What questions should I ask before my HOA votes on the budget?
Use the free tool — HOA Budget Reader
What this guide is for
This page is about a Florida homeowners' association (HOA) budget — the proposed spending plan a board presents before a vote. It follows Chapter 720, Florida's HOA law. If you live in a condominium, cooperative, timeshare, or mobile home park, Chapter 720 is not your statute — condominiums are Chapter 718 — so do not rely on anything here.
If you received a violation notice or a fine, this is not the right guide. Use the HOA violation responder instead.
What's actually in a budget line
A budget is a one-page table. Each line is a category of spending for the year — insurance, landscaping, management fees, reserves, and so on. The board is required to produce financial reporting under Fla. Stat. 720.3086, which sets what the association's annual financial report must include.
Reserves: ask, don't assume
Whether — and how — your community funds reserves depends on your own declaration and bylaws. This guide can't tell you what your community requires, because that lives in your governing documents, not in the statute alone. Read your declaration and bylaws before you decide whether a reserve line looks right or wrong.
Fla. Stat. 720.303 covers the association's budgets, financial reporting, and official records — including your right as a member to inspect the records behind the numbers.
Your right to see the paperwork behind a number
- If a line looks large or unexplained, you can make a written request for the official records behind it.
- Under Fla. Stat. 720.303, the association has 10 business days after a written request to make official records available.
- This is how you see the invoices behind a budget line, not just the total.
Questions worth asking before the vote
- What does each large or unfamiliar line pay for, specifically?
- Where is the reserve schedule, and does it match what the declaration and bylaws require for this community?
- Can I see the invoices or contracts behind a line before the vote, using a written records request?
- What changed from last year's budget, and why?
Ask before the vote when a line is large, unexplained, or reserves look absent or minimal compared to what the association owns. This does not mean anything unlawful happened — a budget table alone can't show that.
What this can't tell you
This guide, and the tool behind it, explain a budget in plain language. They are not an audit, cannot tell you whether money was misspent, and are not financial, tax, or legal advice. For anything contested, talk to a Florida community association attorney.
What to do next
Paste your proposed budget or financial report into the free tool. It reads your own numbers — not a generic example — and explains each line, flags what to ask about reserves, and lists the questions worth raising before the vote.
HOA Budget Reader 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 it is not an audit — it cannot detect misuse of funds. For anything contested, talk to a Florida community association attorney.