The fee figures printed in the statute have been superseded since 2022. Most published guidance still quotes them.
✓ 10 business days from a written or electronic request
✓ Miss it and no fee may be charged
✓ Current cap: $299, not the $250 in the statute
✓ Binding for 30 days — 35 if mailed
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Estoppel certificate processing for Florida associations
An estoppel request is a ten-business-day clock attached to somebody else's closing date, and the association that misses it forfeits the fee and inherits a title agent with a problem. The information itself is rarely difficult. What causes late certificates is a request that arrives at an address nobody monitors, or a delinquency figure that has to be reconciled before anyone will sign it.
Ledgerly runs estoppel requests against a monitored intake with the ledger already reconciled, so the answer to "what is owed as of the effective period" does not require a research project. We track the issuance date against the 30 and 35-day binding windows, issue amended certificates when figures move, and flag closings that fall through so refund requests get handled inside the statutory window rather than after it.
7 things Florida boards should know about estoppel certificates
- 1
If you have no board resolution, you may not charge anything
Section 718.116(8)(h): the authority to charge a fee "must be established by a written resolution adopted by the board or provided by a written management, bookkeeping, or maintenance contract." An association with neither may charge nothing at all, however timely the certificate. This is the most underused compliance point in the section, and it is a five-minute fix.
- 2
The certificate binds you, and that is the point of it
The association waives the right to collect any amount owed in excess of what the certificate states, from any person who in good faith relies on it and from that person's successors and assigns. Read the scope precisely: it protects the good-faith relier, not the delinquent owner who created the debt. An understated payoff figure is money the association does not get back from the buyer.
- 3
The clock on the binding period runs from issuance, not delivery
Thirty days if hand delivered or sent electronically, 35 days if sent by regular mail — measured from the date of issuance. An amended certificate must be delivered on the date of issuance and starts a fresh 30 or 35-day period.
- 4
You must publish where requests should be sent
Each association must designate on its website a person or entity with a street or email address for receiving estoppel requests. One or the other is enough. Associations that have not done this end up with requests arriving at whatever address a title agent could find, which is how the ten-day clock gets missed without anyone knowing it started.
- 5
A management company employee can prepare it; an officer or authorized agent has to sign it
The statute is deliberately broad on preparation — any board member, authorized agent, authorized representative, or employee of a management company authorized to complete the form. No attorney or CAM license is required to prepare it. But the required contents include the signature of an officer or authorized agent of the association, and those are different things.
- 6
You cannot charge for the collection attorney's contact information
Where the account is delinquent and has been turned over for collection, the certificate must state the attorney's name and contact information, and the statute specifies that no fee may be charged for supplying it.
- 7
There is no right to defer payment to closing — that bill died
The statute says the fee "is payable upon the preparation of the certificate," and nothing bars an association from requiring payment before release. Several industry sources assert a right to defer payment to closing. That was a feature of CS/CS/HB 979 in 2024, which was laid on the table on March 5, 2024 and never became law.
Frequently asked questions — estoppel certificates
How long does the association have?
Ten business days. Section 718.116(8) opens: "Within 10 business days after receiving a written or electronic request therefor from a unit owner or the unit owner's designee, or a unit mortgagee or the unit mortgagee's designee, the association shall issue the estoppel certificate."
Section 720.30851 does the same for homeowners' associations and s. 719.108(6) for cooperatives, substituting "parcel" where appropriate.
Two details that decide arguments. The clock starts on receipt of a written or electronic request — an oral request does not start it. And only four categories of requester can start it: the owner, the owner's designee, the mortgagee, or the mortgagee's designee.
Expedited service is three business days, for an additional fee.
What happens if we miss the ten days?
You lose the fee. Section 718.116(8)(d): if the association fails to deliver within 10 business days, "a fee may not be charged for the preparation and delivery of that estoppel certificate."
The certificate is still owed. The penalty is the fee, not excusal from the duty. And there is a separate enforcement route — under s. 718.116(8)(e) a summary proceeding under s. 51.011 may be brought to compel compliance, with reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party. A late estoppel on a closing that falls through is not a small exposure.
What can we actually charge?
