Florida HOA Lawyer Blog
A couple of years ago we saw the Florida state legislature add teeth to Florida’s condo and HOA laws governing theft, fraud, abuse and conflicts of interest. Recently, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the state agency that governs community associations, followed suit by implementing harsher civil disciplinary guidelines for condominium association infractions.
The new guidelines detail the civil penalties and disciplinary procedures for violations of the Condominium Act and the Florida Rules of Administrative Procedure involving accounting records, assessments, boards, budgets, common expenses, conflicts of interest, debit cards, elections, estoppel certificates, final orders, fiduciary duty, investigations, records requests, financial reporting, reserves, special assessments and websites.
For minor violations, the disciplinary guidelines call for the agency’s Division of Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes to issue the association with a written Notice of Noncompliance “due to the violation’s lower potential for public harm.” If the association fails to comply with the stipulations called for in the Notice, it could result in sanctions and enforcement with monetary penalties being imposed in amounts between $5 and $10 per unit for each violation. The maximum penalty for minor violations is $2,500, for a single minor violation.
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