Nothing tests a Florida board like a special assessment. It is the moment the abstract work of governance turns into a real bill in every owner's mailbox — sometimes a five-figure one. Done correctly, a special assessment is a routine, lawful exercise of the board's authority. Done carelessly — with too little notice, the wrong approval, or a purpose statement so vague it means nothing — it becomes voidable, and the board has handed disgruntled owners a roadmap to challenge it. And in 2026, more Florida associations are levying special assessments than at any point in recent memory, because post-Surfside reserve and inspection laws have removed the option of simply deferring the problem. This guide walks a board through what legally counts as a special assessment, who has to approve it, the notice rules that make it enforceable, where the money can and cannot go, and how to roll one out without triggering a revolt.
This is general information about Florida community-association law and is not legal advice. Levying a special assessment — reading your declaration's approval threshold, drafting the notice, structuring the collection — should be done with your association's attorney. This guide covers both condominium and cooperative associations under Chapters 718 and 719 and homeowners' associations under Chapter 720; the rules differ between them, and those differences are flagged throughout.
Special assessment vs. regular assessment: the legal difference
Start with the definition, because it is cleaner than most boards expect. The Florida Condominium Act, at FS 718.103, defines a regular assessment as "a share of the funds which are required for the payment of common expenses, which from time to time is assessed against the unit owner." It then defines a special assessment with one short, sweeping sentence:
"‘Special assessment’ means any assessment levied against a unit owner other than the assessment required by a budget adopted annually."
Read that carefully. A special assessment is defined by what it is not: it is anything the association charges that is not part of the annual budget. The regular assessment is the owner's share of the budget the board adopts each year. Everything else — the roof fund the budget never anticipated, the post-hurricane repair, the insurance shortfall, the structural work a milestone inspection forced — is a special assessment. The label is not about the size of the bill or whether it was an emergency. It is purely about whether the charge sits inside the annual budget or outside it.
Homeowners' associations work the same way in substance. Chapter 720 ties each owner's payment obligation to the governing documents and distinguishes assessments "levied pursuant to the annual budget" from special assessments — though, as we will see, the HOA statute leaves more of the mechanics to the declaration and bylaws than the condominium statute does.
Why the definition matters: the moment a charge is a special assessment, a separate and stricter set of rules switches on — heightened notice, possibly an owner vote, and a hard restriction on how the money can be spent. A board that treats a special assessment like a routine budget line has skipped all of it. Getting the annual budget right is the best way to reduce how often you need a special assessment in the first place — but it will never eliminate them.
Why 2026 is the year of the special assessment
Special assessments have always existed. What changed is that Florida law removed the escape hatch boards used for decades: deferral.
After the 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside — the subject of a multi-year federal National Institute of Standards and Technology investigation — the Legislature built a two-part structural-safety mandate that is now fully in force:
- Milestone inspections. Condominium and cooperative buildings of three habitable stories or more must undergo a structural milestone inspection by a licensed engineer or architect, codified at FS 553.899, generally tied to the building reaching 30 years of age and repeating every 10 years after. When the inspection identifies structural deficiencies, the association must repair them — not eventually, but on the timeline the inspection sets.
- The structural integrity reserve study (SIRS). The same buildings must have a SIRS — a study that prices out the remaining life and replacement cost of structural components like the roof, load-bearing walls, floors, foundation, fireproofing, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, and windows. Under FS 718.112(2)(g), most unit-owner-controlled associations had to complete a SIRS by December 31, 2025.
The decisive change is what happens next. FS 718.112(2)(f) now provides that, for a budget adopted on or after December 31, 2024, the members of a unit-owner-controlled association that must obtain a SIRS "may not determine to provide no reserves or less reserves than required by this subsection for items listed in paragraph (g)." For decades, condo owners could vote each year to waive or underfund reserves — and many did, keeping monthly dues artificially low while the building quietly aged. That vote is now gone for SIRS components.
