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How to Challenge a Special Assessment in Florida: Notice, Records, and the ADR Trap

Updated August 25, 2026. Quick answer: The thing you will be told first is usually wrong. Florida’s mandatory arbitrate-or-mediate-before-suit track does not apply to an assessment dispute at all – the statute excludes it by name. What the statute does give you are notice requirements and a records right, and both are dated and checkable.

The ADR requirement does not cover assessments

Fla. Stat. s. 718.1255(4)(a) is the presuit rule: “Before the institution of court litigation, a party to a dispute, other than an election or recall dispute, shall either petition the division for nonbinding arbitration or initiate presuit mediation as provided in subsection (5).”

But “dispute” is a defined term, and s. 718.1255(1) excludes, in terms, “the levy of a fee or assessment, or the collection of an assessment levied against a party”. An assessment challenge is therefore not inside the mandatory track. That does not make it a winning claim – it means the procedural detour you were told is compulsory is not.

The notice rules are the first thing to check

A nonemergency special assessment has a notice requirement with a specific length: written notice “must be mailed, delivered, or electronically transmitted to the unit owners and posted conspicuously on the condominium property at least 14 days before the meeting.”

The content requirement is the one more often missed. Notice of a meeting where assessments will be considered “must specifically state that assessments will be considered and provide the estimated cost and description of the purposes for such assessments.” A notice that says only “budget matters” does not meet that.

The records right is the lever

Fla. Stat. s. 718.111(12)(c) requires the association to make its official records available within 10 working days of a written request, and it “may not require a member to demonstrate any purpose or state any reason for the inspection”.

Missing that window has a defined consequence: failure to produce within 10 working days “creates a rebuttable presumption that the association willfully failed to comply,” and “minimum damages are $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days, beginning on the 11th working day after receipt of the written request.”

The records are what turn a suspicion into a fact: the meeting notice as sent, the minutes, the reserve study the assessment is said to rest on, and the bids.

What this page does not settle

Scope: Florida chapter 718 condominiums. This describes procedure, not merits – nothing here says an assessment is improper or that a challenge will succeed, and an assessment challenge is a matter for a Florida attorney. Election and recall disputes follow a different route and are not covered.

Sources

Related: Florida SIRS Deadline · Special Assessment · the reserve study a buyer should ask for.

General information drawn from the primary statutes, regulations and filings named above, not legal, tax or financial advice. Read your own governing documents or contract before relying on any general description, including this one.

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