Budget season is where a Licensed Community Association Manager (CAM) does the heavy lifting. Your CAM pulls twelve months of actuals, chases vendor renewal numbers, gets the reserve study in front of the board, and drafts the document directors will spend two meetings arguing over. The board sets priorities and casts the votes, while the manager assembles the record those votes rest on. For every Homeowners Association (HOA) and Condominium Owners Association (COA) Synergistic Community Association Management handles in Florida, that work starts months in advance.
Highlights
- A Florida association builds next year’s budget by reviewing current-year actual spending, updating reserve obligations, pricing insurance and vendor renewals, and adopting the result at a properly noticed budget meeting.
- Condominiums must deliver the proposed budget to owners at least 14 days before the adoption meeting under Florida Statutes (FS) 718.112(2)(e). HOA budget meetings run on 48-hour posted notice under FS 720.303(2)(c), with the adopted budget going out afterward.
- Since House Bill 913 took effect July 1, 2025, a condominium board proposing assessments above 115 percent of the prior year must also put a substitute budget in front of owners, with discretionary spending removed.
- Structural Integrity Reserve Study funding cannot be waived by owner vote, and the requirement reaches buildings of three or more habitable stories.
- Synergistic Community Association Management is a certified woman-owned who assigns one local CAM to each community, so the person building your budget is the person who answers your call.
Start with twelve months of actuals
Last year’s budget only tells what the board hoped would happen. When you run the variance line by line and ask what each overage actually was, the true numbers are revealed. A one-time pump replacement is a different problem from a landscaping contract that reset twenty percent higher and will stay there. Bad debt gets an honest look here too, because budgeting for collections you won’t collect just moves the shortfall instead of removing it.
The reserve number comes first
Florida condominiums of three or more habitable stories work from a Structural Integrity Reserve Study, and owners cannot vote to waive funding for covered items. HB 913 now permits pooling those reserves, and switching between funding methods no longer takes an owner vote. HOAs have more room to maneuver, though a stale reserve study leaves owners exposed to a special assessment nobody saw coming.
Watch for the 115 percent trigger
This one catches condominium boards off guard. Propose assessments more than 115 percent above last year, and you owe owners a second, leaner budget at the same meeting with discretionary spending stripped out. Required reserves, SIRS-item expenses, and insurance premiums come out of the calculation before you run it. Do that math in August rather than the week of the meeting.
Insurance and vendor quotes before the draft
Florida premiums have moved sharply for several renewal cycles running. Waiting on a binder in November means guessing at the largest line on the page. We start those conversations in August, and our Tampa vendor relationships are why the callbacks come back quickly.
Looking for a community association management partner in Florida?
For the associations we manage, budget season is a scheduled process that begins in summer and ends with an adopted budget the board can defend to any owner who asks. For boards working with another company, we’re glad to look at your current draft and tell you what we see. Call the office; someone answers.
Visit synergisticcam.com to reach us or read more.
Liz Welch, Licensed Community Association Manager, Broker and Owner
☎️ 813-940-8588
✉️ hello@synergisticcam.com
📍 4511 N. Himes Ave., Suite 125, Tampa, FL 33614
