Florida HOA Bylaws & Declaration Amendment Vote Calculator

How this calculator works

Florida community associations amend their governing documents — the recorded declaration, the bylaws, and (less often) the articles of incorporation — through statutorily prescribed vote thresholds. The thresholds vary by class of amendment and by chapter: condominiums under Chapter 718 follow one set of rules, HOAs under Chapter 720 follow another, and the post-2018 use-restriction rule under F.S. § 718.110(13) layers a third regime on top. The declaration itself may also prescribe a higher threshold, and a declaration-prescribed threshold is enforceable under Lake Forest Master Community Ass'n v. Buisson (Fla. 4th DCA 2018).

This calculator takes the association type, the class of amendment, the total voting interests, the declaration-specified threshold, and the current vote totals, and returns four numbers: the required threshold percentage, the required affirmative yes-vote count, the quorum count required for a valid meeting, and a Passes / Falls Short / Pending outcome verdict. It also classifies the amendment so a board running the vote sees the controlling statute and rationale on the same page as the math.

The classes of amendment

Florida amendments fall into five practical classes. Each class has its own statutory baseline.

Condo Declaration — general amendment. F.S. § 718.110(1)(a) defers to the declaration on the threshold and uses a default 2/3 of total voting interests if the declaration is silent. Post-2010 amendments to § 718.110 capped the threshold a NEW declaration may impose at a majority of voting interests, but pre-existing declaration-prescribed thresholds (including 2/3, 3/4, and 4/5) remain enforceable. The recorded declaration is the binding contract; the calculator uses the higher of the declaration-specified threshold and the statutory baseline.

Condo Bylaws. F.S. § 718.110 and § 718.112(2)(j) defer to the declaration / bylaws on the amendment threshold. The default is a majority of total voting interests where the bylaws are silent. The bylaws cannot prescribe a procedure inconsistent with Chapter 718 — notice, quorum, and the right to participate are statutory minimums.

Condo Use Restriction — post-2018. F.S. § 718.110(13) requires 75% of the total voting interests for any amendment that materially restricts owner use of units or common elements, regardless of the declaration's general amendment clause. The rule was added by the 2018 Florida legislative session in response to a recurring abuse pattern: bare-majority boards imposing rental caps, occupancy limits, age restrictions, and similar restrictive covenants on existing owners using the declaration's ordinary amendment clause. § 718.110(13) is a floor — the declaration may require more, but cannot require less.

HOA Declaration / Covenants. F.S. § 720.306(1)(c) sets a 2/3 baseline for declaration / covenant amendments. The declaration may require less or more (rare). Most Florida HOA declarations track the 2/3 default; the amendment must be recorded in the public records of the county to take effect.

HOA Bylaws. F.S. § 720.306(1)(b) sets a 2/3 baseline for HOA bylaws amendments. The bylaws may specify a different threshold; the bylaws control. Notice and member-meeting requirements are statutory minimums.

The threshold math

The calculator computes the required yes-vote count as the ceiling of total voting interests times the effective threshold percentage. On a 100-unit equal-share condo at the 2/3 default, the required yes-vote count is 67 (ceiling of 66.67). On a 101-unit building, the ceiling math returns 68 — a small but consequential rounding effect that matters in close votes. On a 200-unit HOA at the 2/3 default, the count is 134.

The denominator is total voting interests, not votes cast. Abstentions and non-votes are excluded from the numerator (they do not count as yes) but do not reduce the denominator. The practical effect is that an apathetic ownership base makes a 2/3 or 75% threshold structurally harder to clear. A campaign supporting an amendment must mobilize affirmative yes votes from a supermajority of all voting interests — not just a supermajority of those who bother to vote.

Worked example. A 100-unit Florida condominium proposes a general amendment to its recorded declaration. The declaration prescribes the 2/3 statutory default, so the threshold is 66.67%. The required yes-vote count is 67 (ceiling of 66.67). The board conducts the vote per the declaration's procedure and tallies:

• 70 yes
• 20 no
• 10 absent / non-vote

The calculator returns Passes. The amendment cleared the 67-vote requirement with three votes to spare. The 20 no votes are reported for transparency, but only the yes count is binding under F.S. § 718.110. The 10 abstentions / non-votes do not help or hurt — they are excluded from the numerator. The board next executes the recording certificate under § 718.110(3), records the amendment in the public records of the county, and updates the association's official governing-document binder.

If the proposed amendment were instead a new rental cap — a use restriction — F.S. § 718.110(13) would lift the threshold to 75%. The required yes-vote count on the same 100-unit building would be 75, not 67. The same 70-yes tally would now Fall Short by 5 votes.

Quorum vs vote threshold — they are distinct

Quorum is a presence requirement. Default quorum is 30% of voting interests under F.S. § 718.112(2)(b) (condo) and § 720.306(1)(a) (HOA), subject to the declaration. The quorum requirement is that enough voting interests be present (in person, by proxy, or by ballot) for the meeting to be valid. On a 100-unit association at the 30% default, quorum is 30.

The vote threshold is the affirmative-yes count required to carry the amendment, and the denominator is total voting interests — not just those present. A 100-unit condo could clear quorum with 30 owners present, but a declaration amendment still requires 67 affirmative yes votes from the full 100, not 67% of the 30 present. The two requirements run in parallel. Both must be satisfied for the amendment to pass.

