new certification course in florida

Is anyone familiar with possible new legislation that could take effect on 7/1/2024 that would require new board members to take a 4 hour certification course to serve on the boards of a HOA OR CONDO ASSOC IN Florida?

There has been a requirement since around 2013 that board members (HOA and COA) in Florida have to take a course (although not four hours) within 90 days of being elected. The current requirements are:

-Within 90 days of their appointment or election, the HOA director must submit a letter to the association’s secretary that they have completely read the HOA’s governing documents and agree to uphold them to the best of their ability.

-Within 90 days of their appointment or election, the HOA director must submit proof of completion of an approved HOA certification course.

Almost every HOA or COA attorney provides these courses for free. You can do a "live" course in person or on zoom, or you can take a recorded course.

I went to a webinar on the new legislation and the law firm that hosted the webinar said that there will not be an issue finding law firms and management companies that will provide these courses. The courses will have to be approved by the state, so they will probably all cover the same topics. I think the legislation also includes continuing education, so board members will have to recertify every year.

The course I took was very informative, but it wasn't four hours and it just highlighted points from FS 718 and FS 720. I think the requirement to have some kind of education is a good thing. A couple of my board members could use a refresher. But a four hour course is going to keep a lot of people from wanting to serve on boards, and we have enough trouble finding volunteers.

I actually went to two webinars on the new proposed legislation and ALL the attorneys were dreading this new legislation actually being signed into law, because it's really overkill and is going to cause a lot of problems for most associations. There are also architectural review restrictions that are very harmful to most associations. It's going to be a mess over the next year if this really goes into effect. Blame it on that very corrupt HOA in the Miami area.

We used to have the attorney you mentioned (who writes the column) as our association attorney. We had to fire him because he was overcharging us for everything. If the board president (before me) asked him a question, he would send his opinion and pages and pages of court decisions that may or may not have anything to do with what we asked and charge us for all the research. He worked on a new set of governing documents for us and ended up charging the association over $50,000 in one year for legal fees. However, I will say the website for the firm he works for is extremely useful and I still go to some of the webinars they put on.

I live in a much larger association in your same area, and we still have a terrible time getting volunteers to do anything. There's also criminal penalties for directors if they violate some of the FS 720 statute and even with D&O insurance no one is going to want to volunteer.