Enforcing a community's rules can quickly expose a board to legal risk, which is why the HOA and condo fining process is one of the most procedure-heavy responsibilities a Florida community takes on. We recently hosted a CEU course featuring Dan Wasserstein of Wasserstein, P.A., who instructed licensed community association managers on how to levy and impose a fine correctly and what to do once it is in place.
This educational webinar examined the full enforcement process for both HOAs and condominiums, from the first violation notice through the board vote, the independent committee hearing, and the limited options for collecting a fine once it is imposed. Attendees learned how Florida Statutes 718.303 and 720.305, along with the 2024 changes under House Bill 1203, now shape every step.
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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The HOA and condo fining process is a mandatory, multi-step procedure that no association can shortcut, no matter how clear the violation seems. Every owner, tenant, and guest is bound by the community's governing documents and by Florida law, and fining is one of the tools a board uses to compel compliance when someone ignores those obligations. There is no express-lane fine for a particularly frustrating violation, since the statute offers no exception that lets a board skip the required steps.
Compliance runs to more than a single rulebook. Residents must follow the declaration, the bylaws, and the rules and regulations adopted by the board, as well as the Florida statutes that govern their community type. In practice, most violations trace back to the declaration and the board-adopted rules rather than the articles of incorporation or bylaws, which tend to be procedural setup documents.
A handful of categories account for most fines. The most frequent involve architectural changes made without approval, pet rules tied to size, breed, leashing, or noise, leasing and sales made without the required consent, parking and vehicle restrictions, and ongoing nuisance or noise complaints. Support-animal accommodations can limit how pet rules apply, though even an approved animal must still be leashed, cleaned up after, and kept from becoming a nuisance to neighbors.
“Each one of your owners, tenants, guests, they all have to be in compliance with your governing documents. No one gets a free pass.” - Dan Wasserstein, Wasserstein, P.A.
Rule enforcement is a duty the board of directors owes the entire community, and it has to be applied the same way to everyone. An association can only act on violations it actually knows about, so no board is expected to catch every stray car or unleashed dog. Once it does know, though, it must enforce evenly, since treating one owner differently from another in the same situation hands that owner a ready defense.
Two habits protect a board more than any other. Enforcing uniformly defeats the selective-enforcement argument, and enforcing promptly prevents the slow erosion of the association's rights. Letting a known violation sit for too long can forfeit the ability to act on it at all, so a steady, even hand is far safer than sporadic crackdowns.
Condominiums operate under Chapter 718 and Florida Statute 718.303, while homeowners associations follow Florida Statute 720.305, and the two frameworks have drifted apart. House Bill 1203, effective in 2024, added restrictions that apply only to homeowners associations, not condominiums. An HOA cannot fine an owner for leaving trash receptacles out within 24 hours before or after collection, and it cannot fine for holiday decorations left up past a deadline without first sending a notice and allowing one more week to take them down.
The Florida HOA fining process and its condo counterpart both begin the same way, with a potential violation reaching the association and a board meeting where the fine is formally levied. Getting these early steps right matters, because everything that follows depends on a clean, well-documented start.
Most potential violations first reach the association through community association management, whether a manager is conducting routine property rounds or a resident reports a problem. Before any letter goes out, the violation should be confirmed firsthand, since reports are sometimes exaggerated or simply wrong. Including a time-stamped photo in the violation notice is a practical safeguard, because it is far harder for an owner to deny a documented condition, and many violations can be moved or hidden within hours.
A voluntary courtesy letter giving the owner a chance to cure is common, though nothing in the statute requires one before fining begins. The first mandatory step is a properly noticed board meeting, held on at least 48 hours' notice, with fining placed on the agenda and each fined owner identified by unit, lot, or name in the minutes. A one-time violation carries a maximum fine of $100, while an ongoing violation can accrue at $100 per day up to a $1,000 cap, and an HOA may raise those figures only by amending its governing documents.
Levying a fine at a board meeting does not make it enforceable, because Florida law requires a second, independent review before an association can collect a dime. This two-step design is not an appeal that an owner has to request, but a built-in checkpoint the board must clear every time.
The fine next moves to the fining committee, an independent body the statute requires before any fine takes effect. Its members cannot be officers, directors, employees, or their relatives, and at least three of them must actually hear the case rather than merely form a quorum. The committee's authority is narrow, limited to confirming or rejecting the fine exactly as the board set it, with no power to raise it, lower it, or extend the deadline, and its decision must be voted on and recorded in the meeting rather than settled privately afterward.
