Maintaining a community's appearance while protecting each owner's property rights often comes down to how well a Florida architectural review committee understands both its authority and its limits. We recently hosted a CEU course featuring Michael Toback of Siegfried Rivera, who guided board members and property managers through the rules governing how these committees operate.
This expert-led webinar examined how architectural committees are formed and appointed under Chapter 720 of the Florida Statutes, the standards for reviewing and denying owner requests, and how a separate fining committee operates alongside them.
Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes only. You will not receive credits for watching the recording. Credits were issued only to those that attended the course.
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An architectural committee reviews homeowner requests for exterior changes and improvements, with the goal of keeping those changes in line with the community's established standards. That consistency supports the harmonious appearance of the neighborhood and helps protect property values over time. Committees go by many names, including the architectural control committee (ACC), the architectural review committee (ARC), or the architectural review board (ARB), but they all serve the same purpose defined in a community's governing documents.
It is important to remember that this authority extends to the exterior of a property. Interior changes that are not visible from outside the home generally fall outside the committee's purview, while exterior work such as painting, driveways, fencing, and similar modifications is almost always subject to review.
Architectural control in homeowners associations is addressed in Section 720.3035 of the Florida Statutes, titled Architectural Control Covenants, Parcel Owner Improvements, Rights and Privileges. The statute confirms that a committee may enforce standards for exterior modifications, provided it does so reasonably and applies those standards equitably to all parcel owners. The key point is that this authority does not flow directly from the HOA Act itself. It exists only to the extent that it is specifically stated or reasonably inferred from the association's recorded governing documents.
For that reason, boards and managers should know exactly what their declaration and architectural review guidelines actually say before enforcing them. Communities with detailed, up-to-date documents are in a strong position, while those working from older documents may want to speak with counsel about amending them, since enforcing language that does not exist can lead to disputes and legal exposure.
“The statute, you know, gives you the ground rules and puts into place how this should work, but at the end of the day, we need to know what your respective set of governing documents states.” - Michael Toback, Siegfried Rivera
One of a board's powers in Florida homeowners' associations, usually found in the governing documents, is the ability to create, appoint, and remove committees. Architectural committee members are appointees rather than elected officials, which means the board can replace members at a properly noticed meeting if a committee is not functioning well. Most governing documents contemplate a committee of three or more members, and keeping the group small tends to produce clearer, more consistent decisions.
Committee members should be in good standing and reasonably knowledgeable about the community's standards, and members with relevant experience in construction or design can bring useful perspective. Board members are permitted to serve on the architectural committee, which distinguishes it from the fining committee discussed later. The goal is a committee whose members are engaged, attend meetings, and understand what the governing documents require.
Committee meetings are held to a standard similar to board meetings. They should be properly noticed and open to the members when decisions are being made, and minutes should be recorded and made available. Committee meeting minutes, applications, approvals, and denials are all official records of the association, and owners can request them, generally within ten business days.
A few procedural limits are worth keeping in mind. Members may communicate by email, but formal votes and final decisions should be made at properly noticed meetings rather than over email, and committee decisions cannot be made by proxy or secret ballot. Following clear formal procedures and published standards keeps the committee's actions transparent and defensible.
Standards must be applied uniformly. Approving one owner's request and then denying a nearly identical request from a neighbor, without a reasonable basis, can create selective enforcement and waiver problems. Governing documents usually set a timeframe for responding to an application, and a committee should never simply ignore a submission, because many documents treat a failure to respond as an automatic approval.
When a denial is warranted, it should be grounded in the governing documents and stated clearly. Written notice should identify the specific rule or covenant relied upon and the part of the proposal that does not conform, and offering the owner a compliant alternative, when one exists, often leads to a better outcome than a flat rejection. Clear, well-documented denials are far easier to defend if an owner later challenges the decision.
Recent changes to the statute have created gray areas around modifications that are not visible from a parcel's frontage, an adjacent parcel, a common area, or a community golf course. Before demanding an application or issuing a denial for something like a screened generator or a rear-yard shed that neighbors cannot see, it is wise to consult counsel. Separate provisions also require associations to adopt specifications for the color and style of hurricane protection, and a committee may not deny an application that conforms to those adopted specifications. An association may choose to be more stringent than the local code, but it cannot be less stringent.
Enforcement often involves a separate body, the fining committee, and the authority to levy fines must be established in the governing documents. The process typically begins with a courtesy violation notice from management, and if the issue is not cured, a second notice follows that levies a fine and sets a hearing date. Under the statute, a fine generally may not exceed $100 per violation or $1,000 in the aggregate, though the HOA Act allows a community's governing documents to set a different amount.
The most important distinction is independence. A fine is not valid until it is confirmed at a hearing, and that hearing goes before the fining committee rather than the board. The fining committee must have at least three members, and it cannot include any board members or their relatives, which is the opposite of the architectural committee. Its only role is to approve or reject the fine after giving the owner a chance to be heard, which is the core of the committee's due process function, since the board has already determined whether a violation exists.
“The fine hearing does not go before the board. I want to be very clear on that. It doesn't go before the board; it goes before the fining committee, that's been appointed by the board. That committee is prohibited from having any board members on it.” - Michael Toback, Siegfried Rivera
Many governing documents set a review deadline, often around thirty days, and treat a failure to respond within it as an approval. That clock usually does not start until a complete application, including all required plans and supporting documents, has been received.
Recusal makes sense when a member's relationship with an applicant is close enough that they cannot be fully impartial, and the member should explain why they are stepping aside. A casual acquaintance does not automatically require recusal, since committee members often know many people in their community.
Architectural disputes are subject to pre-suit mediation under Florida law, and skipping that step can be costly. An association that refuses to mediate may lose the right to recover prevailing-party attorney fees even if it later prevails in court.
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Ashley Dietz is the VP of Marketing at Campbell Property Management and has led the company’s educational and marketing initiatives since 2013. A Florida Atlantic University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in communications, Ashley specializes in community association education, digital outreach, and industry engagement for Florida HOAs and condominiums.