A records request is one of the few places where a Florida cooperative board can create a liability by doing nothing at all. The response period is short, the presumption that runs on day eleven runs against the association, and the damages figure is set by statute rather than argued about. Most requests are routine and take an afternoon. The expensive ones are almost always the requests a board sat on while deciding what to do.
The governing provision is Fla. Stat. § 719.104(2). It does three separate things: it lists what the association must keep, it sets the timetable and location for access, and it names a short list of material members may not see. Boards get into trouble by answering a request with one blanket decision instead of running each requested category through all three.
Ready to write yours? The free Florida Co-Op Records Request Builder turns your selected records and delivery preference into an editable, source-grounded letter delivered through a secure email link. If a request has already gone unanswered, the records follow-up builder drafts the second letter that documents the delay.
What the association must keep, and for how long
Section 719.104(2)(a) sets out the official records in fifteen numbered categories: developer materials under § 719.301(4), the cooperative documents, the current rules, the minute books for association, board, and unit-owner meetings, the owner roster with notice addresses and consents, current insurance policies, management agreements and other contracts, bills of sale for association property, accounting records, voting materials, rental records, the question-and-answer sheet under § 719.504, affirmative acknowledgments under § 719.108(3)(b)3., structural and life safety inspection reports, and all other written records related to the operation of the association.
That last category does most of the work. If a board is arguing about whether something is an official record, the real question is almost always whether it is a written record related to the operation of the association, not whether it appears in categories one through fourteen.
Retention is where schedules go wrong, because the periods are not uniform:
- Seven years is the floor, not the rule. Official records must be maintained within the state for at least 7 years.
- Bids for work to be performed are official records kept for 1 year. They sit inside the accounting-records category, which is why boards miss them.
- Ballots, sign-in sheets, voting proxies, and other voting records are kept 1 year after the election, vote, or meeting they relate to.
- Structural integrity reserve studies must be kept at least 15 years after the study is completed.
- Inspection reports under §§ 553.899 and 719.301(4)(p), and any other structural or life safety inspection report, must be kept 15 years after receipt.
- Director certifications and education certificates are held for 5 years after that director's election or for the duration of an uninterrupted tenure, whichever is longer. The mechanics are covered in the certification guide.
A retention schedule that says "seven years, then destroy" will therefore destroy reserve studies and inspection reports the association is still required to hold, while keeping ballots long past the point anyone needs them. Write the schedule by category.
The access obligation and the two clocks
Records must be made available to a unit owner within 45 miles of the cooperative property, or within the county in which the property is located, within 10 working days after the board or its designee receives a written request. The association may satisfy that by keeping a copy available for inspection or copying on the cooperative property, or by offering the records electronically over the internet, or by allowing them to be viewed on a computer screen and printed on request. The electronic option is the one most small boards underuse, and it is often the fastest route to a clean, provable response.
Failure to provide the records within 10 working days creates a rebuttable presumption that the association willfully failed to comply. A member denied access is entitled to actual damages or to minimum damages, and the minimum is $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days, beginning on the 11th working day after receipt of the written request. Note the mismatch: the compliance period is counted in working days and the damages period in calendar days. A board tracking one number will misstate the other.
Fee treatment is not uniform either. Inspection and copying happen at the reasonable expense, if any, of the member and of any representative the member authorizes. For one specific set of documents, the association must keep an adequate number of copies on the cooperative property and may charge only its actual costs: the cooperative documents, the articles, the bylaws, the rules and all amendments, the question-and-answer sheet, and the year-end financial information required by the department. A member may also photograph or scan the records with a portable device in lieu of the association providing copies, and the association may not charge for that use.
Two adjacent rules are worth knowing before a request arrives. A renter of a unit has a right to inspect and copy only the bylaws, the rules, and the inspection reports described in §§ 553.899 and 719.301(4)(p). And a prospective purchaser or lienholder is not entitled to information beyond what the chapter requires; for good-faith responses to requests going beyond that, the association may charge a reasonable fee not exceeding $150 plus reasonable photocopying and any attorney fees incurred in responding.
What members may not see
The statute closes with a list of material that is not accessible to members even though it lives in the official records:
- Records protected by the lawyer-client privilege under § 90.502, and work-product material prepared by or at the express direction of the association attorney exclusively for litigation or adversarial administrative proceedings, until those proceedings conclude.
- Information obtained in connection with the approval of a lease, sale, or other transfer of a unit.
- Personnel records of association or management-company employees. This exclusion expressly does not cover written employment agreements, or budgetary and financial records showing the compensation paid to an association employee.
- Medical records of unit owners.
- Social security numbers, driver license numbers, credit card numbers, email addresses, telephone and facsimile numbers, emergency contact information, and addresses other than those provided for association notice, plus other personal identifying information. Name, unit designation, mailing address, property address, and notice addresses stay visible.
- Electronic security measures used to safeguard data, including passwords.
- The software and operating system that allow manipulation of the data. The data itself remains an official record.
- Affirmative acknowledgments made under § 719.108(3)(b)3.
Read category five closely, because it excludes fields rather than files. A ledger containing an owner's account number is not withheld; the number is redacted and the ledger is produced. The recurring failure is a board that withholds an entire document because one line inside it is protected, and then cannot explain what it withheld or why.
The privilege exclusion is similarly narrow. It covers specific documents. It is not a basis for routing an entire request to counsel and letting the clock run while waiting for a call back.