The owner must receive at least 14 days' notice of the committee hearing, and in an HOA that hearing has to occur within 90 days of the notice. Once the committee confirms the fine, a determination letter follows, with a condo payment due no sooner than five days from the notice, while an HOA must send the letter within seven days of the hearing and set payment at least 30 days out. The sharpest divide appears here, since an HOA owner who cures the violation at any point before the fine is imposed cannot be charged at all, a cure exception that does not exist in the condo fining process.
“It's also deterrent. And punishment because when we do things wrong, if I speed down the highway and I get caught. The fine and the dollar amount is what disincentivizes me to do it again.” - Dan Wasserstein, Wasserstein, P.A.
A confirmed fine is often easier to impose than to collect, and the statutes deliberately limit how far an association can push. Understanding those limits helps a board decide when a fine is worth pursuing and when another remedy will work better.
Condominium fines can never become a lien on the unit, regardless of the amount, and an HOA fine can support a lien only once it reaches the $1,000 aggregate. A lawsuit over a few hundred dollars rarely makes sense, so most fines simply sit on the owner's ledger until the unit is sold or leased, where they surface on the estoppel certificate and finally get paid.
When a fine stays unpaid for more than 90 days, the board can vote to suspend the owner's use of common amenities and, in many cases, voting rights. Suspending amenity access tends to be the most effective lever, since owners who shrug off a ledger balance still care about the pool, the gym, and the clubhouse. In an HOA, an owner carrying an unpaid fine also becomes ineligible to run for the board until the balance is resolved.
Several rights stay off-limits no matter how large the fine. An association cannot cut off access to and from a unit, shared utilities such as water and electricity, or an owner's right to park, and internet and cable are increasingly treated as utilities rather than amenities, which makes shutting them off risky. Fines are rarely the only tool a board has, and associations often pair them with other remedies such as towing or booting for parking violations, since the available remedies are not mutually exclusive.
Even a well-run fine can be challenged, and the same handful of defenses come up again and again. Knowing them in advance helps a board build a record that holds up rather than scrambling to defend one later.
Selective enforcement is the first argument most owners reach for, and it only succeeds when three conditions line up. The other situation must be the same type of violation, it must be recent rather than something overlooked years ago, and the association must have actually known about it. A hidden or long-past violation elsewhere in the community does not excuse a current, visible one.
Waiver and the statute of limitations are close cousins that both turn on delay. Courts generally disfavor waiver, and many governing documents include a savings clause stating that a failure to enforce is not a surrender of the right to do so. The statute of limitations is the stronger defense, because governing documents are treated as contracts in Florida and carry a five-year window to enforce, after which an owner who admits the violation may still escape it.
Procedural missteps are the most common and most avoidable defense of all. Florida case law treats the fining procedure as strict, and even a small slip, such as giving 13 days' notice instead of 14, has been enough to void a fine on appeal despite causing no real harm. Attorneys reviewing a contested fine will ask to see the meeting notice, the agenda, the minutes identifying the owner and amount, the committee notice and minutes, and the determination letter, and any gap can unravel the whole effort.
“You have to properly notice a board meeting, do a 14-day notice, have a committee meeting, send a letter, and then there's all these timeframes that are applicable.” - Dan Wasserstein, Wasserstein, P.A.
The associations that enforce their rules successfully are rarely the ones that fine the fastest or the hardest. They are the ones that treat community association rule enforcement as a disciplined, well-documented process, verifying each violation, following every notice and deadline to the letter, and respecting the narrow role of the independent committee. Handled that way, a fine stops being a liability waiting to be challenged and becomes what it was meant to be, a fair and credible deterrent that protects property values and keeps the community's standards intact for every owner who lives by them.
Yes, by using a clean-slate process rooted in the Chattel Shipping case. The board passes a resolution setting a date for strict enforcement going forward, grandfathers the existing violations, and can then enforce the rule consistently against anyone who violates it after that date.
A single credible complaint can be enough, though corroboration makes a far stronger case. Noise and nuisance issues are easier to prove when the affected resident captures recordings from inside their own unit or several neighbors provide statements, which counters the common claim that a problem was exaggerated or never happened.
Yes, especially when the governing documents give the association approval rights over leases, a board can refuse to approve a renewal for a tenant who is perpetually in violation. Even without explicit approval language, the association can notify the owner that continuing to house a repeatedly violating tenant puts the owner in violation of the documents.
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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.