Legal News You Can Use: 2025 - 2026 Community Association Legislative Update

NEW STATUTORY AMENDMENTS

Unit Owner Meetings (Sections 718.103 and 718.112 of the Florida Statutes)

Similar to the changes affecting board meetings, the Condominium Act was also amended to introduce significant new procedures and requirements for unit owner meetings. Key updates include the following:

» Unit owner meetings, including the annual meeting, may now be conducted in person or via video conference. » If a unit owner meeting is conducted via video conference, the notice must include a hyperlink and call-in conference telephone number for unit owners to attend the meeting, as well as a physical location where unit owners can also attend the meeting in person. ▪ Note – This appears to support the previously accepted view that associations must offer a “hybrid” meeting format (providing unit owners with both in-person and virtual attendance options) when unit owner meetings are held via video conference. » If the annual meeting of the unit owners is conducted via video conference, a quorum of the board members must be physically present at the physical location where unit owners can attend the meeting. ▪ Note – This is a peculiar requirement, considering that there is no obligation for a quorum of the board to be present (whether physically or remotely) at annual meetings that are not conducted via video conference, or at any other type of membership meeting. ▪ Note – The statute does not indicate the consequence if a board quorum is not physically present at an annual meeting conducted by video conference. As a result, it is unclear whether the annual meeting could proceed under those circumstances. If it is ultimately determined that a physical quorum is required, then this could present challenges for associations whose directors might not be physically present at the condominium, potentially requiring directors to travel solely for that purpose and raising legal issues about reimbursement for travel expenses. ▪ Note – As a possible workaround, the meeting notice could state that the annual meeting will be conducted both in person and by video conference,

unless a physical quorum of board members is not present in which case the meeting would proceed in person only. Given the recent adoption of this provision, the legal validity of this potential workaround remains uncertain. ▪ Note – The statute also does not address whether this issue would impact board elections. Arguably, it would not impact the election because a quorum for the annual meeting is not required in order to have a valid election (i.e., an election may be conducted without the occurrence of an annual meeting as long as a sufficient number of election ballots are submitted). » If a unit owner meeting is conducted via video conference, a unit owner may vote electronically. ▪ Note – Additional details on the new electronic voting procedures are provided in the section titled “Electronic Voting.” That said, this new provision raises several unanswered questions. For example: (i) Does this new provision imply that unit owners may not vote electronically (or that associations are not required to accept electronically transmitted ballots) when a meeting is not held by video conference?; and (ii) Does this new provision apply to the new alternative e-mail ballot option (discussed in the section titled “Electronic Voting”) and to a traditional electronic voting system, or only to the latter? Depending on how these questions are interpreted, this new provision could potentially conflict with the new electronic voting statutes. In any event, this represents a shift from previous law, which only entitled unit owners to vote electronically when the board opted to make the electronic voting system available for a particular vote (except in the case of elections where the board was required to honor a unit owner’s request to vote electronically in all future elections after an electronic voting system had been implemented). » If a unit owner meeting is conducted via video

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