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What Can My HOA Architectural Committee Legally Reject?
Use the free tool — ARC Request Builder
What Florida law lets your architectural committee review
Under Fla. Stat. 720.3035, a Florida homeowners' association's authority to review the location, size, type or appearance of what you want to build is limited. The committee can only apply a standard that is specifically stated, or reasonably inferred, in your community's own governing documents.
That means the committee cannot invent a rule that isn't written down somewhere in your declaration, bylaws or recorded architectural guidelines.
What a committee cannot do
A committee cannot reject your request based on a preference that appears nowhere in your governing documents. If a member objects without pointing to a written rule, that objection is not, by itself, an authority the statute gives them.
This does not guarantee your project will be approved. It only describes the outer limit of what the statute lets the committee consider.
Why requests get rejected the most
Architectural committees reject requests for being vague far more often than for being unreasonable. A request missing dimensions, materials, colors or exact location is an easy one to bounce.
- What you want to build or change
- Where on the property it will go
- What it is made of
Describing these clearly, in writing, the way a committee expects to receive them, is the most practical thing you can control.
Check your own declaration and written standards first
Your declaration may prohibit your project outright, no matter how well the request is written. This guide cannot tell you what your declaration says — you need to read it yourself.
Fla. Stat. 720.303 gives you the right to inspect the association's official records. That is how you can get a copy of the written architectural standards the committee is supposed to be applying to your request.
Is this the right tool for you?
This is Chapter 720, for Florida homeowners' associations. If you live in a condominium, cooperative, timeshare or mobile home park, this is not your statute — condominiums are governed by Chapter 718 — and you should not rely on this guide.
If you already received a violation notice or a fine, that's a different situation. Use the HOA violation responder tool instead of this one.
The tool that builds your actual request describes itself as free, but the listed plans are "One project" for $4.99 per project and "Contractors" for $29 per month, so generating a written request has a cost. The material does not say whether what you type is saved, so avoid pasting anything you would not want kept, and check the tool's own privacy terms.
What to do next
The free tool reads your own project description — what you want to build, where, and what it's made of — and writes a request in the format a committee expects, along with a plain explanation of what Florida law does and does not let the committee consider.
This is not legal advice. For anything contested, or before you spend money based on this guide, confirm with a Florida community association attorney and read your own declaration and bylaws.
ARC Request Builder reads what you type and explains Florida Chapter 720 in plain language. It can be wrong, it is not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for reading your community's own declaration and bylaws, and your declaration may prohibit the project outright regardless of how well the request is written. For anything contested, talk to a Florida community association attorney.