Boards that conflate the two — running a quorum-only vote and claiming the amendment passed by a "majority of those present" — set the amendment up for a Lake Forest-style challenge. The recorded declaration controls; the statutory denominator controls; quorum is a presence requirement, not a passage one.

The Lake Forest v. Buisson declaration-binding principle

Lake Forest Master Community Ass'n v. Buisson (Fla. 4th DCA 2018) is the post-2010 anchor case on declaration-prescribed amendment thresholds. The opinion confirmed two principles that drive the calculator's default behavior.

First, declaration-prescribed thresholds are enforceable. A declaration that specifies 3/4 or 4/5 for declaration amendments controls over the statutory 2/3 default. A board cannot disregard the declaration's higher threshold and rely on the statutory minimum; the recorded declaration is the binding contract. The calculator uses the higher of the declaration-specified threshold and the statutory baseline.

Second, a board cannot informally lower a declaration-prescribed threshold. The path to a lower threshold is a recorded amendment to the declaration's amendment clause, conducted at the existing higher threshold. A board that runs the vote at the statutory default rather than the declaration's higher number invites declaratory and injunctive relief.

Subsequent Florida legislative sessions (2019–2022) reinforced the principle by clarifying the recording, certification, and notice requirements under § 718.110(3) and § 720.306(1)(e). The pattern is consistent: amendment procedures are taken seriously, and shortcuts do not survive challenge.

The post-2018 use-restriction floor under § 718.110(13)

F.S. § 718.110(13) was added in the 2018 session to address a specific recurring pattern: condominium boards imposing rental caps, occupancy limits, age restrictions, short-term-rental bans, and similar restrictive covenants on existing owners through the declaration's ordinary amendment clause (often 2/3). The legislative concern was that owners who bought into a unit with no rental restriction were being subjected to one without a meaningful supermajority of their neighbors agreeing.

Section 718.110(13) sets a 75% floor on any amendment that materially restricts owner use of units or common elements. The floor applies regardless of the declaration's general amendment clause — a declaration prescribing 2/3 for general amendments cannot be used to impose a new use restriction at the 2/3 threshold. The 75% rule governs.

The calculator handles this automatically. When the amendment class is set to "Condo use-restriction amendment, post-2018," the effective threshold is the higher of 75% and the declaration's specified number. A declaration that prescribes 90% for use restrictions controls; a declaration that prescribes 50% is overridden by the 75% statutory floor.

The line between an ordinary declaration amendment and a use-restriction amendment is fact-sensitive. Pure procedural changes (recording requirements, meeting procedures) are general amendments. Restrictions on rental, occupancy, age, pets, vehicles, short-term rentals, signage, or business use are use restrictions. A close-call amendment is safer run at the 75% threshold than challenged later under § 718.110(13).

Mortgagee consents and recording

Many Florida declarations require the consent of institutional mortgagees for declaration amendments that affect mortgage priority, change unit boundaries, or materially alter common-element allocations. The mortgagee-consent requirement runs in parallel with the owner-vote requirement; both must be satisfied. F.S. § 718.110(11) for condos and the declaration's express terms for HOAs govern. Pull the declaration's mortgagee-consent clause before relying on the calculator's owner-vote math alone.

Once the vote passes, the amendment must be recorded in the public records of the county where the property is located. The recorded amendment must include a certificate executed by the association attesting that the amendment was properly adopted (notice, quorum, vote tally). Bylaws amendments are typically not recorded — they take effect on adoption and are maintained in the association's official records under F.S. § 718.111(12) (condo) or § 720.303(4) (HOA).

What the calculator does not do

This calculator is a planning and analysis tool. It does not:

• Make the classification determination on contested facts. A new rule that arguably restricts owner use but is presented as a procedural clarification may or may not fall under § 718.110(13). Engage Florida community-association counsel on close calls; the conservative posture is to run the vote at 75%.
• Verify mortgagee-consent compliance. The calculator computes the owner-vote math. Mortgagee consent is a separate requirement governed by the declaration; coordinate with the title company.
• Run the recording / certification mechanics. F.S. § 718.110(3) and § 720.306(1)(e) prescribe a certificate of amendment with statutorily required language; the calculator returns the vote outcome but does not draft the certificate.
• Compute notice or ballot mechanics. The amendment vote must be conducted per the declaration's voting procedure (notice, ballot, voting window, vote tally). The calculator returns the threshold and verdict; running the vote itself is procedural.

How this page is maintained

The 2/3 baseline under F.S. § 718.110 and § 720.306 has been stable across multiple Florida legislative sessions. The 2018 addition of § 718.110(13) and the post-Lake Forest legislative clarifications established the modern framework. We monitor each Florida legislative session and re-stamp the page within the quarter after any substantive change to § 718.110, § 720.306, or the related case-law landscape.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-15 against F.S. § 718.110, F.S. § 718.110(13), F.S. § 720.306(1)(b), F.S. § 720.306(1)(c), and Lake Forest Master Community Ass'n v. Buisson (Fla. 4th DCA 2018).