LCAM: what a Licensed Community
Association Manager does for your board.
LCAM stands for Licensed Community Association Manager. It is a state licence, not a job title a company can hand out, and Florida law is specific about what the licence covers and when your association is required to use one.
What the licence actually covers.
Section 468.431(2) does not describe community association management in general terms. It lists the specific work that requires the licence when it is done for pay. If someone is doing any of the following for your association and being paid for it, the law expects them to hold the licence.
- Controlling or disbursing association funds
- Preparing budgets and other financial documents
- Assisting in the noticing or conduct of association meetings
- Determining the number of days required for statutory notices
- Determining amounts due to the association
- Collecting amounts due before a civil action is filed
- Calculating the votes required for a quorum or to approve a proposition or amendment
- Completing forms created by statute or by a state agency
- Drafting meeting notices and agendas
- Calculating and preparing certificates of assessment and estoppel certificates
- Responding to requests for certificates of assessment and estoppel certificates
- Negotiating monetary or performance terms of a contract subject to board approval
- Drafting prearbitration demands
- Coordinating or performing maintenance of association property
Clerical and ministerial work does not require the licence, as long as it is done under the direct supervision and control of someone who holds one. That is the line between an office assistant and a manager.
More than 10 units, or a budget over $100,000.
The licensing requirement in section 468.431(2) is triggered when the association or associations being served contain more than 10 units, or have an annual budget or budgets in excess of $100,000. Below that line the work is the same, but the statute does not require a licence for it.
Section 468.432(1) puts it plainly: a person may not manage, or hold themselves out to the public as being able to manage, a community association in Florida unless they are licensed. And under 468.432(2) the management firm needs its own licence too, once it is responsible for more than 10 units or a budget of $100,000 or greater. A licensed manager inside an unlicensed firm is not enough.
Firm licences expire on September 30 of odd-numbered years and are renewed every two years, and each firm has to name a licensed manager who answers department enquiries. Those are both reasonable things for a board to ask a prospective manager to evidence.
The manager is your agent, and the standards are statutory.
Section 468.4334 says a community association manager or management firm acts as agent on behalf of the association as principal. That word matters. It is the legal reason the following are obligations rather than service promises.
The manager has to carry out the association's work to that standard. It is written into the statute, not left to the contract.
Dealing straight with the board and the owners is a licensing obligation, and the department can act on a failure to do it.
The board is entitled to know what the manager knows about the association's affairs, not a filtered version of it.
Every dollar of association money the manager touches has to be accounted for to the association.
Charging unreasonable or excessive fees is itself a breach of the professional practice standards.
A manager may not knowingly carry out an act directed by the association if that act would break a state or federal law.
Two things to look for in the management agreement.
One. Section 468.4334(1)(c) requires the contract to carry a written statement, in at least 12-point type, saying that the manager will abide by all professional standards and record-keeping requirements imposed under Part VIII of Chapter 468. If it is not in your agreement, ask why.
Two. A contract cannot waive or limit those professional practice standards. If a proposed agreement tries to, that clause is not something the board has to accept.
There is a third point worth knowing if your building is affected by the structural laws. Where an association is subject to milestone inspections under section 553.899, or to structural integrity reserve study requirements under sections 718.112(2)(g) and 719.106(1)(k), the manager and the firm have to comply with those sections as directed by the board.
Royale is a licensed firm, staffed by licensed managers.
We manage condominium, cooperative and homeowners associations in Fort Lauderdale and across South Florida. If your board is comparing managers, ask each of them for the same evidence this page describes.
This page summarises Florida Statutes Chapter 468 Part VIII as read in September 2026. It is general information, not legal advice. Check the current text and your own governing documents with your association's attorney.