After a hurricane, the slowest thing in the building shouldn't be the board. Florida law knows that — which is why Chapter 718 and Chapter 720 each contain a dedicated set of emergency powers that let an association act fast when a storm has damaged the property and the usual notice-and-vote machinery would take too long. Under FS § 718.1265 for condominiums and FS § 720.316 for HOAs, a board can meet remotely on short notice, close off unsafe areas, contract for debris removal and repairs, and — the powers boards most need and most misuse — levy special assessments and borrow money without an owner vote. Atlantic hurricane season runs June through November — so here is the practical map of what your board is and isn't allowed to do.
This is general information about Florida community-association law, not legal advice, and these statutes have been amended repeatedly since Surfside. Confirm the current text and how it applies to your declaration with your association's attorney before acting. Condominiums are governed by § 718.1265 and HOAs by § 720.316; the two are similar but not identical, as this guide explains.
What switches the powers on
Emergency powers are not always-on. They activate only in response to damage or injury caused by, or anticipated in connection with, an emergency for which a state of emergency is declared. Two pieces of that sentence do the work. "Emergency" takes its meaning from FS § 252.34(4) — any occurrence, natural, technological, or manmade, that results in or threatens substantial harm to people or property. And the declaration must be made under FS § 252.36, the state's emergency-declaration authority, covering the locale where your community sits.
Three practical points follow. First, "anticipated in connection with" means your board can act before the storm — pre-positioning, shutting down equipment, implementing a disaster plan — not only after the damage is done. Second, the trigger is not limited to hurricanes: floods, fires, and public-health emergencies can all qualify if a declaration is in effect, which is how associations operated under these statutes during the pandemic. Third, the declaration matters — and only the Governor can make it. These powers attach to a state of emergency declared by the Governor under FS § 252.36 that covers the locale where your community sits; the statute's reference to "the locale" is about geographic scope, not about who declares it. A county or city emergency declaration does not, by itself, switch these association powers on. Before your board exercises any emergency power, confirm that a qualifying gubernatorial declaration actually covers your area, and write down which one you are relying on.
Both statutes open with "unless specifically prohibited by" the declaration of condominium, articles, or bylaws. That means your documents can curtail or condition some emergency powers — so the first place to look after a declaration is your own governing documents, not just the statute. The big financial powers are the exception: the special-assessment and borrowing powers apply regardless of any contrary provision in your documents, which we cover below.
The condo board's powers (§ 718.1265)
The condominium statute gives the board of administration a defined list of roughly a dozen powers. Grouped by what they actually let a board do, they are:
- Govern and meet. Conduct board, committee, and membership meetings — in whole or part by phone or videoconference — with notice given in any practicable manner (publication, radio, mail, the internet, electronic transmission, public-service announcements, or conspicuous posting); cancel and reschedule meetings; and name non-director "assistant officers" to cover any officer who is unavailable.
- Relocate and coordinate. Move the association's principal office, and enter agreements with the county or municipality to help with debris removal.
- Secure and close. Implement a disaster plan before, during, or after the event — including shutting off elevators, electricity, water, sewer, security systems, or air conditioning — and, based on the advice of emergency-management or public-health officials or licensed professionals, determine portions of the property unavailable for entry or occupancy.
- Require evacuation. Require evacuation in the event of an evacuation order in the locale, with immunity from liability for anyone who refuses to leave.
- Mitigate, repair, and enter units. Contract for debris removal; prevent further damage and the spread of mold and mildew by removing and disposing of wet drywall, insulation, carpet, and cabinetry — even inside a unit and even where the owner is responsible for those fixtures — and contract on an owner's behalf for emergency items the owner would otherwise handle, recovering the actual cost (enforceable through the association's lien power under FS § 718.116).
- Fund the response. Levy special assessments without an owner vote, and borrow money and pledge association assets to fund emergency repairs when operating funds fall short — the subject of its own section below.
