Owners have statutory records rights now. The developer-controlled board cannot waive or reduce reserves in a condominium, and during developer control assessments may not exceed 115% of the prior year without approval of a majority of all voting interests. Both are enforceable while you are still a minority.

Condominiums: once non-developer owners hold 15% or more of the units, they elect at least one-third of the board. HOAs: once 50% of parcels in all phases are conveyed, members elect at least one director, with no waiting period. This is a director's seat, with a director's access.

Track the conveyance count independently. Understand the denominator. For condominiums, note that bulk transfers — including units taken through foreclosure or deed in lieu — count as conveyances unless accompanied by a written assignment of all developer rights and existing obligations.

For condominiums, s. 718.301(2) requires the association to call the election within 75 days of the entitlement arising, with not less than 60 days' notice. If the association will not do it, any unit owner may give the notice. That self-help right is the most useful and least known remedy in the section.

The statutory document list, the audit, the turnover inspection reports for condominiums, and the immediate administrative work: bank signatories, registered agent, domain and portal control, and a dated written demand that puts non-delivery on the record.

Independent engineering and reserve review, the defect timing analysis, contract cancellation decisions, the first owner-controlled budget, and the compliance reset. Most of the money is decided here.

It depends on which chapter governs you, and the two are structured very differently.

Condominiums, s. 718.301(1). Control passes on the first to occur of seven events: three years after 50% of the units that will ultimately be operated by the association have been conveyed; three months after 90% have been conveyed; when all such units are complete, some conveyed, and none of the others offered for sale in the ordinary course; when some have been conveyed and none of the others are being constructed or offered for sale in the ordinary course; when the developer files a bankruptcy petition; when a receiver is appointed and not discharged within 30 days; or under the seven-year backstop in paragraph (g).

HOAs, s. 720.307(1). Six events, and no time-based backstop at all: three months after 90% of the parcels in all phases have been conveyed to members other than the developer; another percentage or date if the governing documents set one to satisfy a mortgage-financing entity; developer abandonment; a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition; loss of title through foreclosure or deed in lieu; or an undischarged receiver.

Two details worth pinning. The HOA bankruptcy trigger is Chapter 7 only — a Chapter 11 reorganization does not trigger HOA turnover, and published summaries flatten this constantly. And the abandonment trigger carries a rebuttable presumption: two years of unpaid assessments or guarantee amounts.

Condominiums have one. HOAs do not.

Under s. 718.301(1)(g), control passes seven years after the earlier of the recording of the surveyor and mapper certificate under s. 718.104(4)(e), or the recording of an instrument transferring title to a unit that is not accompanied by a recorded assignment of developer rights. Note what it does not run from: the recordation of the declaration. That was the pre-2008 rule and it is still widely republished. For an association that will operate more than one condominium, the clock is keyed to the first condominium it operates, which is the anti-stalling feature.

Chapter 720 has nothing comparable. Every HOA trigger is event-conditioned. If a developer never conveys 90% of the parcels in all phases, never abandons, never files Chapter 7, never loses title and no receiver is appointed, statutory majority control is never compelled. That asymmetry is the single most important structural fact about HOA turnover.

Condominiums: everything is due simultaneously with relinquishment of control. Only paragraph (c) — the financial records and the independent CPA audit — gets up to 90 days. The list at s. 718.301(4) runs from (a) to (s), nineteen paragraphs, and it is expressly non-exhaustive.

HOAs: all twenty items at s. 720.307(4)(a) through (t) get the 90 days, and the clock runs from when members become entitled to elect a majority, not from when an election actually happens.

In both chapters the delivery is at the developer's expense. For condominiums, the Division rule also requires the developer to obtain a signed receipt documenting the transfer, with both parties retaining it for seven years. That receipt is the most useful single document in any later dispute.

Condominium associations, yes, always. Section 718.301(4)(c) requires financial statements audited by an independent CPA covering the period from incorporation of the association through turnover — or from the last audited period, if every fiscal year has been audited. Not the last year. Not the last three.

The statute also tells the accountant what to look for: examine cash disbursements and paid invoices to determine whether expenditures were for association purposes, and examine billings and cash receipts to determine that the developer was charged and paid the proper amounts of assessments.

