Serving on a Florida Condominium Association board under Chapter 718 requires a firm understanding of community governance, and the recent updates have strictly defined the educational compliance standards for all directors, with no exceptions. In the past, signing a written acknowledgement affirming that a director had read the governing documents and would uphold them was enough to meet the certification requirement as an alternative to taking a class, but that either-or option is no longer allowed. Now, every newly elected or appointed director must complete both a written certification and an education course for newly elected or appointed directors within 90 days after being elected or appointed. This course must be approved by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, or DBPR, and must be at least four hours long. The curriculum specific to newly elected or appointed directors must include training on milestone inspections, structural integrity reserve studies, elections, recordkeeping, financial literacy and transparency, levying of fines, and notice and meeting requirements. Once the initial course and written certification are finished, they are valid for seven years, provided the director serves on the board without interruption.
This foundational training is an ongoing obligation rather than a one-time event. Directors must fulfill annual continuing education requirements after the first year on the board. A director of a condominium association must complete at least one hour of continuing education annually. This continuing education course cannot be on just any topic; it must specifically focus on recent legislative updates to Chapter 718 of the Florida Statutes. Directors must provide a certificate of having satisfactorily completed this ongoing requirement each year.
The association must retain the written certifications and educational certificates for newly elected or appointed directors for seven years after the director’s election, or for the duration of the director’s uninterrupted tenure, whichever is longer. Interestingly, people often mistakenly assume that the failure to have the written certification or education certificate on file invalidates board actions, but a lack of a filed certificate does not actually affect the validity of any board member or their actions. However, the individual director faces strict consequences for missing their personal compliance deadlines. A director who does not timely file both the written certification and the educational certificate for newly elected or appointed directors is automatically suspended from the board until he or she complies with the requirement. During this period of suspension, the board may temporarily fill the vacancy.