Florida Law: No HOA Fine If You Cure the Violation Before the Hearing

Updated September 2026 • 10 min read

Since July 1, 2024, Florida law has said something most homeowners — and a fair number of boards — still haven’t caught up to: if you fix the violation before your fining committee hearing happens, the association cannot impose a fine for it. Not “probably won’t.” Cannot. That rule came from HB 1203, which rewrote several pieces of Fla. Stat. §720.305, and it changes the calculus for anyone sitting on a violation notice trying to decide whether it’s worth rushing the fix.

This guide walks through exactly what HB 1203 changed in the fining and hearing process, why it matters more than most of the coverage of that bill suggests, and how to actually use the cure-before-hearing rule instead of just reading about it after the fact.

What HB 1203 Actually Changed in §720.305

HB 1203 is a broad bill, and most of the attention it got focused on two other pieces: it stopped associations from banning ordinary pickup trucks and work vehicles from driveways under §720.3075, and it added teeth to the records-request rules under §720.303. Our pickup truck parking guide and board power vs. homeowner rights guide cover those two changes in detail. What got less attention is that the same bill also rewrote the mechanics of §720.305, the fining statute itself, in ways that directly affect how much leverage a homeowner has once a violation notice arrives.

Four specific changes matter here:

1. The 14-day hearing notice now has to explain how the violation can be cured, when curing is possible — not just state that a violation exists.
2. The committee hearing has to happen within 90 days of that notice being issued.
3. If the violation is cured before the hearing, the association cannot impose a fine or a suspension for it.
4. If it isn’t cured and the fine is upheld, the committee has to issue written findings within seven days of the hearing, and any payment deadline in that decision has to be at least 30 days out.

Taken together, these aren’t cosmetic procedural tweaks. They turn the period between the notice and the hearing into a defined, time-boxed window where fixing the problem has a guaranteed legal payoff — which is a meaningfully different incentive than the old version of the law, where curing early was simply something a sympathetic committee might reward.

Why the Old Rule Left So Much Room for Inconsistent Enforcement

Before this amendment, Chapter 720 required the 14-day notice and the independent-committee hearing, but it didn’t put a firm deadline on when the hearing had to happen, and it didn’t say anything definitive about what curing early actually bought a homeowner. In practice, that meant two homeowners in the same community, with the same violation, fixed at the same speed, could get different outcomes depending on which committee they drew and how that committee felt about early compliance that day. One of the more common arguments homeowners raise at a hearing is exactly this — “I already corrected it” — and it used to work only as persuasion, not as a rule the committee was bound to follow.

That inconsistency is also part of why the 90-day hearing deadline matters on its own, separate from the cure rule. Before it existed, an association with a backlog, a vacant management position, or simply no urgency could leave a notice pending for months, which is its own kind of pressure on a homeowner who doesn’t know when the hearing is coming or how long they have to act.

How to Actually Use This If You Have a Notice Right Now

• Read the notice for a cure explanation. If it doesn’t say how to fix the specific issue, ask the board or property manager in writing to clarify — you’re entitled to that information under the amended statute.
• Move on the fix immediately, not after the hearing date is confirmed. The rule only helps you if the violation is actually cured before the hearing happens, so treat the hearing date as the real deadline, not the 14-day notice period.
• Document the cure the day it’s finished. Dated, timestamped photos from multiple angles, plus a written notice to the association confirming the date the condition was corrected. If the hearing gets scheduled quickly, you want to already have this in hand.
• Put the completion notice in writing before the hearing, not verbally at it. A written notice creates a record of when you cured the issue relative to the hearing date, which matters if there’s ever a dispute about timing.
• If the hearing has gone unscheduled well past 90 days from the notice, say so in writing. Ask the association to confirm the current status of the matter and whether it still intends to pursue the fine.

What If You Can’t Cure It in Time?

Not every violation can be fixed on a 90-day, or even a 14-day, timeline — a full roof replacement or a major hardscape correction sometimes just takes longer than the hearing window allows. That is especially common after a storm, where insurance and contractor delays are genuinely out of your hands; our guide to HOA violations after a hurricane covers how to document that kind of delay in writing. If that’s your situation, the cure-before-hearing rule isn’t your only option. Showing up at the hearing with a signed contract, permit application, or documented start date for the repair is a different kind of argument than showing up with nothing, and committees weigh a homeowner who is visibly and verifiably in progress differently than one who has done nothing since the notice arrived. Our cure period guide and repair cost guide cover realistic timelines for the most commonly cited fixes, and our fine payment plan guide covers what to do if a fine still ends up on the table.

Why This Matters More in a High-Enforcement County Like Palm Beach

Palm Beach County has one of the densest concentrations of HOA and condo-governed housing in the state, and a large share of that stock runs through management companies handling dozens of associations at once, each with its own fining schedule and committee. That volume is exactly where an unclear or unenforced 90-day deadline used to cause the most drift — a notice issued in January could realistically sit until a hearing finally got calendared months later, with the homeowner unsure the entire time whether curing early would even matter. The amended statute doesn’t change how the underlying violation categories work, but it does put a clock and a guaranteed outcome around the one part of the process that used to be the most unpredictable.

The Practical Bottom Line

Since mid-2024, curing a Florida HOA violation before your committee hearing isn’t a favor a sympathetic committee might grant you — it’s a statutory bar on the fine itself. Read your notice for the cure explanation the law now requires, treat the hearing date as your real deadline, document the fix the moment it’s done, and put that documentation in the association’s hands in writing before the hearing happens. If a fine still lands despite all that, our hearing process guide and HOA fines guide cover what comes next.

Frequently Asked Questions