Florida Condo Sec. 718 Laundry List for Approvals

You can start with reading your own documents. They might also define terms like material alteration. You could try Google AI to give you some ideas, but remember you have to do the work and read. HOAs don't have to operate by the exact set of rules, there will be differences due to age, size, whether its a high rise or detached single family home, etc. In fact, I believe Florida has a set of rules specifically for condos.

Now, one definition of material alteration is "altering a building's structural elements, utility systems or exterior that can affect its use, function or appearance." After reading your own documents, you may have to have a chat with your own attorney if there's something you don't understand. State law is helpful, but some statutes Defer to the documents, especially if the documents have stronger language than state law. There's also local law to consider and one county's rules may be different than another's.

And then there are board resolutions that are passed to address certain issues that aren't clear or addressed at all in the documents or state law. Ideally, the board polls the community to get a handle on various issues, drafts proposed rules, asks for comments from the community, consults with the attorney to ensure the rules don't override the documents and then votes to approve them via a board resolution. There should be an effective date and I like to see a period where people in violation get a chance to fix it before the new rule kicks in.

Not everything in HOA land is addressed in a statute or documents - there should be be room for common sense. People, priorities and tastes also change and so what worked even 5 years ago might have had unintentional consequences and so adjustments are appropriate.

Back to compiling a list- check your state legislature website. It should have a database of current state law, so this is already done on the state level. If you're looking for specifics for every HOA or condo community, you mightvhave to hire someone (or several) to do the research for you. Ditto for state and local law. Toss all of this in a set of links and let people do their own work. Or check if there's a state chapter of the community association institute and see what they have.

Why do you want or expect the State to regulate condo matters that will pertain to all condos in the state?

I don’t believe Florida, at least not yet, really cares about bushes. You ask about a $60,000 expenditure for cameras, depending son the association this amount might be chump change. I suspect a board requiring a 20% down payment is basically announcing they are considered "non-warrantable” and one can’t get a mortgage without 20% down.