Turnover is the single most important governance event in a community's life — and the one most owners never see happen properly. Every Florida condominium and homeowners' association is born under developer control: the builder appoints the board, signs the contracts, sets the budget, and runs the money. Florida law then requires the developer to hand the community to its owners on a defined schedule, with a complete set of records and an audited set of books. When that handover is done right, owners inherit a clean, fully-funded association. When it is late, partial, or skipped, owners can inherit deferred maintenance, underfunded reserves, and sweetheart contracts — and a fight to get the records that would prove it. A May 2026 lawsuit on Miami's Brickell Key, where five condominium associations allege a developer never relinquished control of their master association after decades, is only the latest reminder of what is at stake. This guide explains how turnover is supposed to work under Florida law — and what owners can do when it doesn't.
This is general information about Florida community-association law, not legal advice. Turnover disputes are fact-specific, high-dollar, and often turn on the exact wording of a declaration and the developer's corporate structure. If your community is approaching turnover, suspects a turnover was done improperly, or is dealing with a developer-controlled master association, consult a Florida community-association attorney before acting. This guide covers condominiums under Chapter 718 and homeowners' associations under Chapter 720; cooperatives under Chapter 719 follow a parallel path.
What "turnover" actually means
"Turnover" — the statutes call it the transition of association control — is the moment the owners, rather than the developer, gain control of the association's board of directors. Before turnover, the developer-appointed board runs everything: it adopts the budget, hires the management company, signs vendor and amenity contracts, and decides how much to fund reserves. After turnover, an owner-elected board takes the wheel and inherits everything the developer built — the good and the bad. Turnover is not the same as the developer selling its last unit, and it is not the same as the community being "finished." It is a legal handoff of governance, triggered by specific events, and accompanied by a mandatory delivery of records and money.
Why it matters so much: the developer controls the association during the exact period when the most consequential, longest-lasting financial decisions are made — how reserves are funded, what the amenity and management contracts say, and whether the budget reflects the building's true cost to operate. A developer has an inherent incentive to keep assessments low to sell units, which can mean underfunded reserves the owners must later make up through a reserve catch-up or special assessment. The turnover process — especially the audit — exists to surface those decisions while they can still be challenged. This is a different problem from a developer buying back control of an existing building; here the issue is the developer never properly letting go in the first place.
The condo timeline (§ 718.301)
For condominiums, the trigger schedule lives in FS 718.301. There are really two milestones: an early one where owners get a foothold on the board, and the main one where owners take the majority.
The one-third foothold. Once unit owners other than the developer own 15 percent or more of the units in the condominium, those owners are entitled to elect at least one-third of the board. This gives owners a seat at the table — and visibility into decisions — well before full turnover.
The majority handover. Unit owners other than the developer become entitled to elect a majority of the board upon the first of these events to occur:
- Three years after 50 percent of the units that will ultimately be operated by the association have been conveyed to purchasers;
- Three months after 90 percent of those units have been conveyed;
- When all the units that will ultimately be operated by the association are complete, some have been conveyed, and the developer is not offering the rest for sale in the ordinary course of business;
- When some units have been conveyed and the developer is neither constructing nor offering the others for sale in the ordinary course of business;
- When the developer files for bankruptcy protection; or
- When a receiver for the developer is appointed and not discharged within 30 days.
The phrase "whichever occurs first" is the part developers and owners both miss. A project that sells quickly can hit the 90-percent, three-month trigger long before the developer planned to step back. After turnover, the developer may keep a single board seat as long as it still holds units for sale — at least 5 percent of the units in a condominium with fewer than 500 units, or 2 percent in a larger one. One recent wrinkle from the 2024–2025 reform wave: under HB 913 (2025), several of these triggers do not apply to small nonresidential condominiums of ten or fewer units, though the 90-percent trigger still does.
The HOA timeline: the 90% rule (§ 720.307)
Homeowners' associations run on a different schedule, set by FS 720.307. The headline number is 90 percent, but the structure is its own.
| Milestone | Condominium (§ 718.301) | HOA (§ 720.307) |
|---|---|---|
| First owner seat(s) | One-third of board at 15% of units owned by non-developer owners | One director at 50% of parcels conveyed |
| Owner majority | First of: 3 yrs after 50% conveyed; 3 mo after 90% conveyed; or developer stops selling / bankruptcy / receiver | 3 months after 90% of parcels conveyed (or earlier per governing documents) |
| Other triggers | Developer abandonment; bankruptcy; receiver not discharged in 30 days | Developer abandonment; bankruptcy; loss of title by foreclosure or deed in lieu |
Two HOA-specific points. First, the governing documents can set an earlier turnover percentage or date than the statutory 90 percent — so always read the declaration, not just the statute. Second, the HOA statute does not contain the condominium's "three years after 50 percent" trigger; the HOA majority threshold is anchored to the 90-percent mark (or the documents). Because the two chapters differ, a management company or board that oversees both condo and HOA communities should never assume one timeline applies to the other.