Put the pieces together and the 2026 surge is easy to see. A SIRS reveals that a building has been underfunding its roof and concrete reserves for twenty years. A milestone inspection mandates structural repairs on a fixed schedule. The association can no longer vote the problem away. It has exactly three ways to find the money: raise regular assessments sharply, levy a special assessment, or borrow. For a large, near-term repair bill, the special assessment is often the fastest of the three. That is why they are everywhere this year — and why getting the process right matters more than ever. Our guide to SIRS reserve funding covers the underlying study in depth.
Who can levy one: board vote vs. owner vote
This is the question boards get wrong most often, and the answer has two layers.
Layer one — the statutes. Neither the Condominium Act nor the HOA Act contains a blanket rule requiring a vote of the owners to levy a special assessment. As a statutory default, the board levies a special assessment by board vote, at a properly noticed meeting. The statutes are concerned with notice and meeting procedure — not with who casts the deciding vote.
Layer two — the governing documents. This is where boards stumble. A great many Florida declarations and bylaws impose their own owner-approval requirement on special assessments — commonly a stated percentage of the voting interests, sometimes triggered only above a dollar threshold, sometimes only for non-emergency work. Where the governing documents impose that threshold, it controls. A special assessment levied by board vote alone, when the declaration required a 66⅔% owner vote, was not validly adopted — and any owner can say so.
So the rule a board should internalize is this: the statutes tell you how to notice and run the meeting; your governing documents tell you who has to approve the assessment and at what threshold. You must satisfy both. The single most common fatal error is a board that runs flawless statutory notice and then ignores the owner-vote clause buried in its own declaration.
There is also one true statutory exception worth knowing. Under HB 913 (2025), a condominium association that is required to have a SIRS and chooses to fund its reserves through a special assessment, a loan, or a line of credit must obtain the approval of a majority of the total voting interests. For that specific SIRS-reserve situation, an owner vote is required by statute regardless of what the bylaws say. More on HB 913 below.
The notice rules every board must follow
A special assessment does not ride on ordinary board-meeting notice. It triggers a heightened, 14-day notice requirement — and the rule is nearly identical for condos and HOAs.
Condominiums — FS 718.112(2)(c)
The Condominium Act sets the standard in one sentence:
"Written notice of a meeting at which a nonemergency special assessment or an amendment to rules regarding unit use will be considered must be mailed, delivered, or electronically transmitted to the unit owners and posted conspicuously on the condominium property at least 14 days before the meeting."
Three things to pull out of that. First, the notice must go out by mail, hand delivery, or electronic transmission and be posted on the property — both, not either. Second, the clock is 14 days, and it is 14 days before the meeting, not before the assessment is due. Third, the statute also requires that the notice itself state that assessments will be considered and describe the estimated cost and the purpose of the assessment. A notice that simply says "board meeting" does not authorize the board to levy a special assessment at that meeting. (The word "nonemergency" in the statute signals that genuine emergencies are handled differently — but emergency powers are narrow, and a board should never assume an emergency erases the notice rule without checking with counsel.)
Homeowners' associations — FS 720.303(2)
Chapter 720 imposes a parallel structure. FS 720.303(2) states the baseline rule plainly:
"An assessment may not be levied at a board meeting unless the notice of the meeting includes a statement that assessments will be considered and the nature of the assessments."
And for special assessments specifically, the HOA statute layers on the same 14-day heightened notice as the condo act: written notice of any meeting at which special assessments will be considered must be mailed, delivered, or electronically transmitted to the members and posted conspicuously on the property — or broadcast on closed-circuit cable television — not less than 14 days before the meeting.
The throughline for both chapters: an owner has a statutory right to know, two weeks ahead, that the board is about to consider charging them, roughly how much, and what for. Notice is not a formality — it is the legal foundation that makes the assessment collectible.
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The money is fenced to the stated purpose
Here is a rule that surprises boards and protects owners: special-assessment money is legally restricted to the purpose it was collected for. For condominiums, FS 718.116(10) is explicit:
"The funds collected pursuant to a special assessment shall be used only for the specific purpose or purposes set forth in such notice."
