Fla. Stat. 718.111 explained: official records, owner access and what a condo association must keep

Fla. Stat. 718.111 is the section of Florida's Condominium Act that defines the condominium association itself: its legal form, the duties of its officers and directors, its powers, insurance, financial reporting and, in subsection (12), the official records it must keep and open to owners. When people ask what a condo association must keep and what owners can see, the answer starts here.

This explainer is for condo board members, community association managers (CAMs) and owners who want to understand section 718.111 without reading all of it. It covers what each subsection does, the board's responsibilities, the 21 categories of official records and how long to keep them, owners' inspection rights and the damages for denying them, the records owners cannot see, and a practical way to keep records in order.

What does Florida Statute 718.111 cover?

Florida Statute 718.111 covers the association as an organization: how it is formed, who owes duties to owners, what it may do, what insurance it must carry, which records it keeps and how it reports its finances. Section 718.112 then fills in the bylaws, and other sections handle turnover, fines and regulation.

If you only need the short version, the table below summarizes the subsections boards consult most.

Our map of Florida condo law places section 718.111 within the rest of Chapter 718, including meetings, elections and building safety.

What does 718.111 say about the board of directors' responsibilities?

Section 718.111 says the officers and directors of a condominium association have a fiduciary relationship to the unit owners, and must act in good faith with the care an ordinarily prudent person would use in a similar position. That is the core of Florida Statute 718 board of directors responsibilities, and the rest of the section builds on it.

The specific duties and limits include these:

• Fiduciary relationship. Section 718.111(1)(a) makes officers and directors fiduciaries of the unit owners. It also bars officers, directors and managers from soliciting or accepting kickbacks, and knowingly doing so is a third-degree felony that requires removal from office.
• Recorded votes. Under section 718.111(1)(b), a director present at a meeting is presumed to agree with an action unless they vote against it or abstain, and each director's vote or abstention must be recorded in the minutes. Directors may not vote by proxy or secret ballot, except when electing officers.
• Standard of care and liability. Section 718.111(1)(d) requires good faith and ordinary prudence. A director is liable for monetary damages only if the breach is a crime, involves an improper personal benefit, or shows recklessness, bad faith, malicious purpose or wanton disregard of human rights, safety or property.
• Removal on criminal charges. An officer or director charged with certain crimes, such as theft of association funds or destroying records in furtherance of a crime, must be removed from office.
• Licensed managers only. Under section 718.111(3)(g), board members have a duty to confirm that a community association manager or management firm is properly licensed before contracting with it. The association may also not hire an attorney who represents its management company.
• Bonding and money handling. Section 718.111(11)(h) requires insurance or a fidelity bond covering everyone who controls or disburses funds, including the president, secretary and treasurer. Subsections (14) to (16) bar commingling association funds with personal funds, ban association debit cards, and require prudent investment of operating and reserve funds.

Which official records must a condo association keep under 718.111(12)?

A condo association must keep 21 categories of official records under section 718.111(12)(a), from the association's inception. Grouped by purpose, they look like this:

• Founding and governing documents. The developer's plans, permits and warranties; the recorded declaration and amendments; the recorded bylaws and amendments; a certified copy of the articles of incorporation and amendments; and the current rules.
• Meetings and voting. Minutes of all meetings of the association, the board, committees and owners, recordings of meetings held by video conference, and ballots, sign-in sheets, proxies and other voting records.
• People. A current roster of owners with mailing addresses, unit identifications and voting certifications, plus email addresses and fax numbers of owners who consented to electronic notice.
• Contracts and property. Current insurance policies, management agreements, leases and other contracts, bills of sale for association property, and bids for work, materials, equipment or services.
• Money. Accounting records, including itemized receipts and expenditures, bank statements, invoices, owner account statements, audits, reviews and financial reports, and structural integrity reserve studies.
• Building safety. Milestone inspection reports and any other structural or life-safety inspection reports, and copies of all building permits.
• Compliance paperwork and the rest. Rental records, the question and answer sheet, affirmative acknowledgments, director education certificates, required affidavits, and all other written records related to operating the association.

How long must condo records be kept?

Retention under section 718.111(12)(b) depends on the record.

• Permanently. The developer's plans and warranties, the declaration, bylaws, articles, current rules and meeting minutes must be kept permanently from inception. Where approved minutes exist for a video-conference meeting, the statute sets a floor for the recording itself: at least 1 year after it is posted on the website.
• 15 years. Structural integrity reserve studies and structural or life-safety inspection reports must be kept for 15 years.
• 7 years. All other official records must be kept within Florida for at least 7 years, unless general law says otherwise.
• 1 year. Bids must be kept for at least 1 year after receipt, and voting records for 1 year after the election, vote or meeting.

Records must be kept "in an organized manner that facilitates inspection" by an owner. If records are lost or destroyed, the association has a good-faith duty to obtain and recover them as far as reasonably possible.

What are owners' inspection rights under 718.111(12)(c)?

Under section 718.111(12)(c), any association member, or a person the member authorizes, may inspect and copy the official records at all reasonable times, and the association must make them available within 10 working days after receiving a written request. The owner does not have to give a reason.

The details are specific:

• Where. Records must be available within 45 miles of the condominium property or within the county where it is located, or electronically through the association's website or app, or on a screen with printing on request.
• No reason required. The association may set reasonable rules about frequency, time, location, notice and manner, but may not require a member to state a purpose.
• Copies and devices. Owners may make or obtain copies at reasonable expense, and may use a phone, tablet or portable scanner to copy records at no charge for the device.
• Renters. A tenant may inspect and copy only the declaration, bylaws, rules and inspection reports.
• Checklist. When it responds, the association must give the requester a checklist of the records made available and any that were not, and keep that checklist for 7 years. Delivering it creates a rebuttable presumption that the association complied.
• Posted records. If the requested records are posted on the association's website or app, the association may meet its duty by directing the requester there.