The handover package
Turnover is not just a change of directors — it is a physical delivery of the association. For condominiums, FS 718.301(4) requires the developer to deliver a defined package, with most items handed over at the turnover meeting and the audited financials within 90 days. The list is long and specific because each item is something owners will need to run the association or to prove what the developer did. It includes:
- The recorded declaration and all amendments, a certified copy of the articles of incorporation, and the bylaws;
- The minute books, other books and records, and any rules and regulations;
- Resignations of the developer-appointed officers and directors;
- The financial records from incorporation through turnover — and the independent CPA audit of them (covered below);
- The association's funds and control of its accounts;
- All tangible personal property of the association, with an inventory;
- The construction plans and specifications and a list of contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers;
- Insurance policies, certificates of occupancy, other permits, and all written warranties still in effect;
- A roster of owners with addresses and phone numbers as shown in the developer's records;
- All leases of the common elements, and all employment, service, and other contracts the association is party to;
- For condominiums, a structural integrity reserve study as part of the turnover inspection report — a requirement added by HB 1021 (2024) that ties turnover to the post-Surfside building-safety regime.
The HOA statute, FS 720.307(4), contains its own analogous list — it is not a cross-reference to the condo statute — and it notably begins with the deeds to the common property owned by the association, along with the declaration of covenants, articles, bylaws, minutes, audited financials, funds, contracts, insurance, warranties, and owner roster. The lesson for a new board is the same in both chapters: turnover is a checklist, and a missing item is a problem you want to identify on day one, not discover during your first insurance claim or records request.
The turnover audit: the financial X-ray
Of everything in the package, the single most valuable item is the audit. FS 718.301(4)(c) requires the developer to deliver an audit — not a "review," and not a "compilation" — of the association's financial records by an independent certified public accountant, covering the period from the association's incorporation through the date of turnover. The word matters: an audit is the highest-assurance engagement a CPA performs, far more rigorous than the review or compilation a developer might prefer to provide. Insist on the audit the statute names.
The statute does not just ask for a generic audit — it directs the accountant to examine, specifically, (1) whether the association's expenditures were actually for association purposes, which catches commingling and developer self-dealing, and (2) whether the developer was charged and paid the proper amounts of assessments on the units it owned, which catches a developer quietly underfunding its own share. Those two questions are where improper developer conduct usually hides.
For a new owner board, the turnover audit is the financial X-ray of everything that happened during developer control. It is how you discover whether reserves were funded as represented, whether the developer paid assessments on its unsold units, and whether association money was spent on the association rather than on the developer's broader project. Pair the audit with your own scrutiny — the same habits covered in preparing for an association audit and reading association financials — and you will know within months, not years, whether the developer left the association whole.
The developer's money obligations
A recurring turnover fight is about money the developer was supposed to put in. During the control period, a developer that owns unsold units has to account for its share of the association's costs, and Florida gives it two paths under FS 718.116(9):
- Pay assessments on its units. The developer pays regular assessments on the units it still owns, just like any other owner, and the association can assess those units.
- Run a budget "guarantee." Alternatively, the developer can guarantee that assessments will not exceed a stated amount for a stated period — in exchange for being excused from regular assessments, but with the obligation to pay every common expense that exceeds the guaranteed level. In other words, the developer caps owners' assessments but must personally fund the deficit. The guarantee has to be stated in the purchase contract, declaration, prospectus, or a written agreement.
The trap is the end of the guarantee period. A guarantee keeps assessments artificially low while the developer is selling units; when it expires and the owner board inherits the real cost of operating the building, assessments can jump. That is not necessarily improper — but it is exactly the kind of thing the turnover audit should quantify, so owners understand whether a coming increase reflects the building's true costs or a developer that under-reserved during the guarantee. Understanding the developer's funding history is part of understanding a building's whole financial picture, including how it affects lender and insurer scrutiny down the line.
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When turnover goes wrong: warning signs
Most turnovers are not dramatic — they are quietly incomplete. The damage shows up later, when the owner board hits a problem the developer left behind. Watch for these signs that a turnover was botched or never properly happened:
- No audit, or a "review" in its place. If the developer delivered a review or compilation instead of the audit FS 718.301(4)(c) requires, the most important document is missing.
- The 90-day clock blew past. Documents and funds never fully arrived, and no one tracked the deadline.
- Reserves are far below the structural reserve study. The building's own SIRS shows what should have been funded; a large gap points to developer under-reserving.
- Long-term contracts the owners can't escape. Amenity, management, or cable contracts signed by the developer-controlled board that bind the association for years on unfavorable terms.
- The developer still controls a master or umbrella board long after selling the buildings — the scenario at the center of the Brickell Key dispute below.
- Missing deeds, plans, or warranties. Gaps in the handover package that surface only when the association needs them.
None of these is necessarily the end of the road. Florida law gives owners real tools to force a proper turnover and to recover for a bad one — but those tools work best when the board acts early and documents the gaps.