That power to reach inside a unit to stop water and mold is what most distinguishes the condominium toolkit. It exists because in a condo, one owner's soaked drywall becomes every neighbor's mold problem — so the statute lets the association act on the owner's behalf and bill it back.
The HOA board's powers (§ 720.316)
The HOA statute mirrors the condominium one for most of the list — remote meetings and practicable notice, canceling and rescheduling, assistant officers, relocating the office, debris-removal agreements, disaster-plan implementation, closing off unsafe areas on professional advice, mitigation and mold prevention, and the same no-vote power to levy special assessments and borrow. If your community is governed by Chapter 720, that is your toolkit.
But the HOA list is shorter than the condo list in three concrete ways, and the differences are not academic:
What condos can do that HOAs can't
- Require evacuation. No HOA evacuation power exists.
- Enter a home to mitigate. HOA authority stops at the common areas and facilities.
- Contract on an owner's behalf. No HOA power to do an owner's individual emergency work and lien it back.
Why the gap exists
- HOAs typically don't own or insure the interior of a home — the parcel owner does.
- So the law keeps an HOA board's reach to the property it actually controls.
- If you're unsure which chapter governs you, start with Chapter 718 vs. Chapter 720.
There is also a timing footnote that matters for accuracy: § 720.316 was last amended in 2021, while the condominium statute was updated again in 2025 (more on that below). So an HOA board reading a recent article about a "new" condo emergency power should not assume it applies to them — it usually doesn't.
The money powers: assess and borrow without a vote
The two powers boards reach for first — and trip over most often — are financial. After a major storm, the bills for tarping, drying out, debris removal, and emergency repairs arrive long before any owner vote could be scheduled. So both statutes let the board act:
- Levy special assessments without an owner vote. The condo statute says the board may do this "regardless of any provision to the contrary" in the declaration, articles, or bylaws; the HOA statute uses the same "notwithstanding a provision to the contrary" language. The normal owner approval is suspended for the emergency.
- Borrow money and pledge assets. Without owner approval, the board can borrow and pledge association assets as collateral to fund emergency repairs when operating funds are insufficient — useful when insurance proceeds haven't yet arrived. (For how association borrowing works in normal times, see our guide to HOA loans in Florida.)
Two cautions keep these powers safe to use. First, the notice does not disappear — it relaxes. The board still has to notify owners, but it may do so by any practicable means rather than the usual mailed 14-day notice for a non-emergency special assessment. Second, an emergency action taken off the agenda should be noticed and ratified at the next regular board meeting, the mechanism in FS § 718.112(2)(c). That is a board-level ratification of its own emergency action, not a do-over owner vote — but skipping it is a documented trap. Treat the emergency assessment like any other board decision once the dust settles: put it on the next properly noticed meeting and ratify it on the record.
The limits boards forget
The single most important thing to understand about emergency powers is that they are bounded. The statute is not a declaration of martial law for the board. Four limits matter most:
- Only "reasonably necessary," and only for "the time reasonably necessary." Every emergency power is capped to what is needed to protect health, safety, and welfare and to make emergency repairs. There is no 30- or 60-day clock — the limit is functional, and it ends when normal operations can resume.
- You can't lock owners or buyers out. Even during a Governor-declared emergency, an association may not bar an owner, tenant, guest, or buyer from accessing the unit and common elements for ingress and egress, or for a sale, lease, or transfer of title, or for the habitability, health, or safety of the person — unless a government order or a CDC public-health directive prohibits that access.
- A habitability determination is not the last word. The board can determine a portion of the property unavailable for occupancy, but only on the advice of officials or licensed professionals, and that determination "is not conclusive as to any determination of habitability pursuant to the declaration."
- Your documents may say more. Except for the financial powers, the governing documents can restrict how these powers are used. Read them alongside the statute.
In practice, the "reasonably necessary" standard is where boards get into trouble in both directions — doing too little to mitigate (and jeopardizing the insurance claim) or doing too much under cover of "emergency" (and inviting an owner challenge). The safe path is a tight, documented link between each action and the actual emergency.
