Condo board certification after the 2024 and 2025 laws.

By Carlos Castellano · Current as of July 3, 2026

Condominium board certification in Florida changed with HB 1021 in 2024 and was carried forward, with additions, by HB 913 in 2025. If you sit on a condo board, the rules are similar to the HOA rules in spirit but different in several specifics. Here is what the statute requires, step by step.

The window: 90 days after, or up to a year before

Condo directors have a wider window than HOA directors. Section 718.112(2)(d)5.b., Florida Statutes, requires that each newly elected or appointed director submit to the secretary of the association the written certification and educational certificate within one year before being elected or appointed or 90 days after the date of election or appointment.

So a course you took up to a year before you joined the board can count, and you still have the same 90-day safety net after election if you have not certified yet.

Two things are required, not one

This is where condo differs most from HOA. Satisfying the requirement takes two components, and both are mandatory under Section 718.112(2)(d)5.b.

First, a written certification to the secretary that the director has read the association’s declaration, articles of incorporation, bylaws, and current written policies; that they will work to uphold those documents and policies to the best of their ability; and that they will faithfully discharge their fiduciary responsibility to the members.

Second, an educational certificate. The statute calls for a certificate of having satisfactorily completed the educational curriculum administered by the division or a division-approved condominium education provider. The curriculum, the statute says, must be at least 4 hours long and include instruction on milestone inspections, structural integrity reserve studies, elections, recordkeeping, financial literacy and transparency, levying of fines, and notice and meeting requirements.

In short: a written certification plus a 4-hour course. As with HOAs, the old practice of simply signing that you read the documents no longer stands alone. The course is now mandatory too.

The course can come first

Because the window opens up to a year before election, a candidate can take the 4-hour course in advance and walk in already holding the educational certificate. Only the written certification has to go to the secretary, alongside the certificate, within the statutory window.

How long it lasts: seven years, if you serve uninterrupted

Section 718.112(2)(d)5.b. provides that the written certification and educational certificate is valid for 7 years after the date of issuance and does not have to be resubmitted as long as the director serves on the board without interruption during the 7-year period.

Read that condition carefully, because it does real work. The seven years depend on uninterrupted service. If you leave the board and later return, the continuity is broken, and on your return you must resubmit the written certification and educational certificate. A gap resets it. Plan on recertifying if you step away and come back.

The seven years run from the date of issuance of the certificate, not from your election date. Store the completion date, because every deadline is measured from it.

The annual hour: a legislative update

Condo directors also owe a small amount of continuing education every year, and its timing is spelled out more precisely than the HOA rule. Section 718.112(2)(d)5.b. provides that one year after submission of the most recent written certification and educational certificate, and annually thereafter, a director must submit a certificate of having satisfactorily completed at least 1 hour of continuing education relating to any recent changes to this chapter and the related administrative rules during the past year.

Two things stand out. The subject is narrow. It is a legislative-update hour focused on recent changes to Chapter 718 and its rules, not general governance training. And the timing is anniversary-based. The clock starts one year after you submit your most recent certification, then repeats annually. Unlike the HOA continuing-education period, which the statute leaves undefined, the condo annual hour has a clear, self-relative anchor.

The 2025 renumbering, and who enforces it

If you go looking for this rule, note that its location in the statute moved. HB 1021 in 2024 placed it at Section 718.112(2)(d)4.b. HB 913 in 2025 renumbered it to Section 718.112(2)(d)5.b. The substance of the education rules carried forward. HB 913 did not shorten the seven-year validity and did not change the one-hour annual update. What it added was milestone-inspection and reserve-study content among the required course topics, and it gave the Division of Florida Condominiums express enforcement authority over board-education violations, effective July 1, 2025.

The consequence for noncompliance mirrors the HOA rule and is curable. A director who fails to timely file the written certification and educational certificate is suspended from service on the board until he or she complies. For the renewal side of this, see what to do when a board certificate is about to expire.