The new violations on the schedule

The proposal adds penalty line items that do not exist in the current guidelines. They map closely onto the obligations created in 2025 and 2026:

• “718.501(2) and (3), F.S. — Failure of the board to create and maintain an online account with the division”
• “718.112(2)(d)5., F.S. — Failure to complete board member education requirements”
• “718.3027(1), (2), (4), F.S. — Failure to properly disclose a conflict of interest”
• “718.3027(4), F.S. — Failure to recuse due to a conflict of interest”
• “718.111(3)(g), F.S. — … failure to contract with a licensed community association manager or a community association management firm”
• “718.3026(1), F.S. — Failure to obtain competitive bids on contracts that exceed five percent of the association's budget”

Two definitions that would reach further than they look

Aggravating circumstances expressly include “failure to comply with a lawfully issued subpoena of the division” and “failure to reasonably cooperate with the division during an investigation.” How an association responds to an inquiry would itself become a penalty factor.

“Repeat violation” would reach across board turnover. A violation counts as a repeat if “at least one member of the board who served at the time of the prior violation continues to serve” — or, failing that, if the new violation occurs within one year. A new board that retains one holdover director inherits the association's disciplinary history.

The enforcement trend this sits inside

The proposal is not an isolated initiative. Three things moved in the same direction over the past eighteen months.

Complaints. DBPR's own published figures for condominium complaints received: 1,464 in FY 2020/21; 1,598 in FY 2021/22; 2,383 in FY 2022/23; 2,678 in FY 2023/24; and 3,863 in FY 2024/25. That is a 164 percent increase over four years.²

Staffing. “The 2025-2026 General Appropriations Act appropriated the Department 10 new positions to conduct investigations on the Division's areas of jurisdiction.”

Jurisdiction. As of 1 July 2025 the Division's list of post-turnover subject areas expressly includes “the procedural completion of a structural integrity reserve studies and milestone inspections,” “completion of repairs required by a milestone inspection,” “board member education requirements,” conflicts of interest “including kickbacks,” removal of a director or officer, and the fidelity-bond and insurance requirement.

The Division describes its own current posture as taking “a business-friendly approach by educating the association and requiring corrective action,” adding that “oftentimes and for repeat violations, the Division may issue civil penalties against the association.” The citation rule is what would make that second sentence routine rather than exceptional.

A separate criminal exposure most coverage missed

Section 25 of HB 913 amended s. 914.21(3) so that “official investigation” now includes an investigation instituted by “the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.”

The consequence is that tampering with a witness, victim or informant under s. 914.22, or tampering with physical evidence, in a Division investigation is now a crime. This is the sharpest enforcement tool the 2025 act created, and it has been almost entirely absent from trade coverage.

What a board can do while the rule is pending

1. Check the registered agent on Sunbiz. This is the highest-value five minutes available. A citation served on a stale agent becomes a final order in 30 days without the board ever seeing it.
2. Confirm the Division online account is populated, since a line item for that failure is on the proposed schedule and the data deadline has already passed.
3. Verify director certification against the approved-provider list, for the same reason.
4. Check the competitive-bid threshold. Section 718.3026(1) requires competitive bids above five percent of the budget; s. 468.4335 separately requires multiple bids where a possible manager conflict involves a bid over $2,500.
5. Treat correspondence from the Division as time-sensitive by default. Under the proposal, cooperation is a mitigating factor and its absence an aggravating one.

What to watch next

Whether the rule is adopted, and in what form — the comment period closed on 21 August 2026 and nothing has been published since. Note also what is not moving: Rule 61B-22.005, the reserve rule that would implement SIRS funding, is still in rulemaking with a Notice of Change published the same day as this proposal, and the rule in force dates from 2002. The Division is building its penalty machinery and its substantive rulebook at the same time, and the penalty machinery is further along.