Section 1: Overview

Florida regulates community-association assessments not through a single percentage ceiling, but through two separate statutory systems. Under Chapter 718, condominium boards set the annual budget, and the so-called 115 percent rule works as a substitute-budget trigger — not a cap. When a board's proposed budget requires assessments above 115 percent of the prior year, owners can demand a meeting to consider a substitute budget, but the board may still adopt the higher number.¹

Homeowners' associations operate under Chapter 720, where assessment authority and any increase limits flow from the recorded declaration, and reserves are largely opt-in.²

The Surfside collapse reshaped a significant part of Florida's condominium law. On June 24, 2021, 98 people died when the 12-story Champlain Towers South partially collapsed. What followed was a mandatory structural-reserve regime that applies to condominiums — and that drives sharp cost increases that fall entirely outside the 115 percent trigger.³

On the national map, Florida belongs in the comprehensive non-UCIOA category of states: it controls assessments through detailed condominium and HOA statutes rather than a statutory percentage cap like California or an owner-veto ratification mechanism like UCIOA states. Cooperatives fall under Chapter 719 and receive only brief mention here. The sections below detail authority, increase limits, special assessments and reserves, procedural rules, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The assessment framework

2A. Authority to levy and allocate assessments

For condominiums, Section 718.115 gives the association the authority to levy assessments for common expenses; the declaration fixes each unit's share.⁴ Section 718.116 then secures the levied assessment with a statutory lien that relates back to the recording of the declaration for most interests — though it remains subordinate to a first mortgage recorded before the claim of lien.⁵ The board sets the assessment by adopting the annual budget; no owner vote is required in the ordinary case, and the declaration — not the statute — controls how the total divides among units.¹

For homeowners' associations, assessment authority flows from the governing documents. Section 720.308 confirms that assessments are set by the budget and addresses the developer's assessment obligations and guarantees.⁶ The HOA lien, governed by Section 720.3085, likewise relates back to the recorded declaration when the governing documents authorize it.⁷ In both regimes, the board holds the power to set the regular assessment through the budget process, and the declaration — not the statute — determines how the total divides among units or parcels.

1. Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(e), (f), (g) (2025), budget adoption, 115 percent substitute-budget trigger, developer-control cap, reserves ↩
2. Fla. Stat. § 720.303 (2025), HOA budgets, reserves, and notice ↩
3. Fla. Stat. § 553.899, mandatory structural milestone inspections for condominium and cooperative buildings ↩
4. Fla. Stat. § 718.115, common expenses and common surplus ↩
5. Fla. Stat. § 718.116, assessments; liability; lien and priority; interest; collection ↩
6. Fla. Stat. § 720.308, assessments and charges ↩
7. Fla. Stat. § 720.3085, payment for assessments; lien claims ↩
8. Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(c), board authority, emergency action, and assessment notice ↩
9. Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(c), special-assessment meeting notice and affidavit of compliance ↩
10. Fla. Stat. § 718.116(8) (condominiums) and § 720.30851 (HOAs), estoppel certificate fee caps; see Fla. House Staff Analysis CS/CS/HB 979 (Feb. 21, 2024) for the 2022 CPI-adjusted $299/$119/$179 amounts ↩
11. CS/CS/HB 913 (2025), Condominium and Cooperative Associations; see Florida Senate 2025 Bill Summary, HB 913 ↩
12. HB 1021 (2024), Community Associations, Chapter 2024-244, Laws of Florida ↩
13. Winston Towers 100 Ass'n, Inc. v. Antonioli, No. 3D24-1077 (Fla. 3d DCA 2025) ↩
14. Orfanos v. 45 Ocean Condominium Ass'n, Inc., 368 So. 3d 995 (Fla. 4th DCA 2023) ↩
15. Cal. Civ. Code § 5605(b), regular assessment 20 percent and special assessment 5 percent limits ↩