Notice of Late Assessment — 30 days. Sent by first-class mail to the owner's last address in the association's records and, if that differs from the unit or parcel address, by first-class mail there as well. Deemed delivered on mailing.

Notice of Intent to Record a Claim of Lien — 45 days. Sent by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, and by first-class mail, to the same two addresses. No lien may be recorded until the 45 days have run.

Notice of Intent to Foreclose — 45 days. The statute titles this form DELINQUENT ASSESSMENT, which trips people up when they go looking for it.

Condominiums and HOAs therefore run a minimum of about 120 days of notice before a foreclosure judgment. Cooperatives run 75, because Chapter 719 has no pre-foreclosure notice at all.

You lose attorney fees. The statute is specific: an association may not require payment of attorney fees related to a past due assessment without first delivering a written notice of late assessment. The trigger is fees, not collection generally.

One useful evidentiary provision for condominiums: a rebuttable presumption that the notice was mailed is established by a sworn affidavit from a board member, officer, agent, or a licensed community association manager attesting to the mailing. Get the affidavit at the time, not two years later.

No lien may be recorded until the 45 days have run. What the statutes do not say is what happens if an association records one anyway — none of them contains an express voiding provision. That gap is real, and a page that says so plainly is more useful than one that asserts a consequence the statute does not provide.

Note the timing runs from mailing, not receipt, even though the statutory form text says "within 45 days after your receipt of this letter." The HOA statute is explicit that the period runs 45 days following the date the notice is deposited in the mail.

More than you would expect, and the difference is procedural rather than cosmetic.

Condominiums: the bar is on entry of judgment — no foreclosure judgment may be entered until at least 45 days after the association gives notice of its intention to foreclose. Delivery is lighter here than for the pre-lien notice: hand delivery, or certified or registered mail return receipt requested. The penalty for skipping is fee-shifting rather than jurisdictional: if the notice was not given 45 days before the action was filed and the owner pays before final judgment, the association recovers no attorney fees or costs. Two carve-outs apply — the requirement is satisfied if the owner records a notice of contest of lien, and it does not apply where a mortgage foreclosure is pending, the association's rights would be affected, and service has been made.

HOAs: the bar is on bringing the action. Delivery uses the heavier registered or certified plus first-class method. And there is an express sequencing rule — the pre-foreclosure notice may not be given until the pre-lien 45 days have already run. The two periods are consecutive, not concurrent. Section 720.3085(5) states no express penalty for non-compliance.

Interest at the rate in the declaration, not exceeding the rate allowed by law; if the declaration is silent, 18 percent per year by default. That default needs no authorization.

An administrative late fee of up to the greater of $25 or 5 percent of each delinquent installment — but only if provided by the declaration or bylaws. Unlike the interest default, the late fee requires authorization. Associations charging it without a document provision are charging it without authority.

One difference worth knowing: Chapter 720 expressly prohibits compound interest, and specifies simple interest at 18 percent. That prohibition was added in 2024. The words "compound interest" do not appear in s. 718.116 at all, so condominiums have no parallel express provision.

No, and this is the most useful provision in the section for a board.

Payments must be applied first to interest, then to any administrative late fee, then to costs and reasonable attorney fees incurred in collection, and then to the delinquent assessment. For condominiums the statute overrides the alternatives explicitly — the order applies notwithstanding s. 673.3111, any purported accord and satisfaction, or any restrictive endorsement, designation or instruction placed on or accompanying a payment.

So the "paid in full" notation on a check that covers only the assessment does not work. The money goes to interest first, and the owner remains delinquent.

The description of the parcel or unit, the name of the record owner, the name and address of the association, the amount due, and the due dates. It must be executed and acknowledged by an officer or authorized agent of the association.

An owner may record and serve one. Once served, the association has 90 days to file suit to enforce the lien or the lien is void. For condominiums, service of a notice of contest also satisfies the pre-foreclosure notice requirement.

Partly. Chapter 719 has the 30-day and 45-day pre-lien notices, the same 18 percent default and $25-or-5-percent late fee, the same payment application order, and the same one-year lien expiration. It has no pre-foreclosure notice and no first mortgagee safe harbor. Both are meaningful gaps.

The statutes are silent. Sections 718.116, 719.108 and 720.3085 neither authorize nor prohibit acceleration — the words do not appear. Whether your association can accelerate turns on the declaration and on case law, so ask counsel rather than assuming. What the statutes do provide is a functional substitute: the recorded lien automatically picks up assessments accruing after recording.

No Florida statute requires a condominium, cooperative or homeowners' association to offer or accept one. HOAs face a related but different mechanism: after service of a foreclosure summons a parcel owner may file a qualifying offer, which automatically stays the action for up to 60 days. It is available once only, before judgment, and is unavailable where a mortgage foreclosure or tax certificate sale is pending, the owner is in bankruptcy, or trial is within 30 days. Condominiums and cooperatives have no equivalent.

Very little. Section 718.116 was last amended in 2023. The 2024 condominium bill touched s. 718.121 only with a conforming cross-reference. The 2024 HOA bill added the compound-interest prohibition to s. 720.3085. The 2025 condominium bill did not amend any of these sections, and the 2026 session produced no changes.