The consequences of missing the deadline are written into the statute. Failing to provide records within 10 working days creates a rebuttable presumption that the association willfully failed to comply. An owner denied access is entitled to actual damages or minimum damages of $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days, beginning on the 11th working day. A person prevailing in an enforcement action can recover reasonable attorney fees from the person in control of the records who knowingly denied access.

Criminal penalties apply to intentional conduct. A director, board member or CAM who willfully and knowingly or intentionally violates the inspection rule commits a second-degree misdemeanor and must be removed from office. Intentionally destroying or failing to keep accounting records to cause harm is a first-degree misdemeanor, and refusing to produce records to evade detection of a crime is a third-degree felony.

How to run a request from receipt to closing, day by day, is the subject of a guide listed as "Coming" in our guides library.

Which condo records are not available to owners?

Section 718.111(12)(c)5. lists records that are not accessible to unit owners even though they are official records. Boards must keep them, but must not hand them over or post them.

The protected categories are these:

• Privileged legal records. Records protected by attorney-client privilege or work-product privilege, including litigation strategy prepared for or in anticipation of litigation, until the litigation ends.
• Transfer approval information. Information obtained in connection with approving the lease, sale or other transfer of a unit.
• Personnel records. Disciplinary, payroll, health and insurance records of association or management company employees. Written employment agreements and records showing compensation are not protected.
• Medical records. Medical records of unit owners.
• Personal identifiers. Social Security, driver license and credit card numbers, email addresses, phone and fax numbers, emergency contacts and addresses other than those used for notice. An owner's name, unit, mailing address and property address are not protected.
• Security measures. Passwords and other electronic security measures that protect data.
• Software. The software and operating system the association uses, although the data in it is an official record.
• Affirmative acknowledgments. Acknowledgments made under section 718.121(4)(c).

These categories also govern the website. Section 718.111(12)(g)3. requires the association to keep restricted records off its site and to redact protected information from documents before posting them.

What else does Florida Statute 718.111 require?

Florida Statute 718.111 also adds duties that boards often overlook at the end of subsection (12) and in subsection (13).

• Question and answer sheet. Section 718.111(12)(d) requires the association to prepare the question and answer sheet described in section 718.504 and update it annually.
• Buyer and lender requests. Under section 718.111(12)(e), the association may charge a reasonable fee for good-faith responses to prospective purchasers or lienholders, capped at $150 plus reasonable photocopying costs and attorney fees.
• Handing over records. Under section 718.111(12)(f), an outgoing board or committee member must hand all official records and property to the incoming board within 5 days after the election.
• The website. Section 718.111(12)(g) requires associations managing condominiums with 25 or more units, other than timeshares, to post specified records online within 30 days, with a protected owners' section. Our condo website requirements guide covers that list, and our HOA and condo website examples show what compliant pages look like.
• Financial reporting. Section 718.111(13) requires an annual financial report within 90 days after the fiscal year ends, from a cash report under $150,000 in revenue up to audited statements at $500,000 or more.

How should a condo board keep its 718.111 records in order?

A condo board keeps its section 718.111 records in order by giving every record a category, a date, a retention period and an owner, and by deciding in advance who answers requests and who approves anything published. Six steps make that routine.

1. Inventory what you have. Gather records from the manager, past directors and storage, and sort them into the 21 statutory categories.
2. Date every record. Record when each document was received or created, because posting and retention clocks run from those dates.
3. Flag protected information. Mark rosters, personnel files and documents with personal identifiers so they are never posted or released without redaction.
4. Set retention rules. Apply the permanent, 15-year, 7-year and 1-year periods, and note where bylaws or other laws require longer.
5. Assign request handling. Name who logs written requests, who gathers records, who prepares the checklist and who is warned before day 10.
6. Keep a tamper-evident log. Record uploads, approvals, postings and responses with dates and names, so the association can show what happened if a request is ever disputed.

How CondoOS approaches 718.111 records

CondoOS by Sphere runs the statutory records website and owner portal for Florida condominiums and HOAs, and organizes records the way section 718.111 lists them. Through the Comply suite, each statutory category becomes a slot with a citation, a deadline and an owner, and the records-request clock counts 10 working days on the Florida state holiday calendar, with reminders on days 5, 8 and 9 and a board alert on day 9. If a requested record is already posted, the manager can answer with a link.

Uploads reach owners only after an authorized approver signs off, and files flagged for Social Security or bank account numbers are held until a reviewer confirms redaction. Every upload, approval, publication and request is appended to a hash-chained audit trail that exports as an evidence pack, as explained on our security page. CAMs see every association's records clocks in one queue, described on our community managers page, and the readiness score shows boards what is missing.

CondoOS gives no legal advice, its Florida rule packs are drafts until counsel approves them, and an evidence pack is a record of system activity, not a certification of compliance.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Fla. Stat. 718.111, The association (2026 Florida Statutes)
• Fla. Stat. 718.112, Bylaws (2026 Florida Statutes)
• HB 1021 (2024), Community Associations, chapter 2024-244, Florida Senate

This article is general information about Florida law, not legal advice. For a decision about your association, talk to a Florida-licensed attorney.