Board meetings and notices: the rules a Florida board runs on.

By Carlos Castellano · Current as of July 31, 2026

Three directors run into each other at the mailboxes and agree to hire the landscaper. Someone sends a group text, four people reply “yes,” and the contract gets signed. Both of those are ordinary, well-meant, and in Florida both of them are problems. Chapter 720 and Chapter 718 script the mechanics of a board meeting far more tightly than most directors realize, and the rules cover when a gathering becomes a meeting, how much warning owners get, who may talk, and how the vote has to be written down. Here is what the statutes actually say, for HOA and condominium boards.

What counts as a board meeting

The definition is broader than an agenda and a conference room. Section 720.303(2)(a), Florida Statutes, states it plainly: “A meeting of the board of directors of an association occurs whenever a quorum of the board gathers to conduct association business.” Nobody has to call it a meeting. No minutes have to be taken. If enough of you to make a decision are together and talking about association business, that is a meeting, and it was supposed to be noticed and open.

The condominium rule reaches the same place from the other direction. Section 718.112(2)(c) provides that “meetings of the board of administration at which a quorum of the members is present are open to all unit owners.” Same test, same consequence: quorum plus association business equals a meeting owners are entitled to attend.

Committees get pulled in too, and this is the part boards most often miss. Under Section 720.303(2)(a), the same open-meeting rules apply to any committee “when a final decision will be made regarding the expenditure of association funds” and to any body with power to approve or disapprove architectural decisions about a specific parcel. On the condominium side, Section 718.112(2)(c)4. covers meetings of a committee that takes final action on behalf of the board or makes budget recommendations to it. An architectural review committee that approves or denies a homeowner’s fence is holding a noticed, open meeting whether it thinks so or not.

Directors may email each other. They may not vote by email.

Both chapters carry the identical sentence, and it is the single rule boards break most often in good faith. Section 720.303(2)(a) and Section 718.112(2)(c) each provide that “members of the board of administration may use e-mail as a means of communication but may not cast a vote on an association matter via e-mail.”

Read it as two separate permissions. Discussing is allowed: circulate the proposal, forward the three bids, ask the treasurer a question. Deciding is not. An email thread where four directors say “approved” does not produce a valid board action, and it also skipped the notice the owners were owed. The same goes for a group text, a messaging app, or a chain of one-to-one calls that adds up to a quorum agreeing on something.

Directors are also limited in how they vote once they are at the meeting. Section 720.303(2)(c)3. provides that HOA directors “may not vote by proxy or by secret ballot at board meetings, except that secret ballots may be used in the election of officers.” A director who cannot attend cannot send a stand-in vote.

There is one narrow relief valve, and it belongs to condominiums. Under Section 718.112(2)(c)1., an item not included on the notice may be taken up on an emergency basis by a vote of at least a majority plus one of the board members, and that emergency action must then be noticed and ratified at the next regular board meeting. It is an exception for genuine emergencies, not a shortcut, and it still requires the directors to be in a meeting together.

If something truly cannot wait, the answer is a properly noticed special meeting, which both chapters allow on the ordinary posting timeline, or an emergency meeting under the emergency exceptions below. It is not a reply-all.

How much notice a board meeting needs

The headline number is the same in both chapters, and the details are not.

HOA: 48 hours posted, or 7 days mailed. Section 720.303(2)(c)1. requires that notices of all board meetings “specifically identify agenda items for the meetings and must be posted in a conspicuous place in the community at least 48 hours in advance of a meeting, except in an emergency.” The statute then gives an alternative most summaries leave out: “if notice is not posted in a conspicuous place in the community, notice of each board meeting must be mailed or delivered to each member at least 7 days before the meeting.” Communities with more than 100 members may use further alternatives in their bylaws, including a published schedule of board meetings or broadcast notice on closed-circuit cable, and any association may adopt a rule for posting the notice and agenda on its website or mobile application for the same minimum period.

Condo: 48 continuous hours posted. Section 718.112(2)(c)1. requires adequate notice of all board meetings, “which must specifically identify all agenda items,” posted conspicuously on the condominium property “at least 48 continuous hours before the meeting except in an emergency.” The word continuous is doing work: a notice taken down and put back up has not run for 48 continuous hours. If there is no condominium property where a notice can be posted, Section 718.112(2)(c)2. requires notices to be mailed, delivered, or electronically transmitted to each unit owner at least 14 days before the meeting instead.

In both chapters the notice has to name the agenda items. A notice that says only “board meeting, 7 p.m.” is not adequate notice of anything the board then decides.

When 48 hours is not enough

Two categories of business carry a 14-day notice instead, and this is where a board that meant well ends up with an action it has to redo.

