The questions
Ask these before the next meeting
Each question is tied to the Florida rule it's based on. Skim all of them, then skip to the email template below if you want to send them as-is.
- 01
Has the association ever formally voted to establish reserves under § 720.303(6)(d)?
Florida HOA reserves are elective. If no majority-of-voting-interests vote ever happened, the HOA has no statutory reserve obligation at all — that is a legal posture, not a violation, but it changes what a special assessment actually means for you.
§ 720.303(6)(d)
- 02
If reserves exist, when was the most recent vote to waive or reduce them, and was it taken at a properly noticed meeting with a quorum?
A waiver under § 720.303(6)(f) only covers one budget year. An HOA that has been 'waiving reserves' for a decade should have ten separate votes in the minutes. Missing votes are the actionable anomaly — not the low funding level itself.
§ 720.303(6)(f)
- 03
Can I see the minutes of the meeting where reserves were most recently established, waived, or funded?
These are records the association is required to keep. A board that cannot produce them is either disorganized or hiding that the statutory votes never happened.
- 04
What estimated remaining useful life and replacement cost did you use to calculate the 'fully funded' reserve figure?
§ 720.303(6)(e) and (g) prescribe the math. If the board is citing 'fully funded' from numbers that were last updated five years ago, the figure is not load-bearing and the deficit is probably larger than the budget shows.
§ 720.303(6)(e), (g)
- 05
Are you applying Chapter 718 structural-integrity reserve study rules to this HOA?
The post-Surfside rules live in Chapter 718 and apply to condominiums, not Chapter 720 HOAs. A board citing 'the new Florida reserve law' to justify a dues increase is almost always referring to a statute that does not govern them. Pin down which chapter they think applies.
- 06
What components are in the reserve schedule, and when were they last inspected or re-costed?
A reserve schedule with stale unit costs and an old useful-life estimate will show a surplus that does not exist. If the roof or the repaving estimate is from 2019, the dollar figures in this year's budget are fiction.
- 07
If we are under-funding reserves this year, what is the five-year plan for catching up?
A single waiver year is not the problem. A chronic waiver posture with no catch-up schedule is — because the shortfall compounds and eventually surfaces as a special assessment instead of a dues increase.
- 08
Has the board obtained a current reserve study from a qualified third party, or is the reserve schedule self-prepared?
Chapter 720 doesn't require a third-party reserve study, but a self-prepared schedule drawn up by the property manager is not the same thing as an engineered study. Knowing which one you have tells you how much weight to put on the numbers.
- 09
What shows up in our resale estoppel certificate about reserves, and does it match what you're telling owners now?
Estoppel certificates go to buyers and their lenders. If the board is telling owners one story and putting a different story in estoppels, either the owners or the market is being misled — and that is a question worth raising on the record.
- 10
Is the association carrying any deferred maintenance that is not reflected in the reserve schedule?
Deferred maintenance that has been moved off the reserve schedule — because the board decided to handle it 'operationally' — is a common way to make reserves look healthier than they are. If a roof replacement is overdue and not in the schedule, the schedule is telling you a story about a different building.
Email template
Send this to your board
Replace the bracketed fields with your community name and your details. The statute citations are deliberate — they move a response from "we'll get back to you" to a real written answer.
Hi [Board / Property Manager name], I own a unit at [Community Name] and I want to make sure I understand how our reserves are being handled before our next budget is ratified. I've been reading the Chapter 720 rules and I have a few questions I'd like answers to in writing before the next meeting. 1. Has the association ever formally voted to establish reserves under Fla. Stat. § 720.303(6)(d)? If so, can I see the minutes of that meeting? 2. If reserves exist, when was the most recent waiver vote under § 720.303(6)(f), and was it taken at a properly noticed meeting with a quorum? 3. What remaining useful life and replacement cost figures are being used to calculate our "fully funded" reserve under § 720.303(6)(e) and (g), and when were those figures last refreshed? 4. Do we have a current third-party reserve study, or is the reserve schedule self-prepared by management? 5. Is there any deferred maintenance that is not currently reflected in the reserve schedule? I'm not trying to second-guess the board — I just want to make sure the numbers we're ratifying are grounded in the statute and reflect actual building conditions. I'd appreciate written answers, or at least a pointer to where these are documented in the records. Thanks, [Your name] [Unit number]
Why these questions, in this order
Florida is the single most confusing state for HOA owners trying to understand reserves — and almost all of the confusion comes from two places.
The first is that Chapter 720 reserves are elective. An HOA can legally operate with zero reserves if it never voted to establish them. That is not a violation. It is not even unusual. But it does mean the default question most people ask — “why are our reserves underfunded?” — is the wrong first question. The right first question is “are we under any reserve obligation at all?”
The second is that Surfside didn’t change HOA reserves. The structural-integrity reserve study and mandatory funding rules passed after the Champlain Towers collapse live in Chapter 718 and govern condominiums, not HOAs. If your board is citing “the new Florida reserve law” to explain a dues increase, they are almost always referring to a statute that does not govern them. That claim alone is worth pushing back on.
The question list above is ordered to flush out those two confusions first — establishment vote, waiver history, which chapter the board thinks it’s operating under — before getting into the technical questions about how the reserve math is being done. If you only ask the first three, you will already know more about your board’s actual legal posture than most owners in your community.
How to use the email template
The email below is written to be forwarded as-is to your board or property manager. It deliberately cites the statute sections rather than paraphrasing them, because that is what moves a response from “we’ll get back to you” to “we need to check with our attorney.” You don’t need a lawyer to send this email — you just need your unit number and the community name.
If you don’t get a written answer within a reasonable window, that silence is itself useful information. Florida HOAs are required to maintain records of the votes this email is asking about. A board that cannot produce them is telling you something.
What this page is not
This is not legal advice and it is not a complete audit of your HOA’s reserve posture. It is the question list an owner should be able to hand to their board without retaining counsel. If the answers raise more questions than they resolve, the next step is usually pulling the actual budget and reserve schedule and running them against the statute — which is where we come in.
The underlying rule
Florida reserve law, in plain language
These questions come from the actual statute. If you want the full explainer before you send the email, start here.
Next step
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Send the questions to the board yourself, or pick the option below to share the community context with us so the next step is framed for the right person.