Florida HOA Committees Webinar
Well-structured Florida HOA committees give boards a practical way to share the workload, involve residents, and make decisions that hold up under scrutiny. We recently hosted a CEU course featuring Laura Manning-Hudson from Siegfried Rivera, who walked board members and property managers through how committees should be formed, governed, and kept compliant under Chapter 720.
This detailed webinar examined the committees addressed in the Homeowners' Association Act, from architectural control to budget and finance. It also took a closer look at the fining committee, including its independence requirements and the due process owners are owed before a fine can stand.
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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Key Takeaways
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Set It in Writing: Committees should be created at a properly noticed board meeting, with their purpose recorded in a resolution or the minutes, which keeps members protected and their actions within a defined scope of authority.
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Some Meetings Must Be Open: When a committee decides on spending or architectural approvals for a specific parcel, its meetings need proper notice, must stay open to members, and follow the same quorum rules that apply to the board.
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The Fining Committee Stands Alone: This committee must have at least three members who are not on the board and not related to any director, and its only role is to confirm or reject the fines the board has already levied.
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Committees Serve the Board: Advisory committees make recommendations rather than binding decisions, and the board keeps the power to appoint, oversee, remove, or disband them as the community's needs change.
What Committees Does Chapter 720 Recognize?
Chapter 720, the Florida Homeowners' Association Act, names only a handful of committees directly, yet most communities run several more to spread the work and keep residents engaged. Understanding which committees the statute contemplates, and how their powers differ, is the starting point for using them well.
Committees Named in the Statute
The Act specifically discusses the architectural committee and the fines and suspensions committee, and it addresses budget or finance committees only to the extent they make decisions about association funds. Beyond those, communities commonly form social committees, welcome committees, safety and landscape committees, and even a pickleball or tennis committee. What a board may create is guided by the governing documents and by how involved the membership wants to be.
Voting Versus Advisory Committees
The distinction that matters most is between voting committees and advisory ones. A voting committee is authorized to make binding decisions, such as an architectural committee ruling on a specific parcel, while an advisory committee gathers information and reports recommendations back to the board. The board always retains ultimate responsibility and oversight, no matter how much day-to-day work a committee handles.
Forming Committees the Right Way
How a committee is created has everything to do with whether it functions smoothly and whether its members are protected when a dispute arises. Two habits do most of the work: defining the scope and putting it in writing.
Setting and Recording the Scope
Committees should be established at a properly noticed board meeting, and the board should define the committee's scope, its authority, and its limits in a written resolution or, at a minimum, in the meeting minutes. That record also names the members. If a group created to run a pickleball tournament instead sends a member out to hire a vendor to resurface the courts, that action falls outside its mandate. When the work genuinely changes, the board should reset the scope at another meeting so the committee stays on solid ground.
Liability and Insurance Protection
Scope is not a formality, because a committee member's protection depends on it. Directors and officers insurance policies carried by most Florida homeowners' associations cover committee members only when they act within the scope of their authority, so a member who steps outside it can lose coverage or indemnification if a claim follows. Compensation for serving on a committee is prohibited, just as it is for serving on the board.
“Very important when we're establishing the committees that we set the scope, and it should be memorialized in a board resolution, or at the very least, in minutes.” - Laura Manning-Hudson, Siegfried Rivera
When Committee Meetings Must Be Open
Not every committee gathering is a formal meeting, but many are, and treating them casually is where associations get into trouble. The trigger is what the committee is deciding.
Notice, Quorum, and Voting Rules
Under Section 720.303, a committee deciding on the expenditure of funds or architectural approval for a specific parcel must give 48 hours' notice and stay open to all members, following the same meeting and quorum standards that apply to the board itself. A quorum of the members present constitutes a meeting of the committee. The same discipline applies inside the room: no decisions by secret ballot, and every member votes out loud.
Email, Closed Sessions, and Compensation
Committees whose work does not touch funds or architectural approvals, like a purely social or recreational group, generally are not bound by those notice provisions unless the governing documents say otherwise. Members may email one another to share information, but binding decisions belong at a properly noticed meeting rather than in an inbox. A legal or construction-defect committee meeting with the association's counsel about pending or threatened litigation is closed, exactly as a board would be in the same situation.
The Architectural Control Committee
Architectural control is governed by Section 720.3035, and it exists to preserve the aesthetic harmony of the community, which in turn helps protect property values. Architectural review committees evaluate owner requests for exterior changes and operate with authority delegated by the board and the governing documents.