HOA. Section 720.303(2)(c)2. is direct: “an assessment may not be levied at a board meeting unless the notice of the meeting includes a statement that assessments will be considered and the nature of the assessments.” Beyond that, written notice of any meeting at which special assessments will be considered, or at which amendments to rules regarding parcel use will be considered, must be mailed, delivered, or electronically transmitted to the members and posted conspicuously on the property not less than 14 days before the meeting. Note that this one is both, mailed and posted, not either.

Condo. Section 718.112(2)(c)1. requires the same 14-day mailed-and-posted notice for a meeting at which a nonemergency special assessment, or an amendment to rules regarding unit use, will be considered, and adds a paper trail: “evidence of compliance with this 14-day notice requirement must be made by an affidavit executed by the person providing the notice and filed with the official records of the association.” Section 718.112(2)(c)3. adds two content requirements. Notice of a meeting where regular or special assessments will be considered must specifically state that assessments will be considered and give “the estimated cost and description of the purposes for such assessments.” And if an agenda item is the approval of a contract for goods or services, a copy of the contract must go out with the notice or be made available for inspection on request or on the association’s website.

The practical rule for both: money and rules need two weeks. Routine business needs two days.

Who gets to attend, and who gets to speak

Owners have a statutory right to be in the room, and a narrower right to talk in it.

HOA. Section 720.303(2)(b) provides that members “have the right to attend all meetings of the board,” and that the right to attend “includes the right to speak at such meetings with reference to all designated items.” The association may adopt written reasonable rules on the frequency, duration, and manner of member statements, including a sign-up sheet, so long as those rules stay consistent with the statute.

Condo. Section 718.112(2)(c) gives unit owners the right to speak on all designated agenda items plus a right most HOA members do not have: the right to ask questions about the status of construction or repair projects, the status of revenues and expenditures during the current fiscal year, and other issues affecting the condominium. The same paragraph requires that at least four times each year the meeting agenda include an opportunity for members to ask questions of the board. In both chapters, an owner may tape record or videotape the meeting, subject to reasonable rules.

The three-minute rule is narrower than you have been told. Secondary summaries routinely say a Florida owner has three minutes to speak at any board meeting. The statutes are more specific than that. The guaranteed three minutes appears in two places: Section 720.303(2)(d), which gives each member at least 3 minutes on a matter placed on the agenda by member petition, and Section 720.306(6), which gives every member at least 3 minutes on any item at a meeting of the members. At an ordinary HOA board meeting, the right is to speak on designated agenda items, and the board’s reasonable rules set the length.

Two kinds of board business are not open at all. Both chapters exclude meetings between the board or a committee and the association’s attorney regarding proposed or pending litigation, and board meetings held to discuss personnel matters. Those are the only two exceptions, and the attorney exception is about litigation, not about having a lawyer in the room.

When 20 percent of the owners petition

Owners can put an item on your agenda whether the board wants it there or not. Under Section 720.303(2)(d), if 20 percent of the total voting interests petition the board to address an item of business, the board must take the item up on an agenda at its next regular board meeting or a special meeting, and in no case later than 60 days after receiving the petition. Notice of that meeting follows the 14-day requirement, and each member has the right to speak for at least 3 minutes on the petitioned item if they sign the sign-up sheet or submit a written request to speak beforehand. The board has to hear the item; it does not have to do what the petition asks.

Section 718.112(2)(c)1. gives condominium owners the same tool: 20 percent of the voting interests petitioning the board puts the item on the agenda at the next regular board meeting or a special meeting called for that purpose, within 60 days after receipt.

The minutes are part of the decision

Minutes are not a courtesy record. Section 720.303(3) requires minutes of all meetings of the members and of the board to be maintained in written form or a form that can be converted to writing, and adds a specific duty: “a vote or abstention from voting on each matter voted upon for each director present at a board meeting must be recorded in the minutes.” Not the tally. Each director, by name, on each matter.

Minutes are official records in both chapters, and how long you keep them differs sharply. An HOA keeps minutes at least 7 years; a condominium association maintains its minutes permanently, from the inception of the association. The full retention schedule, and the ten-day clock that starts when an owner asks to see any of it, are covered in what the law requires when a member asks to see the records.

One more scheduling duty that lives in the minutes: Section 720.303(2)(e) requires that at the first board meeting following the annual members meeting, excluding the organizational meeting, the board consider whether to file notices preserving the community’s covenants from extinguishment under the Marketable Record Title Act. Put it on that agenda every year.

How often the board has to meet

Chapter 718 sets a floor. Section 718.112(2)(c) requires that in a residential condominium association of more than 10 units, the board meet at least once each quarter, with the four annual member question opportunities described above. Chapter 720 sets no comparable minimum for HOA boards, so an HOA’s meeting frequency comes from its own bylaws. Either way, the annual meeting of the members below is separate and mandatory.

The annual meeting of the members

The board meeting rules above do not govern the annual meeting. That is a meeting of the owners, and it runs on its own set of numbers.

