matter. Subsection (1) reads, in full: a civil action may not be initiated unless the dispute has been submitted to mediation pursuant to section 723.037(5); after mediation of a dispute pursuant to section 723.038 has failed to provide a resolution, either party may file an action in circuit court.
Subsection (2) is a cost provision aimed at second-guessing. The court may refer the action to nonbinding arbitration under section 44.103 and the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, and must order the hearing held informally with testimony kept to a minimum and the matter presented primarily through the statements and arguments of counsel. If neither party requests a trial de novo, the court assesses the parties equally for the arbitrators' compensation. If a party files for a trial de novo and the judgment is not more favorable than the arbitration decision, that party is assessed the arbitration costs, court costs, and other reasonable costs of the opposing party, including attorney's fees, investigation expenses and expert or other testimony expenses incurred after the arbitration hearing. The arbitration decision is kept from the judge until after the order on the merits.
Chapter 2024-123 rewrote subsection (1) and tied the prerequisite expressly to a section 723.037(5) submission. Anyone working from a pre-2024 form or memorandum should read the current text rather than rely on a summary of it.
Mediation and a suit for declaratory or injunctive relief
This question decides whether a case can be filed next week or must wait a season, and the answer on the face of the statute is unwelcome to whoever is in a hurry. Section 723.0381(1) says "a civil action," without qualification. As printed in the 2026 edition it contains no exception for declaratory relief, injunctive relief, possession, or emergency relief, and it does not distinguish a suit for money from a suit for a declaration that a rule is unreasonable.
The limiting language is in the trigger rather than in any exception. The prerequisite is that the dispute have been submitted to mediation pursuant to section 723.037(5), which is the rent-increase, service-reduction and rule-change track. A dispute that could never have been submitted under that subsection sits uneasily inside a sentence conditioned on it. How far section 723.0381(1) reaches beyond the section 723.037 track is a genuinely open question.
Two things in the chapter do point to boundaries. Section 723.1255 sends disputes between a mobile home owner and the homeowners' association over election and recall of officers or directors, and over inspection and photocopying of official records, to mandatory binding arbitration with the Division instead. And eviction proceedings under section 723.061 run on their own track; see our guide to evictions under Chapter 723.
The safe practice on both sides is the same. Do not treat mediation as a formality to be skipped because the relief sought is equitable. Petition within the 30 days, attend, and preserve the record. A dismissal for failure to mediate costs a season, and under section 723.037(6) a refusal to mediate costs attorney's fees in any action relating to the dispute. For matters outside the section 723.037 calendar, ask counsel whether section 723.0381(1) applies before filing rather than after. Our overview of what Chapter 723 governs shows which disputes run on which track.
Frequently Asked Questions About Chapter 723 Mediation
How long do we have to petition for mediation?
Thirty days after the date of the last scheduled meeting between the park owner and the homeowners' committee, under section 723.037(5)(a). The clock runs from the meeting, not from the notice or the effective date. If a second meeting was held under section 723.037(4)(c), the second meeting is the one that starts the 30 days.
Who can file the petition?
Either side. Homeowners petition on the written designation of a majority of the affected homeowners under section 723.037(5)(a), and the park owner may petition within the same period under section 723.037(5)(c). Petitions are filed with the Division on a form it adopts by rule.
What does Chapter 723 mediation cost?
Each party pays a $250 filing fee to the mediator within 30 days after the Division notifies the parties of the appointment. The fee defrays the mediator's hourly rate and any unused portion is refunded. The statute addresses the filing fee; agree in writing in advance on how any charges above it will be shared.
Do we have to mediate before suing?
Yes. Section 723.0381(1) provides that a civil action may not be initiated unless the dispute has been submitted to mediation pursuant to section 723.037(5), and that either party may file in circuit court after mediation under section 723.038 has failed to resolve it. The printed text contains no exception for declaratory or injunctive relief.
What happens if the other side refuses to mediate?
Section 723.037(6) provides that a party who refuses to agree to mediate upon proper request is not entitled to attorney's fees in any action relating to the dispute. That matters because section 723.068 otherwise gives the prevailing party in a private Chapter 723 proceeding a reasonable attorney's fee.
Is what we say in mediation confidential?
Largely yes. Section 723.038(8) gives each party a privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent others present from disclosing, communications made during the proceeding. The exception is communications made in furtherance of a crime or fraud, or as part of a plan to commit one.
Is a mediated agreement binding?
A resolution reached in mediation is not final agency action, but section 723.038(6) allows the parties to enforce a written agreement in circuit court as a contract. Under section 723.003(5) a homeowners' committee may enter a binding mediation agreement on behalf of the association, its members and all other mobile home owners in the park.
Contact Hamilton Mikes
Hamilton Mikes represents mobile home community clients in Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties through the Chapter 723 mediation process, from the section 723.037(5) petition and service package through mediator selection, the session itself, and the circuit court action that follows a failed mediation. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Litigation and ADR page.
Statutes and authorities referenced
- § 723.003(5), Fla. Stat. (homeowners' committee; authority to enter a binding mediation agreement)
- § 723.005, Fla. Stat. (Division may not enforce § 723.033)
- § 723.033, Fla. Stat. (unreasonableness standards; (7) applies them to an arbitrator or mediator)
- § 723.037(5), Fla. Stat. (petition for mediation; grounds, service, consolidation, private mediator, dismissal, objections)
- § 723.037(6), (7), Fla. Stat. (refusal to mediate forfeits attorney's fees; who the parties are)
- § 723.038, Fla. Stat. (dispute settlement; mediation; appointment, $250 fee, confidentiality, judicial immunity)
- § 723.0381, Fla. Stat. (civil actions; arbitration; mediation as a prerequisite to suit)
- § 723.061, Fla. Stat. (eviction; separate statutory track)
- § 723.068, Fla. Stat. (attorney's fees)
- § 723.1255, Fla. Stat. (mandatory binding arbitration of election, recall and records disputes)
- § 44.103, Fla. Stat. (court-ordered nonbinding arbitration)
- Ch. 2024-123, Laws of Fla. (CS/CS/CS/HB 613), eff. July 1, 2024, amending §§ 723.037, 723.038, 723.0381