The statute continues: once that specific purpose is complete, any leftover money becomes common surplus, and the board may either return it to the unit owners or apply it as a credit toward future assessments. It does not become a slush fund the board can redirect.
This has two practical consequences. First, the purpose statement in the notice is not boilerplate — it is the legal boundary of how every dollar can be spent. "For repairs and improvements" is dangerously vague; "to fund the structural concrete restoration of the parking garage identified in the 2026 milestone inspection" is a real boundary. Second, a board that collects a special assessment for a roof and then spends part of it on, say, a lobby renovation has violated the statute, regardless of how worthy the second project is.
Chapter 720 does not contain a word-for-word equivalent of 718.116(10), but HOA boards are not free of the restriction. The combination of the notice requirement — which forces the board to state the nature of the assessment — the governing documents, and the board's fiduciary duty to the membership produces the same practical rule: collect for a stated purpose, spend on that purpose, account for the rest. A board that strays invites a legitimate challenge either way.
HB 913's relief valves: pause, loans, and lines of credit
The mandatory-reserve regime drew enough owner backlash that the Legislature softened it in 2025. HB 913 — signed into law effective July 1, 2025, and covered in our Florida legislative recap — followed the sweeping 2024 reform laws (HB 1203 for homeowners' associations and HB 1021 for condominiums). HB 913 did not repeal the no-waiver rule — associations still cannot simply vote to underfund SIRS reserves. What it did was add flexibility in how the obligation is met:
- A temporary pause. An eligible unit-owner-controlled association that completed its milestone inspection within the previous two years may, by a vote of a majority of the total voting interests, temporarily pause or reduce reserve contributions for no more than two consecutive annual budgets. This pause authority is available for budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2028. It is a breather, not a waiver — and it comes with conditions, including obtaining an updated SIRS before reserve funding resumes.
- Loans and lines of credit. HB 913 confirmed that a SIRS-required association may fund reserves through a special assessment, a loan, or a line of credit — with approval of a majority of the total voting interests. Borrowing lets an association spread a large structural cost over years instead of demanding it from owners all at once, though it carries interest cost and its own approval hurdle.
- A higher component threshold. HB 913 raised the dollar threshold for the items a reserve study must individually itemize from $10,000 to $25,000, with annual inflation adjustments — modest relief for smaller associations.
For a board staring at a large SIRS-driven shortfall, HB 913 means the choice is no longer simply "huge special assessment or nothing." A board can weigh a special assessment against a financed approach, or use a short pause to plan rather than react. Each path still runs through an owner vote and the association's attorney — but there are now genuine options.
When an owner doesn't pay: liens and foreclosure
A validly levied special assessment is not an optional bill. It is an obligation that attaches to the unit or parcel, and an owner who simply refuses to pay sets in motion a collection process the law spells out.
For condominiums, FS 718.116 makes every unit owner liable for assessments that come due while they own the unit, gives the association a lien on the unit to secure unpaid assessments, and allows interest — defaulting to 18% per year if the declaration is silent — plus an administrative late fee of up to the greater of $25 or 5% of the delinquent installment. For HOAs, FS 720.3085 provides a parallel lien, with one important difference: the HOA's lien exists "when authorized by the governing documents," whereas the condominium lien is granted directly by statute.
Before an association can record a lien or foreclose, it must send the statutory delinquency notices and wait out the statutory periods — including a written notice of intent to foreclose at least 45 days before a foreclosure action proceeds. These notices are not optional. An association that skips them, or sends them the wrong way, can lose its right to recover its attorney's fees and costs — turning a collection win into a financial loss. Collection is one area to run strictly by the statute and counsel. Condominium associations also operate under the oversight of Florida's Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes, which administers the dispute-resolution process an owner can use to contest an improperly levied assessment.
