What should a new Florida condo board member do first?

Note your election or appointment date, read the governing documents, sign the written certification and give it to the secretary, complete the approved four-hour course, file both documents with the secretary, and record your issuance date. Certification is due within 90 days after election, and a course taken up to a year before also counts.

What are the two things a new condo director must submit?

Under Section 718.112(2)(d)5.b., a written certification that the director has read and will uphold the governing documents, plus a certificate of completing the approved four-hour course. Both are required; signing the written certification alone does not certify a director.

When does a new condo director owe the annual continuing-education hour?

Not in the first year. The 1-hour annual update starts one year after the director submits their written certification and educational certificate, and repeats each year after that.

Just elected to your condo board? Your first 90 days, step by step.

By Carlos Castellano · Current as of July 7, 2026

Congratulations, you were just elected or appointed to your condominium board. Your certification window is actually wider than an HOA director’s, but the requirement itself is bigger: it takes two documents, not one. This is the checklist of what to do in your first 90 days, in order.

Just need the checklist? Download our free one-page new-director checklist: every step below, with a box to tick off each one. There is also a separate print-and-sign written certification form for Step 3. No email required. Download the checklist (PDF).

How to read this article

BoardComply provides education and compliance tools, not legal advice. This article explains Florida law as we read it, with citations to the statutes. Where the law is unsettled we say so, and where regulators clarify a point we will update this article and note the change. For advice about your association’s specific situation, talk to a Florida community association attorney.

Step 1: Write down the day you were seated

Note the day you were elected or appointed. Under Section 718.112(2)(d)5.b., Florida Statutes, you must submit your certification within 90 days after that date, and a qualifying course you took up to one year before joining the board also counts. So the window opens early and closes 90 days after you are seated. Every deadline below is measured from your seating date, so write it down first. The full requirement is walked through in condo board certification after the 2024 and 2025 laws.

Step 2: Read the governing documents

Get the association’s declaration of condominium, the articles of incorporation, the bylaws, and the current written rules and policies, and read them. This is not just good practice for a condo director; it is the thing you are about to certify, in writing, that you have done. Do it before Step 3, not after.

Step 3: Sign the written certification and give it to the secretary

This is the document condo directors most often miss. Section 718.112(2)(d)5.b. requires you to certify in writing three things: that you have read the declaration, articles, bylaws, and current written policies; that you will work to uphold them to the best of your ability; and that you will faithfully discharge your fiduciary responsibility to the members. It goes to the secretary of the association. You can use your association’s own form or our free one, and the document itself is explained in the condo written certification, explained.

Step 4: Complete the approved four-hour course

The written certification is not a substitute for the course; both are required. You must complete the approved condominium director course, which is a four-hour curriculum, and it covers more ground than the HOA version: milestone inspections, structural integrity reserve studies, elections, recordkeeping, financial literacy and transparency, levying of fines, and notice and meeting requirements. The two building-safety topics are consequential enough that we wrote them up on their own in milestone inspections and SIRS, explained.

Step 5: File both documents with the secretary

The written certification and the educational certificate travel together. Both go to the secretary and into the association’s official records, where Section 718.112(2)(d)5.b. keeps them for 7 years after your election, or the length of your uninterrupted service, whichever is longer. Keeping them paired matters, because they share one expiration. The records side of this is in the board secretary’s job, explained.

Step 6: Record your issuance date and mind the continuity rule

Save the date your certificate was issued. Condo certification is valid for 7 years, but on one condition: you must serve without interruption. If you leave the board and return, the continuity breaks and you resubmit both documents on your way back in. Calendar the 7-year renewal from the issuance date, and renew before it lapses, for the same reason HOAs do, laid out in what to do when a board certificate is about to expire.

Step 7: Mark your annual one-hour update

Condo directors owe a small amount of continuing education every year, and its timing is precise. Starting one year after you submit your certification, and every year after that, you must complete at least 1 hour of continuing education on recent changes to Chapter 718 and its rules. You do not owe it in your first year; the clock starts on your first certification anniversary. The details are in the condo annual one-hour update.

What happens if you miss the window

A director who does not timely file the written certification and educational certificate is suspended from the board until he or she complies. Since July 1, 2025, the Division of Florida Condominiums has express authority to enforce this, so it is not an honor-system rule. But it is curable: complete the requirement, file the documents, and the suspension lifts. The full consequence is in what happens if a board member never certifies.

BoardComply’s Florida condo board certification course covers the full four-hour curriculum, including milestone inspections and structural integrity reserve studies, and issues a verifiable certificate when you finish, so Step 4 through Step 6 live in one place. See the condo training.