“2025 Legal Recap” – FLCAJ
The 2025 Legislative Session brought us multiple changes to the Florida Condominium Act. House Bill 913 contained 191 pages of changes to Chapter 468, governing community association managers; Chapter 553, governing condominium milestone inspections; Chapter 718, governing condominiums; and Chapter 719, governing cooperatives. Chapter 720, governing homeowners’ associations, was not amended during the 2025 legislative session. Due to the breadth of the House Bill, this article will only touch on some of the statutory changes.
Community Association Managers
All licensed managers must create and maintain an online account with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which includes the management company for whom the manager works and which community association he or she is a designated onsite manager. Management contracts cannot waive professional standards and have to contain a specific provision affirming adherence to professional standards. The statutory changes address some additional required contract provisions and disclosures, as well as addressing some conflict-of-interest concerns.
Milestone Inspections
Prior to House Bill 913, all residential condominium and residential cooperative buildings three stories or more in height were required to have a milestone inspection when 30 years of age and each 10 years thereafter. Now the statute clarified that the buildings have to be three habitable stories or more in height. The Bill also addressed certain reporting requirements of the local enforcement agency and a requirement for licensed architects or engineers who perform a milestone inspection to disclose in writing his or her intent to bid on any services for the repairs required from the milestone inspection.
Chapter 718- Condominium Associations
The majority of the changes in the Bill concerned condominium associations. To begin with, the Bill inserted a definition of “Video Conference” as “real-time audio and video based meeting between two or more people in different locations using video-enabled and audio-enabled devices.” While the statute specifically permits video conferences for all meetings of an association, there must still be a physical location for the meeting. The notice of the meeting must include the hyperlink and call-in phone number, video conferences must be recorded, must be maintained as an official record of the association and must be posted on the association’s website. If an annual meeting is conducted by video conference, a quorum of the members of the Board must be physically present at a location where the owners can attend the meeting, and such location must be within the same county as the condominium or within 15 miles of the condominium.
All official records must be posted on the association’s website within 30 days after the record is received or created. The bill extends the deadline for completing the annual financial report from 120 days to 180 days after the end of the fiscal year. Delivery of any required annual financial report to unit owners must be documented by an affidavit of mailing or delivery. To prepare a financial report in a format less than what is required by the statute, the association must obtain the approval of a majority of all unit owners, as opposed to a majority of the unit owners present at a meeting. The insurance provision now provides that insurance may be based on the replacement cost as determined by an independent insurance appraisal performed at least once every three years. The bill created a new section regarding the investment of association funds. Then, the non-structural catch-all reserve component increased to $25,000 from $10,000. Finally, the bill attempted to clarify whether a unit owner or a condominium association would be responsible for the cost of removing any hurricane protection when maintenance needs to be provided to the condominium building.
For years, the condominium act provided that if the association proposed a budget with assessments which exceed 115% of the preceding year’s fiscal assessments, unit owners could follow a statutory procedure to propose a substitute budget. However, the bill has now somewhat flipped that requirement. Now if a board proposes a budget with assessments which exceed 115% of the prior year’s assessments, the board must also simultaneously propose a substitute budget that does not include “any discretionary expenditures that are not required to be in the budget.” While the term “discretionary expenditures” is not defined, the statute does provide that in determining whether the assessment exceed the 115% threshold, the association is not to include required (changed from reasonable) reserves, insurance premiums (which was already in the statute), and expenses for the repair, maintenance and replacement of the structural items listed in the statute.
This new bill made some additional changes to the funding of the structural reserves required for some condominiums. It clarifies that structural reserves can be pooled but can only be pooled with other structural components. It also addresses the funding of reserves and the approval thresholds required for the different funding options. Finally, it allows for a pause or reduction in structural reserve funding under certain limited circumstances and for a limited period of time. In one location of the statute, it now provides that only buildings three habitable stories or higher have to complete a structural integrity reserve study, similar to the change in the milestone inspection statute.
For annual meetings, the statute now requires associations to vote by an email ballot if the Association is not using electronic voting. There are requirements regarding what must be contained in the email ballot, including specific language to waive the secrecy of the ballot. It also deletes the 14-day notice of board meetings to adopt an electronic voting resolution, allowing it to be adopted with the regular board meeting notice requirements and provides the ability for owners to petition the board to adopt an electronic voting resolution.
Finally, condominium associations are required to create and maintain an online account with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation by October 1, 2025. There is a list of information and documents that must be uploaded to the account once created, including but not limited to, contact information, assessment rates, number and age of buildings and the structural integrity reserve study and associated materials, if applicable.
Cooperatives
Most of the changes to the condominium statute were likewise changed in the cooperative statute.
2026 Legislative Session
Committee weeks began on October 6, 2025. The Regular Session convenes on January 13, 2026. Since it is still early, it is unknown what bills will be filed. However, I think it reasonable to expect some proposed changes to Chapter 720, governing homeowners’ associations, since we did not have such a bill for 2025. However, it is unknown whether such bills will gain traction or not.
Robyn M. Severs represents community association clients throughout Florida’s northeast region. She has significant experience representing and assisting condominium and homeowners associations in a wide variety of legal areas, including document review, document drafting, turnover of association control, reserve funding, and maintenance issues. Robyn also handles community association bankruptcy cases and appellate cases that include some notable decisions. Ms. Severs is also one of only 190 attorneys statewide who is a Board Certified Specialist in Condominium and Planned Development Law.
