Florida Condo 115% Budget Rule for 2027: What Changed
One rule about Florida condo budgets still gets repeated at meetings, and it is no longer in the statute. It goes like this: if the budget the board adopts requires assessments above 115 percent of last year's, owners can petition for a special meeting and vote in a substitute budget instead.
That rule was real. Through June 30, 2025, s. 718.112(2)(e)2.a. turned on "a written request for a special meeting from at least 10 percent of all voting interests," received within 21 days after the board adopted the annual budget.
Read the section today and none of that is there. Not narrowed, not moved to a different paragraph. The petition and the 21-day window are gone, and something else is sitting in their place.
The backstop most boards think they still have
In Broward, Miami-Dade, or Palm Beach, a volunteer director or treasurer on a condominium or cooperative board is sitting with a draft 2027 budget right now. The assessment line is going up, and the fall meeting is coming. That director has been in a room where someone recited the petition rule out loud, with confidence. Nobody present had reason to doubt it.
What that director believes they still have is a backstop. If the board's number comes in hot, owners get a check on it after the fact, on their own initiative. The board's job is to sit through the complaints. That backstop was already gone during last fall's budget season, the one that set the 2026 budgets.
Does a proposed 2027 budget trip the 115 percent test? If it does, what does s. 718.112(2)(e) now require the board itself to bring to the meeting? And what has to reach owners 14 days ahead for that meeting to stand?
Does a 2027 Budget Trip Florida's 115 Percent Test?
A 2027 budget trips the test when the assessments it requires against unit owners exceed 115 percent of assessments for the preceding fiscal year. The comparison now runs at the proposal stage, before the board adopts anything.
The current text begins: "If a board proposes in any fiscal year an annual budget which requires assessments against unit owners which exceed 115 percent of assessments for the preceding fiscal year." The 2024 version of that same sentence began "If a board adopts." Chapter 2025-175, enacted as CS/CS/HB 913, made that swap effective July 1, 2025.
One word, and it moves the whole test. Under the old wording, an adopted budget triggered it. A board could take its vote and only then learn the number it passed sat above the line. Under the current wording, a proposed budget triggers it. That puts the comparison in the drafting stage, next to the spreadsheet.
For a board working on 2027, the arithmetic is small. Total the assessments the proposed 2027 budget requires against unit owners. Set that total against 115 percent of the 2026 figure. The answer decides what else has to be in the room that night.
What the 115 Percent Test Excludes, and What Changed in the List
The current text excludes three things from the 115 percent comparison: required reserves for repair or replacement of the condominium property, anticipated expenses the board does not expect on a regular or annual basis for the items listed in paragraph (g), and insurance premiums.
| Excluded from the comparison | 2024 text | Current text |
|---|---|---|
| Reserves | "reasonable reserves for repair or replacement of the condominium property" | "required reserves for repair or replacement of the condominium property" |
| Non-regular expenses | expenses "the board does not expect to be incurred on a regular or annual basis" | tied to "the repair, maintenance, or replacement of the items listed in paragraph (g)" |
| Insurance premiums | Excluded | Excluded |
| Betterments | "assessments for betterments to the condominium property" | Not in the list |
Two rows carry the change. The reserve exclusion now turns on the word "required" where it used to turn on "reasonable." What counts as a required reserve is the subject of our breakdown of the HB 913 reserve rules. Same bill, quieter paragraph.
The second row is betterments. "Assessments for betterments to the condominium property" sat in the 2024 exclusion sentence and is not in the current one. That is what the two texts say. What it does to a particular building's comparison depends on that building's own numbers.
What the Board Must Bring to the Meeting If the Budget Trips the Test
A board finishes its 2027 draft in the fall. The assessments it requires sit above 115 percent of the 2026 figure. Under the old rule, the next move was to adopt the budget and wait. Owners had 21 days to produce a written request from 10 percent of all voting interests. A special meeting followed within 60 days if they did. If nothing arrived, the budget stood as adopted.
What the current text puts in its place happens in one meeting, in this order.
The board "shall simultaneously propose a substitute budget that does not include any discretionary expenditures that are not required to be in the budget." The substitute "must be proposed at the budget meeting before the adoption of the annual budget." Unit owners "must consider and may adopt" it. It is adopted "if approved by a majority of all voting interests unless the bylaws require adoption by a greater percentage of voting interests," which is a question for a given association's own bylaws and its attorney. And "if a substitute budget is not adopted, the annual budget previously initially proposed by the board may be adopted."
The board now argues its own number down in the same room, before the vote.