Short of foreclosure, the association has another lever. Under FS 720.305, an HOA may suspend an owner's right to use common areas and facilities, and suspend the owner's voting rights, once that owner is more than 90 days delinquent on a monetary obligation — the Condominium Act contains comparable suspension provisions. What an association cannot do is let an owner quietly skip a special assessment: every dollar one owner avoids is a dollar the other owners ultimately cover, which is exactly why the collection tools are as strong as they are.
The board's playbook for levying a special assessment
Pulling it together, here is the sequence a board should follow every time:
- Define the purpose and price it. Identify the specific need — the milestone repair, the insurance shortfall, the named project — and get a real estimate, ideally a contractor bid or the SIRS figure. The purpose you write down here becomes the legal boundary on the spending.
- Read your declaration and bylaws before anything else. Determine whether a board vote alone is enough or whether your governing documents require an owner vote — and if so, at what percentage and quorum. This step, skipped, is what sinks special assessments. When in doubt, ask counsel to read the clause.
- Draft the notice carefully. State clearly that a special assessment will be considered, give the estimated cost, and describe the specific purpose. Vague purpose language is both a notice defect and a future spending problem.
- Give 14 days' notice the right way. Mail, deliver, or electronically transmit the notice to every owner and post it conspicuously on the property, at least 14 days before the meeting. Document how and when notice went out.
- Hold the meeting and take the correct vote. Run the meeting, allow owner input, and take the vote your governing documents require — board vote or owner vote at the right threshold. Record it precisely in the minutes.
- Collect, segregate, and spend only on the noticed purpose. Track special-assessment funds separately, spend them solely on the stated purpose, and when the project is done, account for any surplus as the statute and your documents require.
- Communicate like the owners are your partners. The legal process is the floor, not the ceiling. Explain why the assessment is necessary, what it buys, and what happens if it is not done. Owners forgive a well-explained assessment far faster than a surprise one.
Common board mistakes
Each of these turns a routine special assessment into a dispute:
- Ignoring the governing-documents owner-vote threshold. Satisfying the statutory notice rule but missing a declaration clause that required a percentage owner vote. The assessment is then unauthorized.
- Using ordinary meeting notice. A special assessment needs the heightened 14-day mailed-or-delivered-and-posted notice — not a routine agenda line.
- Writing a vague purpose. "Repairs and improvements" fails the notice requirement and leaves the board no clear, defensible boundary on spending.
- Spending the money on the wrong thing. Redirecting special-assessment funds to a different project violates FS 718.116(10) for condos and breaches fiduciary duty for HOAs.
- Assuming an "emergency" erases the rules. Emergency powers are narrow. Do not skip notice on the assumption that urgency excuses it — confirm with counsel first.
- Botching collection. Recording a lien or filing foreclosure without the required statutory notices, or sending them improperly, can cost the association its attorney's fees.
- Treating owners as adversaries. A special assessment delivered with no explanation invites the exact backlash — and the exact legal challenges — a board is trying to avoid.
Key takeaways
- A special assessment is anything outside the annual budget. FS 718.103 defines it as any assessment other than the one required by the annually adopted budget — size and urgency are irrelevant to the label.
- 2026 is a special-assessment year. Mandatory milestone inspections and SIRS reserve funding — with no waiver allowed for SIRS components — are driving the wave.
- The board usually levies it — but check the documents. Statutes govern notice and procedure; the declaration and bylaws govern whether an owner vote is required and at what threshold.
- A special assessment triggers 14-day heightened notice. For both condos and HOAs, written notice must be mailed, delivered, or electronically transmitted and posted at least 14 days before the meeting, stating the purpose and estimated cost.
- The funds are fenced. Special-assessment money can be spent only on the purpose stated in the notice; excess becomes common surplus.
- HB 913 added options, not an exit. A conditional reserve pause, plus loans and lines of credit with majority owner approval — but no return to waiving SIRS reserves.
- Owners cannot opt out. A validly levied special assessment is enforceable through interest, late fees, liens, suspension of rights, and ultimately foreclosure.
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