This is where published guidance goes wrong almost universally, and the reason is structural. The statutory figures have never been amended, but they have been superseded.
SB 398 in 2017 set $250 for preparation and delivery, $100 additional for expedited service, and $150 additional where a delinquency is owed. Those are still the numbers printed in the statute today. But s. 718.116(8)(i) requires the figures to be adjusted every five years by CPI, with DBPR calculating and publishing the adjusted amounts on its website rather than through rulemaking. DBPR did that effective July 1, 2022, and those adjusted amounts are what actually apply.
Anyone reading only the statute gets the wrong number. Anyone reading only a 2017-era summary gets the wrong number.
So what are the current amounts?
As published by DBPR and in effect through the next adjustment, which is due by July 1, 2027:
Preparation and delivery, no delinquency: $299. Expedited delivery within three business days: $119 additional. Where a delinquent amount is owed: $179 additional. Maximum for a single expedited, delinquent certificate: $597.
Note which add-on is which. The $119 is the expedited fee and the $179 is the delinquency fee — they are frequently reported the other way round.
Is there a cap when we are asked for several at once?
Yes, and it is generous relative to the per-certificate fee. Where certificates are requested simultaneously for multiple units or parcels owned by the same owner, and there are no past-due monetary obligations, the aggregate is capped. The current DBPR-adjusted caps are $896 for 25 or fewer, $1,194 for 26 to 50, $1,791 for 51 to 100, and $2,985 for more than 100.
Do we ever have to give the money back?
Yes, but the refund is conditional and almost nobody claims it correctly.
If the certificate was requested in connection with a sale or mortgage and the closing does not occur, the fee must be refunded — but only if the payor makes a written request within 30 days after the closing date for which the certificate was sought, accompanied by reasonable documentation that the sale did not occur. The association then has 30 days from receipt of that request to refund.
The condition boards miss: the payor must not be the unit owner. A seller who paid for their own estoppel has no refund right under this provision. It protects the buyer or closing agent who fronted the cost.
Quick answers for Florida boards and title agents
What has to be on the certificate?
The statute prescribes a form. Identifying items first: date of issuance, owner names as reflected in the association's books, unit designation and address, parking or garage space number, collection attorney contact information where applicable, the fee, and the requestor's name. Then a headed ASSESSMENT INFORMATION block covering the regular periodic assessment amount and frequency, the date paid through, the next installment due date and amount, an itemised list of everything currently owed, and an itemised list of amounts scheduled to come due during the effective period. Then a headed OTHER INFORMATION block.
What is in the OTHER INFORMATION block?
Seven yes/no items with follow-ups: whether any capital contribution, resale, transfer or other fee is due and how much; whether there is an open violation noticed to the owner in the official records; whether board approval is required for transfer and if so whether it has been given; whether a right of first refusal exists and whether it has been exercised; a list of and contact information for all other associations of which the unit is a member; contact information for all association insurance; and the signature of an officer or authorized agent.
Does this differ for HOAs and cooperatives?
The three provisions run substantively parallel. Condominiums are at s. 718.116(8), homeowners' associations at s. 720.30851 — a standalone section rather than a subsection — and cooperatives at s. 719.108(6). Same ten business days, same fee structure, same binding periods.
When does the next fee adjustment happen?
The DBPR notice states the next update will be released by July 1, 2027. The statutory cycle is every five years, and the current amounts took effect July 1, 2022. Diary a review for June 2027.
Has any of this changed recently?
No. Section 718.116 has not been amended since 2023 and s. 720.30851 has not been touched since 2017. HB 979 in 2024 would have reworked the framework and died. HB 913 in 2025 made sweeping changes to Chapter 718 but left the estoppel subsection alone. HB 657 in 2026 passed the House 108–2 and died in Senate Rules on March 13, 2026. The framework has been substantively unchanged since Chapter 2017-93 took effect on July 1, 2017 — only the DBPR fee table has moved, once.
What if the association simply refuses?
A summary proceeding under s. 51.011 may be brought to compel compliance, and the prevailing party recovers reasonable attorney fees. Combined with the loss of the fee for late delivery and the enforceable refund obligation, the section has real teeth for a requester who chooses to use them.
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