What Notice Has to Go Out 14 Days Before the Budget Meeting
For a budget meeting where a substitute budget will be proposed, the statute sets a floor of at least 14 days. The board hand delivers a notice of the meeting to each unit owner, or mails it to the address last furnished to the association. A signed affidavit of compliance goes into the association's official records.
The affidavit sentence names who signs: "An officer or manager of the association, or other person providing notice of such meeting shall execute an affidavit evidencing compliance with this notice requirement." The person who sent the notice is the one who swears to it. The affidavit lives in the official records, not in a manager's inbox.
Section 718.112(2)(e)1. sets a 14-day floor for any meeting where a proposed annual budget will be considered. It requires the board to deliver "a notice of such meeting and a copy of the proposed annual budget," by hand delivery, by mail, or by electronic transmission, with an affidavit filed the same way. The substitute-budget sentence applies that same 14-day floor to the meeting where the substitute budget itself will be proposed.
The 115 percent obligation now runs in the other direction
The petition was not deleted and left unreplaced. The obligation it created moved, and it moved in two directions at once: onto the board, and earlier.
Under the old text, owners carried it. The board adopted its budget. Then 10 percent of all voting interests had 21 days to put a written request together. A special meeting followed within 60 days. If nobody organized, nothing happened.
Under the current text, the board carries it before its own budget is adopted. The words are "shall simultaneously propose." The duty attaches at the proposal, in the same meeting, whether or not a single owner says a word.
A board that still thinks of the 115 percent rule as an owner check on the board has the direction of the obligation backward.
Where this leaves the 2027 budget season
A director can still recite the old rule: a written request from at least 10 percent of all voting interests within 21 days. It described what owners could do after the board acted. On July 1, 2025, it stopped being law. The fall 2025 season set the 2026 budgets, and it ran under the current text. Nothing about this arrives new for 2027. The words that replaced it are in the same subparagraph, s. 718.112(2)(e)2.a., where the petition used to be.
What sits in its place describes what the board does before it acts. The board measures its proposed 2027 numbers against 115 percent of the 2026 figure, and has a substitute budget written and ready if they clear it. Nobody has to petition for that to be true.
The one check worth running before the meeting is noticed
Before the 2027 budget meeting is noticed, the board's calendar is worth reading against two lines in s. 718.112(2)(e). One is the 14-day notice with its affidavit. The other is the 115 percent comparison that decides whether a substitute budget has to exist before anyone walks into the room. If a second set of eyes on those dates would help, ask us for a budget-calendar check.
Frequently asked questions
Is 2027 the first budget season under the new 115 percent rule?
No. The current text has been in force since July 1, 2025, the effective date of chapter 2025-175, enacted as CS/CS/HB 913 (2025) and approved by the Governor on June 23, 2025. The fall 2025 season, the one that adopted 2026 budgets, already ran under it. The 2027 season is not the first.
Does the 115 percent rule apply to homeowners' associations under Chapter 720?
No. Section 720.303 contains no 115 percent threshold and no substitute-budget provision. This mechanism is a Chapter 718 condominium and cooperative rule.
What happens if owners do not adopt the board's substitute budget?
The current text says that if a substitute budget is not adopted, "the annual budget previously initially proposed by the board may be adopted." The 2024 text used different words for that moment: if there was no quorum at the special meeting or a substitute budget was not adopted, the annual budget previously adopted by the board "shall take effect as scheduled." The current sentence carries no quorum clause.
Does the 115 percent test work differently while the developer controls the board?
Yes. The current text carries a separate sentence for that situation: "If the developer controls the board, assessments may not exceed 115 percent of assessments for the prior fiscal year unless approved by a majority of all voting interests."
Who has to sign the notice affidavit, and where does it go?
An officer or manager of the association, or another person who provided the notice, executes an affidavit evidencing compliance with the notice requirement, and that affidavit is filed among the official records of the association. The statute states the same requirement for the general budget-meeting notice and for the meeting where a substitute budget will be proposed.
Sources
- Florida Statutes, Section 718.112 (2025), current text of the budget meeting subparagraph and the History note showing s. 8, ch. 2025-175, flsenate.gov.
- Florida Statutes, Section 718.112 (2024), the superseded text carrying the owner petition, the 21-day window and the 60-day special meeting, flsenate.gov.
- CS/CS/HB 913 (2025), Condominium and Cooperative Associations, Chapter 2025-175, Laws of Florida, approved by the Governor June 23, 2025, effective July 1, 2025, flsenate.gov.
- Florida Statutes, Section 720.303 (2025), which contains no 115 percent threshold and no substitute-budget provision, flsenate.gov.