Who Can Serve
Membership is flexible. An architectural committee may be made up of board members, non-board owners, or a mix, since there is no statutory restriction on who serves; any limits would come from the governing documents. That openness is a key contrast with the fining committee discussed below.
Selective Enforcement and Waiver
The most frequent disputes come down to consistency. Standards must be applied uniformly to every parcel owner and approving one owner's request while denying a neighbor's nearly identical one invites two powerful defenses. Selective enforcement arises when owners are treated differently on the same specific issue, and waiver is the relinquishment of a known right, such as ignoring a violation the association was aware of. Both come up constantly in enforcement cases.
Special Situations
When a denial is warranted, written notice must identify with specificity the rule or covenant the association relied upon, which is far easier to do when published guidelines clearly state what is and is not allowed. Recent statutory changes have also created gray areas around modifications that cannot be seen from a neighboring parcel, a common area, or a golf course, and associations must adopt hurricane protection specifications and cannot deny an application that conforms to them. Since these provisions do not apply the same way to every community, checking with association counsel before enforcing them is the prudent move.
Inside the Fining Committee
The fining and suspension process is governed by Section 720.305, and here independence is not optional. This is the one committee the statute requires whenever an association wants to levy fines or suspend use rights.
An Independent Body
The fining committee must be completely separate from the board. Its members cannot be directors, cannot be relatives or spouses of directors, and cannot be employees or members of management. There must be at least three members, and their sole function is to confirm or reject a fine or suspension the board has already imposed. Years ago some committees tried to raise or lower the board's fines, and the legislature responded by limiting the committee strictly to a thumbs up or thumbs down. If the committee rejects a fine, the board cannot override that decision.
“Those committee members are required to be completely independent from the board. They cannot be related to board members; they cannot be members of management or employees of the association.” - Laura Manning-Hudson, Siegfried Rivera
The Fining and Suspension Process
A fine or suspension levied by the board does not take effect until the committee confirms it, and the owner is entitled to written notice and a hearing. The owner must receive at least 14 days' notice of the hearing, which has to be held within 90 days of the notice and can be rescheduled at the owner's request as long as it stays inside that window. If the committee upholds the fine, it must send written findings within 7 days, and when the violation can be cured, the notice must give the owner a date to fix it, with any fine payable no sooner than 30 days after delivery. A fine may not be imposed at all if the violation is cured before the hearing.
Limits, Liens, and Recordkeeping
A few boundaries are worth remembering. The statute bars fines for a garbage can left out less than 24 hours before or after collection, or for holiday decorations unless they remain up more than a week past what the documents allow. Fines under $1,000 cannot become a lien on the parcel, which affects how they sit on an owner's ledger and why accurate recordkeeping matters if the account is ever turned over for collection. The point of the process is compliance, not revenue.
“These fining and suspension committees are not intended to be revenue-driven. The intent is to enforce the declaration of restrictive covenants and keep the property values up.” - Laura Manning-Hudson, Siegfried Rivera
Advisory Committees and Ongoing Oversight
The committees that carry no formal authority still do meaningful work, and the board's job is to keep them productive and accountable.
Budget and Finance Committees
Budget and finance committees are not spelled out in the statute, but they are valuable when a board wants help drafting and reviewing the annual budget, evaluating reserves, or figuring out how to fund a major project without raising assessments. Pulling members into that work also reinforces the transparency that residents appreciate. These and other advisory groups hold no voting power; they exist to improve engagement and bring recommendations back to the board.
Board Oversight and Removal
Committees serve at the pleasure of the board, which can appoint members, monitor performance, and remove members or disband a committee when needed. Meetings that involve funds or architectural approvals must be noticed and open, and their minutes become official records of the association, just like those of a board meeting. Consulting legal counsel before acting remains the safest course, and an experienced management partner can help boards keep every committee compliant and running smoothly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can we use an advisory panel instead of a committee?
Calling a group an advisory panel does not change what it is. If it researches issues and makes recommendations without voting, it is simply an advisory committee, so the board should form it, set its scope, and staff it accordingly.
Does a bylaw review committee need notice and minutes?
Not unless your governing documents require notice for committees. Because a bylaw review committee only proposes recommendations and does not spend funds or decide architectural matters, formal notice and minutes are not required.
Can the chair of the architectural committee be a board member?
Yes. There is no legal prohibition, and some continuity between the board and the architectural committee can be helpful, though the governing documents control whether a board member is required to hold the role.
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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.