The master-association gray area
Here is where the law is genuinely unsettled. Florida squarely governs the turnover of a single condominium association (§ 718.301) and a single homeowners' association (§ 720.307). But many large communities are layered: individual condominium or sub-associations sit beneath a master association (sometimes called an umbrella or community association) that owns and maintains shared infrastructure — roads, gates, seawalls, shared amenities. No Florida statute uses the term "master association" or sets a dedicated turnover trigger and document list for one. Whether a given master association's turnover is governed by the condominium statute, the HOA statute, or neither cleanly depends on how it is structured in its own declaration and articles. That ambiguity is the gap developers and owners end up litigating.
The live example is on Miami's Brickell Key. In late May 2026, five condominium associations — Brickell Key One, Brickell Key Two, Isola, Courvoisier Courts, and Carbonell — sued the developer, Swire Properties, in Miami-Dade Circuit Court over a roughly $32.3 million assessment for seawall and baywalk work. The associations allege that Swire has controlled the island's master association since 1982, that the turnover threshold was met "over a decade ago" once the last condominium building sold out, and that Swire used its continued control in a "calculated scheme" to shift the cost of maintaining shoreline property onto owners. Swire, for its part, has said it had not yet been served, could not substantively respond, and has complied with all applicable laws; a master-board representative has framed developer control as ending only when the last available unit on the island is sold. These are allegations and competing positions, not findings — but the case neatly captures the master-association turnover question Florida's statutes don't cleanly answer.
If your community sits under a master or umbrella association, do not assume the § 718.301 or § 720.307 turnover schedule automatically applies to it. Whether and when a master association must be turned over is a fact-specific question driven by its governing documents — and one worth raising with counsel, because the dollar amounts that flow through a master association (shared infrastructure, resiliency projects, master insurance) are often the largest an owner will ever face.
Your remedies: tolling, fiduciary duty, the courthouse
When a developer won't turn over, or turned over badly, owners have more leverage than they often realize.
The tolling rule is the sharpest tool. Under FS 718.124, the statute of limitations and the statute of repose for any action a condominium or cooperative association may have do not begin to run until the unit owners have elected a majority of the board. The practical effect is enormous: a developer cannot quietly run out the clock on the association's claims by holding on to control, because the clock doesn't start until owners actually take the board. Where a developer allegedly never relinquished control — the Brickell Key theory — the association's claims arguably remain timely even decades later.
The fiduciary duty is the basis. The officers and directors of an association have a fiduciary relationship to the owners under FS 718.111(1), and Florida courts have long applied that duty to the developer-appointed directors who run the board during the control period. A developer board that under-reserves, signs self-dealing contracts, or fails to turn over can be sued for breaching that duty. The association itself has the power to bring that suit on behalf of all owners.
And the forum is usually court, not the agency. The Division of Florida Condominiums runs a mandatory nonbinding arbitration program for many disputes, but turnover and breach-of-fiduciary-duty claims are generally excluded from it — which is why turnover fights are filed in circuit court. The Division retains administrative authority over turnover compliance and can pursue enforcement, but the affirmative claim to compel turnover and recover damages runs through the courthouse. Because these cases are document-intensive and the developer's structure can be complex, the owners who do best are the ones who engage experienced counsel early and build the record from the turnover audit outward. If a dispute is heading toward litigation, our overview of when associations and owners go to court in Florida is a useful primer.
A board's turnover checklist
Whether you are approaching turnover or cleaning up after one, work the list:
- Know your trigger date. Track the percentage of units or parcels conveyed and map it to the § 718.301 or § 720.307 triggers — and read the declaration for any earlier date.
- Claim the one-third / one-director foothold as soon as you cross 15% (condo) or 50% (HOA), so owners have eyes on decisions before majority control.
- Demand the full package. Use the statutory list as a literal checklist at the turnover meeting; note every missing item in writing.
- Insist on the audit — an independent CPA audit, not a review — covering incorporation through turnover, and read what it says about developer assessments and association-purpose spending.
- Reconcile reserves to the SIRS. Compare actual reserve balances against the structural integrity reserve study to spot under-funding.
- Review every developer-era contract for length, termination rights, and self-dealing before it locks in another year.
- Mind the master association. If one exists, ask who controls it, whether it should have been turned over, and what it can assess.
- Engage counsel early if anything is missing, late, or off — and remember the tolling rule means it is rarely "too late" to act on a developer-control claim.
Key takeaways
- Turnover is a legal handoff, not a sale milestone. Condo owners elect one-third of the board at 15% owned and a majority on the first trigger to occur (90% sold, or 3 years after 50%, among others); HOA owners get one director at 50% of parcels and a majority at 90%.
- The developer must deliver a full package — within 90 days for condos — including documents, funds, contracts, and a structural integrity reserve study.
- It must be an audit, not a review. The independent CPA audit checks whether spending was for association purposes and whether the developer paid its proper assessments.
- Developers fund deficits one of two ways under § 718.116(9) — paying assessments on their units, or guaranteeing a cap and covering everything above it.
- Master-association turnover is a genuine gray area. No statute squarely governs it; whether and when it must happen turns on the master's own documents — the question being litigated in Brickell Key v. Swire.
- Owners have strong remedies. The § 718.124 tolling rule means a developer can't run out the clock by holding control; the fiduciary duty supports suit; turnover claims go to circuit court, not arbitration.
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