HOAs: only if the association was incorporated after December 31, 2007. Section 720.307(4)(t) says so expressly. An HOA incorporated on or before that date gets the financial records under paragraph (i) but no audit mandate. This carve-out is dropped from almost every published summary.

Condominiums, yes. HOAs, essentially no — and this is the widest gap between the two chapters.

Under s. 718.302(1), grants, reservations and contracts providing for operation, maintenance or management, entered into before owners assumed control, may be cancelled by 75% of the voting interests other than those owned by the developer. Developer-held interests come out of both the numerator and the denominator. There is no deadline on this right.

There is a separate and much shorter clock at s. 718.302(2). Any grant, reservation or contract requiring the association to purchase condominium property or lease it to another party is deemed ratified unless rejected by a majority of non-developer voting interests within 18 months after owners elect a board majority. That is the one true deadline in the section, and missing it is fatal.

Section 720.309, despite carrying the same section title, gives HOA members no cancellation right whatsoever. It imposes only a "fair and reasonable" standard, and only on contracts with a term greater than 10 years. The remedy is a judicial challenge, not a vote.

This is the question with the most expensive wrong answer, and the two chapters again diverge.

The general rule at s. 95.11(3)(b) is four years to sue, with an absolute seven-year repose period, both running from the earliest of a temporary certificate of occupancy, a certificate of occupancy, a certificate of completion, or abandonment. SB 360 in 2023 shortened repose from ten years to seven, flipped the rule from latest-of to earliest-of, and deleted "actual possession" and "completion of the contract" from the list of trigger events.

For condominium and cooperative associations, s. 718.124 changes the starting line entirely. Both the limitations period and the statute of repose do not begin to run until unit owners elect a majority of the board. The words "and statute of repose" were added effective July 1, 2024.

Chapter 720 has no equivalent. An HOA whose developer held control for five years may have roughly two usable years of repose left, with no statutory relief. Get counsel on this early — repose is not subject to tolling, the discovery rule, or good cause.

Yes, while it still holds units for sale in the ordinary course. Condominiums: at least 5% of units, or 2% in condominiums with more than 500 units. HOAs: 5% of parcels in all phases, with no size gradation. After relinquishing control, a condominium or HOA developer may vote its interests like any other member, except to reacquire control or select a board majority.

For condominiums, yes. The Division rule treats units sold or transferred in bulk — including through foreclosure or deed in lieu — as conveyances for turnover purposes unless the transfer is accompanied by a written assignment expressly transferring all developer rights and existing obligations to the transferee. Partial or informal assignments do not qualify.

For condominiums, s. 718.302(6) allows an action under the summary procedure in s. 51.011 to compel compliance with s. 718.301, and the prevailing party recovers reasonable attorney fees. The Division also has express jurisdiction over improper or failed turnover, with authority reaching cease and desist orders, appointment of a receiver, and civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation, assessable on a per-day basis for a continuing violation. For HOAs there is no comparable summary remedy and no general Division jurisdiction — enforcement runs through s. 720.305(1), which does carry prevailing-party fees.

For condominiums the statute says so twice. Section 718.301(5) makes the developer responsible for the association's violations of Chapter 718 occurring before relinquishment, and s. 718.301(6) provides that actions taken by developer-designated directors are considered actions of the developer, for which it is responsible to the association and its members.

Condominium directors must submit both a written certification and an educational certificate to the association secretary within one year before, or 90 days after, election or appointment. The certificate is valid for seven years, with at least one hour of continuing education annually thereafter. A director who fails to file on time is suspended from service on the board until they comply. The old option to sign an affidavit in lieu of the coursework was eliminated in 2024.

Procedurally there is a step. If a condominium board proposes a budget requiring assessments exceeding 115% of the prior year, it must simultaneously propose a substitute budget stripped of discretionary spending, at the same budget meeting, before adopting the annual budget. Owners consider both and may adopt the substitute by a majority of all voting interests. Required reserves, insurance premiums and certain non-recurring reserve-study expenses come out of the 115% calculation. Chapter 720 has no equivalent right.