What changed for condos in 2025
If you read these statutes a few years ago, one thing is worth a fresh look. The 2025 condominium law (HB 913) amended § 718.1265 and refined the evacuation power: the current text authorizes a condo board to require evacuation in the event of an evacuation order in the locale, with liability immunity for those who refuse. The HOA statute, § 720.316, was not part of that 2025 update — its most recent amendment dates to 2021, and it still contains no evacuation power.
The broader point for boards: emergency powers sit in chapters the Legislature has rewritten almost every year since Surfside. The version that governs you is the current one, and the condo and HOA statutes are now on different amendment timelines. When in doubt, pull the statute by year — or have counsel confirm — rather than relying on an older summary. For the wider sweep of recent changes, see our roundup of new Florida HOA and condo laws in 2026.
The mistakes that create liability
Community-association attorneys see the same emergency-power errors after every major storm. The common threads:
- Acting with no declaration. Using emergency powers when no qualifying state of emergency covers your area. The declaration is the on-switch; without it, you are back to ordinary rules.
- Acting past the window. Continuing to assess or contract under "emergency" authority weeks or months later, once normal operations could resume. The power expires with the emergency.
- Over-assessing. Levying an emergency special assessment far larger than the emergency requires. Because no owner vote checks it, a reckless board can run up debt quickly — and a disproportionate assessment is exactly the kind of action an owner can challenge.
- Undocumented unit entry. Entering a unit to dry it out without photos, a log, or a written basis — which undermines both the later cost-recovery lien and the board's defense if the owner disputes it.
- Skipping ratification. Never bringing the emergency action back to a noticed board meeting for ratification on the record.
- Eyeballing habitability. Declaring a building unsafe without the licensed professional or official advice the statute requires.
None of these are hard to avoid — they are mostly a matter of confirming the declaration, keeping the action proportionate, documenting everything, and closing the loop at the next meeting. Owners are also entitled to see that record: keep your official records in order, because emergency decisions draw records requests.
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How it connects to insurance and reserves
Emergency powers don't exist in a vacuum — they are the legal vehicle that lets a board satisfy two other obligations under deadline pressure.
Insurance. Your property policy imposes a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage after a loss — tarping the roof, boarding openings, drying out. Emergency powers are what let the board move fast enough to meet that duty; fail to mitigate and you can jeopardize the claim. Under FS § 718.111(11), association-insured property that is damaged is reconstructed by the association as a common expense, which is why the mitigation power and the assessment power work together. Track emergency mitigation spending separately so it lines up cleanly with the eventual claim, and read it alongside your post-hurricane insurance claim playbook and your renewal strategy.
Reserves and SIRS. Don't confuse a one-time emergency storm assessment with your ongoing reserve obligations. Emergency powers let you fund the storm response; they do not suspend the structural integrity reserve study or milestone-inspection regime. A hurricane can even expose structural problems that trigger a milestone Phase 2 and large, reserve-driven assessments — a separate track from the emergency assessment, and one to keep distinct in your owners' minds and your accounting.
A before, during & after checklist
Emergency powers are most useful when the groundwork is already laid. A practical sequence:
- Before the season: adopt or refresh a written disaster plan, confirm spare-key and unit-access procedures, line up emergency vendors, and know where your declaration sits on emergency authority. Pair this with a hurricane-season checklist.
- When a declaration issues: identify and record the specific state-of-emergency declaration covering your community, and confirm it is in effect before acting.
- During the response: act only as reasonably necessary; use practicable notice for any emergency meeting; document every unit entry and mitigation decision with photos and a log; and get professional advice before any habitability or occupancy call.
- Funding the work: if you levy an emergency special assessment or borrow, tie the amount to the actual emergency, notify owners by practicable means, and keep mitigation costs separated for the insurance claim. Use vetted emergency repair contracts where you can.
- After the dust settles: bring every emergency action to the next regular board meeting for ratification on the record, and stand the board's authority back down to normal rules once operations can resume.
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