Florida HOA Law (HB 1203): What Palm Beach County HOAs Can No Longer Do

What Is HB 1203?

HB 1203 (chapter 2024-221, effective July 1, 2024) was one of several 2024 laws aimed at HOA overreach. It added or tightened rules in sections 720.305, 720.3035, 720.3045 and 720.3075. One correction up front: the $100 and $1,000 fine caps are older than HB 1203. What HB 1203 changed is the process and a list of things an association cannot punish.

Can Your Florida HOA Still Fine You for Trash Cans, Holiday Lights or Parking?

The protections have specific limits. Here is what the 2026 Chapter 720 text says, checked October 27, 2026.

• Garbage cans. Section 720.305 says an association cannot fine you or suspend your privileges for cans left at the curb or end of the driveway within 24 hours before or after the scheduled pickup. Your governing documents do not change that.
• Holiday lights and decorations. No fine or suspension for keeping them up longer than your documents allow, unless they are still up more than one week after the association gives you written notice of the violation.
• Parking. Section 720.3075 says your documents cannot stop you from parking a personal vehicle, pickup trucks included, in your driveway or anywhere else you have a right to park. A work vehicle that is not a commercial motor vehicle can sit in the driveway too. The statute points to the definition in section 320.01(25) for commercial motor vehicles, and those are left out of the protection. A pickup is one conversation. A bucket truck is another.
• Contractors. You can invite, hire or admit a contractor or worker who is not on the association's preferred vendor list, and the association cannot require proof of a professional or occupational license before letting that person onto your parcel.
• Things the neighbors cannot see. Under section 720.3045, an association cannot restrict items like artificial turf, boats, flags, vegetable gardens, clotheslines or recreational vehicles if they are not visible from the front of your parcel, an adjacent parcel, an adjacent common area or a community golf course. That does not apply where general law or a local ordinance prohibits the item.
• The inside of your house and your AC. Under section 720.3035, an association cannot regulate interior features of a structure that are not visible from those same places. It also cannot require review of a central air, refrigeration, heating or ventilation system that is not visible and is substantially similar to one the association already approved or recommended.
• Projects. Section 720.3035 also says an association cannot require a government building permit before it will review your plans (the city or county still requires one, and that is a separate track), and a denial must be in writing and name the specific rule or covenant and the part of your plan that does not conform. The same section requires boards to adopt hurricane protection specifications and bars denying an application that conforms to them. An association can still require hurricane protection to follow an existing unified exterior building scheme.

What Did HB 1203 Change About HOA Fines and Hearings?

Under section 720.305, before an association can fine you or suspend a privilege:

The dollar caps are older than HB 1203 and still apply: $100 per violation, and $1,000 in the aggregate for a continuing violation, unless your governing documents provide otherwise. Read that last phrase twice, because some documents allow bigger numbers. A fine of less than $1,000 may not become a lien against your parcel.

Section 720.3035 also says architectural and similar review committees must apply their standards reasonably and equitably to all owners. That is the closest the statute comes to a ban on selective enforcement. It does not say a board can never enforce a rule against you and not your neighbor.

How Do You Push Back on an HOA Fine in Palm Beach County?

Start on paper, not at a board meeting.

1. Read the notice. It should describe the violation, what you need to fix, and where and when the hearing is.
2. Fix it first if you can. Take dated photos. A cure before the hearing, or as the notice says, ends the fine.
3. Ask for the hearing in writing and keep proof you sent it.
4. Cite the section. Garbage cans and holiday lights are section 720.305. Parking and contractors are section 720.3075. Hidden items are section 720.3045. Projects and interior rules are section 720.3035.
5. Know your lane. Fines are decided at the committee hearing. Section 720.311 requires pre-suit mediation for many other covenant disputes before anyone files in court, but it excludes the collection of any assessment, fine or other financial obligation. Election and recall disputes are not eligible for pre-suit mediation; they go to arbitration by the state or to court.

I am a Realtor, not your lawyer. When real money or a lien is on the table, call a Florida community association attorney before you answer a demand letter.

Buying in an HOA Community? Read the Documents Before the Law Helps You

The statute tells you what a board cannot do to you. It tells you nothing about what the board has already done to the budget. Run the document review during your inspection period on every HOA purchase, and have your own full professional home inspection on the house itself.

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Selling Your Current Home Too? Where Are You Moving Next?

Most people reading about HOA fights own a house they may be thinking about leaving. Here is the straight math. A $100 fine is not a reason to sell a house. A board you cannot work with for years, plus assessments that keep climbing, might be. Either way, know the number first: what your home is worth today. Then tell me where you want to land next, and we plan the sale and the purchase together so you are not carrying two homes.

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