A records request is not the same thing as a written inquiry
Boards conflate these constantly, and they run on different clocks. Under § 719.106(1)(a)3., when a unit owner files a written inquiry by certified mail, the board must respond in writing within 30 days. The response may be substantive, or it may notify the owner that a legal opinion has been requested, or that advice has been requested from the division. If the board asks the division, it must provide a substantive written response within 10 days of receiving that advice. If it requests a legal opinion, the substantive response is due within 60 days after receipt of the inquiry.
The sanction is specific and often overlooked: failure to give a substantive response precludes the board from recovering attorney fees and costs in any later litigation, administrative proceeding, or arbitration arising out of the inquiry. The association may adopt reasonable rules on the frequency and manner of responses, one of which may be that it answers only one written inquiry per unit in any 30-day period.
A single letter is often both things at once: give me the last two years of minutes, and explain why the board approved the roof contract. Split it on intake. The records half goes on the 10-working-day clock, the question half on the 30-day clock. Answering one and ignoring the other is the most common way a routine letter becomes a complaint.
What boards get wrong
- Missing the response period while deciding internally what to release. The clock does not pause for deliberation.
- Rejecting a request as too broad. The association may adopt reasonable rules on frequency, time, location, notice, and manner, but it may not require the member to state a purpose or reason.
- Withholding a whole document because part of it is protected, instead of redacting the protected field.
- Applying one fee rule to everything, rather than tracking the reasonable-expense rule, the actual-cost list, and the no-charge portable-device rule separately.
- Producing a partial set without identifying what is being withheld and on what basis.
- Treating a certified-mail inquiry as a records request, or the reverse, and answering on the wrong timetable.
- Losing the records at a change of officers. An outgoing board or committee member must relinquish all official records and property in his or her possession or control to the incoming board within 5 days after the election.
The process that holds up
- Date-stamp on arrival and name one owner. The clock starts at receipt by the board or its designee, so intake has to be a defined mailbox rather than whoever happened to open it.
- Acknowledge promptly. Not a statutory deadline, but it establishes the receipt date in writing and it is the cheapest de-escalation available.
- Itemize the request by category and decide each one against the access rule, the fee rule, and the exclusion list.
- Redact rather than withhold where the protection attaches to a field.
- Deliver by a provable method and log the delivery date. Where the association offers electronic access, record the date access was opened.
- State what was withheld and why in the same letter that delivers the rest.
- Close the file. Keep the request, the log, the response, the delivery proof, and the withholding basis together. If the matter escalates, that file is the association's defense against the willfulness presumption.
The forms in the Forms Pack supply the infrastructure: a records-request policy (F-111), a request log (F-113), an acknowledgment letter (F-114), a fee schedule (F-122), a counsel-routing response for privileged material (F-125), a records inventory (F-095), and a retention schedule (F-096). Records handling is also one of the year-round items on the annual governance calendar, and the minute books it depends on come out of the board meeting process. If you want a quick read on where this sits against the rest of the board's obligations, the free Board Readiness Score takes a few minutes.
Questions boards actually ask
Is the ten-day records deadline in calendar days or working days?
Working days. Section 719.104(2)(c) gives the association 10 working days after the board or its designee receives the written request, and the rebuttable presumption of willful failure attaches once that period passes. The damages clock is different: minimum damages are $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days, beginning on the 11th working day after receipt. One provision counts working days, the other counts calendar days, so a board tracking a single number will get one of them wrong.
Can we refuse a request that does not explain why the member wants the records?
No. The statute says the association may not require a member to demonstrate any purpose or state any reason for the inspection. The association may adopt reasonable rules about the frequency, time, location, notice, and manner of inspection and copying, and those rules are the legitimate way to manage a burdensome request.
What can the association charge for copies?
Inspection and copying are at the reasonable expense, if any, of the member or the member's authorized representative. For the cooperative documents, the bylaws, the articles, the rules and their amendments, the question-and-answer sheet, and the year-end financial information required by the department, the association may charge its actual costs. If the member uses a portable device such as a phone, tablet, or scanner to photograph the records instead, the association may not charge for that at all.
Does a tenant have the same inspection rights as a shareholder?
No. Under § 719.104(2)(c) a renter of a unit has a right to inspect and copy only the association's bylaws and rules and the inspection reports described in §§ 553.899 and 719.301(4)(p). That is a much narrower set than a member receives, and it is easy to over-produce to a tenant by treating the request as an ordinary member request.
Do we have to produce the association attorney's file?
Records protected by the lawyer-client privilege and by the work-product privilege are not accessible to members, and the work-product exclusion runs until the litigation or adversarial administrative proceeding concludes. That is a narrow exclusion for specific documents, not a reason to route an entire request to counsel and stop the clock while waiting.
Can an individual board member be on the hook personally?
Yes, in two ways. A person prevailing in an enforcement action may recover reasonable attorney fees from the person in control of the records who directly or indirectly knowingly denied access. Separately, anyone who knowingly or intentionally defaces or destroys required accounting records, or fails to create or maintain them, with intent to harm the association or a member, is personally subject to a civil penalty under § 719.501(1)(d).
Authorities and update notes
- Fla. Stat. § 719.104(2)(a)-(e) for the records list, the 7-year and category-specific retention periods, the 10-working-day access obligation, the willfulness presumption and minimum damages, the fee rules, the exclusions, and the 5-day turnover duty of an outgoing board or committee member.
- Fla. Stat. § 719.106(1)(a)3. for the separate certified-mail written-inquiry response duty and the attorney-fee consequence of ignoring it.
- Fla. Stat. § 719.501 for the division's enforcement powers over residential cooperatives and the civil penalty referenced in the accounting-records provision.
- Statutory text checked against the 2025 Florida Statutes. Prompt acknowledgment, category-by-category triage, and the closing file are operating recommendations, not statutory deadlines.