It is required, every year. Section 720.306(2) provides that an HOA “shall hold a meeting of its members annually for the transaction of any and all proper business at a time, date, and place stated in, or fixed in accordance with, the bylaws,” and that the election of directors, if one is required, is held at or in conjunction with it. Section 718.112(2)(d)1. requires an annual meeting of the unit owners, held where the bylaws say and, if the bylaws are silent, within 15 miles of the condominium property or in the same county.

Notice: 14 days, both chapters, with proof. For an HOA, Section 720.306(5) requires actual notice of all membership meetings, mailed, delivered, or electronically transmitted not less than 14 days before the meeting, and compliance is evidenced by an affidavit executed by the person giving notice and filed among the official records. For a condominium, Section 718.112(2)(d)4. requires that written notice of an annual meeting include an agenda, be mailed, hand delivered, or electronically transmitted to each unit owner at least 14 days before, and be posted conspicuously on the property at least 14 continuous days before, with an officer or manager providing an affidavit or a United States Postal Service certificate of mailing for the official records.

Quorum: the biggest gap between the two chapters. Unless the bylaws set a lower number, an HOA members meeting takes 30 percent of the total voting interests to reach a quorum, under Section 720.306(1)(a), and decisions requiring a member vote are made by a majority of the voting interests present in person or by proxy. A condominium starts far higher: under Section 718.112(2)(b)1., unless the bylaws provide a lower number, the quorum is a majority of the voting interests. Boards that struggle to make quorum should read their own bylaws first, because both statutes let the bylaws set a lower threshold than the default.

Proxies work differently. HOA members may vote in person or by proxy unless the governing documents say otherwise. A valid proxy must be dated, state the date, time, and place of the meeting it was given for, and be signed; it is good only for that meeting and its lawful adjournments, and it expires 90 days after the date of the original meeting. Residential condominium owners generally may not use a general proxy: Section 718.112(2)(b)2. requires limited proxies substantially conforming to the division’s form for the votes the chapter cares most about, including waiving or reducing reserves, waiving financial reporting, and amending the declaration, articles, or bylaws. Both kinds may be used to establish a quorum, and neither may be used to elect the board.

Special meetings and what the notice must say. Under Section 720.306(3), an HOA special meeting is called by the board or by at least 10 percent of the total voting interests unless the governing documents set a different percentage, and business at it is limited to the purposes described in the notice. Section 720.306(4) draws a useful distinction: notice of an annual meeting need not describe the purpose, but notice of a special meeting must.

Meeting by video conference. Section 718.112(2)(d)2. allows unit owner meetings, including the annual meeting, to be conducted in person or via video conference. If the annual meeting is held by video conference, a quorum of the board must be physically present at the physical location where owners can attend, and the video conference must be recorded with the recording kept as an official record. A board meeting held by video conference must say so in the notice and include a hyperlink and a conference telephone number alongside the physical address, and it too must be recorded and kept.

The election itself has its own calendar in a condominium, counted backward from election day, and it is the single most procedure-heavy thing a condo board does. That is covered separately in how Florida condo board elections work, step by step.

Getting it wrong, and fixing it

Neither chapter sets a fixed dollar penalty for a badly noticed meeting the way the records statutes set $50 a day. The exposure is different in kind: an action taken at a meeting that was not properly noticed is open to challenge, and an owner who is shut out of a meeting they had a right to attend has a real grievance and, in a condominium, a division that takes complaints. In practice the cost is usually the board having to redo the decision under proper notice, after an argument that damaged trust.

The cure is almost always the same, and it is cheap. Re-notice the item with the correct lead time, put it on a published agenda, take it up in an open meeting, and record each director’s vote in the minutes. A board that ratifies a hasty decision the right way is in a far better position than one that argues the shortcut was fine.

Five things to settle before your next meeting

• Pick the posting spot and write it down. Condo boards are required to designate one by rule under Section 718.112(2)(c)2. HOA boards should do the same, so “conspicuous place in the community” is never the argument.
• Write agendas that name the item. “Landscaping contract, approval of Green Lawn bid” is an agenda item. “Old business” is not.
• Flag the two-week items early. Any special assessment, and any rule about how owners may use their parcel or unit, needs 14 days of mailed and posted notice. Catch it when the item is proposed, not when the notice goes up.
• Decide how email is used. Circulating documents and asking questions is fine. Nobody types “approved.” Agree on that as a board once, in a meeting, and it stops being a judgment call later.
• Record votes by name. The secretary should be writing each director’s vote or abstention on each matter, every time, because Section 720.303(3) requires it and because it is the record that protects a director who voted no.

Notice and meeting requirements are one of the four topics the Florida HOA certification curriculum is required by statute to cover, which tells you how the legislature ranks it. For the duty that sits underneath every one of these procedures, see fiduciary duty for board members, explained, and for the one board action with its own separate notice and hearing track, see how to levy an HOA fine the right way.