How does a Florida HOA board track director certification and continuing education?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised November 8, 2026

How a Florida HOA board tracks director certification: the 90-day and June 30 deadlines, DBPR Rule 61B-19.004, approved courses, suspensions and certificate records.

Part of the HOA board handbook: running the board.

The short answer

Every Florida HOA director owes three things under section 720.3033(1). A certificate from an approved new-director course goes in within 90 days after election or appointment. That course gets repeated at least every 4 years. And each director completes continuing education every year: at least 4 hours in an association with fewer than 2,500 parcels, at least 8 hours at 2,500 or more. Since September 7, 2026, DBPR Rule 61B-19.004 has spelled out who tracks all this. It is the secretary or the equivalent officer. Run it as a standing board job with a one-page tracker and four dates on the calendar. Your governing documents may add to these rules, and the details of a specific suspension are a question for your association's attorney. This guide is education, not legal advice.

What the 2026 rule added

The statute set the 90-day, 4-year and annual hour requirements in 2024 and told the department to write rules. If your tracker or your last orientation talk predates September 2026, these rule terms are new. The rule defines an education year as July 1 through June 30. Continuing education is due on or before the end of the education year, so June 30. It calls the new-director course board member certification, or BMC, and continuing education CE. A director satisfies either requirement by submitting a valid certificate to the secretary or equivalent officer, so finishing the course does not finish the job. That officer is responsible for making sure directors comply and for keeping the education records. And if a deadline passes without a certificate, the rule says the board shall suspend the director until the director complies. Our guide on Florida HOA law changes for boards covers the rest of the 2024 package. Our new board member checklist covers what the director does in the first month. This guide is the secretary's side.

Three worked deadlines

New director. Elected March 10, 2027. The BMC certificate is due to the secretary by June 8, 2027, which is 90 days later. An appointment to a vacant seat starts the same clock on the appointment date. Continuing education. A director in a 120-home association owes 4 hours between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027, then 4 more by June 30, 2028. The statute says CE is in addition to the new-director curriculum, so do not count BMC hours toward CE without a written answer from your attorney or the Division. The rule has no separate schedule for a director seated late in the education year. If your March director's CE for that year matters to you, ask before June and record the answer. Four-year renewal. This one is easy to miss. A certificate dated February 1, 2025 reaches 4 years on February 1, 2029, which falls in the education year that starts July 1, 2028. The rule says a renewal certificate is due within 90 days after the start of the education year in which the director must renew. Read literally, that is about September 29, 2028, four months before the anniversary. That is our reading of new text with no track record behind it. Log the earlier date unless your attorney tells you otherwise.

Pick a course that counts

Start from the Division's education page, which links both approved lists. The BMC provider list and the CE provider list were each updated August 24, 2026, and they are separate documents. The BMC list marks each provider's approved program areas, and some providers are not marked for all of them. Find the homeowners' association column and confirm the mark before anyone pays. A course approved only for condominiums is the easiest way to lose a deadline. The Division also offers a free, self-paced BMC course for condominium and HOA board members. You create an account, verify your email, and can stop and restart. Do not confuse it with the PDF course on the same page, which the Division says does not satisfy the requirement. Many law firms on the lists show no fee, and paid self-paced options on the BMC list include prices of $19.99 and $145. The CE list includes four-hour courses and one-hour courses. If a director stacks short ones, keep every certificate and add the hours up on the tracker. When a certificate comes in, read it. The rule requires the title on the certificate to match the Division's course title or the CE title on the provider's application. Compare it to the list and ask the provider to fix any mismatch while the deadline is still ahead of you. Section 720.303(12)(b) allows reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses a director incurs on behalf of the association, subject to the approval process in your documents or one the board sets. If the board will pay course fees, put that in writing before the first request arrives, as our guide on an HOA expense reimbursement policy describes.

Build the tracker

Use one row per director, in a spreadsheet the president can also open, with these columns: Director name. Date elected or appointed. Term end. BMC provider and exact course title. BMC completion date. Date the secretary received the certificate. Education year the BMC renewal falls in. CE hours required. CE hours completed this education year. Date of the last CE certificate. Suspension start and end dates, if any. Save each certificate as a PDF named with the director's last name, the course and the date, in a folder inside the association's official records. A copy in the director's inbox does not count, and the file should survive that person leaving the board. Section 720.3033(1)(c) requires the association to keep each certificate for members to inspect for 5 years after the director's election. For a director who keeps getting re-elected, the easy rule is to keep everything until 5 years after the last election. Do not rely on the provider as your backup, because the rule only requires instructors to keep rosters and issued certificates for 1 year after the course ends. Owner requests to see these go through your normal process, covered in our guide on responding to a records request. The secretary is a director too, so have the president check the secretary's row. If the secretary's seat is empty, name the equivalent officer in the minutes.

A calendar to copy

After each election or appointment: send the new director the course links and the due date within 7 days. Send a reminder at day 30 and another at day 60. At day 80, the secretary tells the president if nothing has arrived. July 1: new education year. Email every director the hours they owe and flag anyone whose BMC renewal falls in this year. Mid-September: last call on renewals, ahead of the roughly September 29 date. January: report CE status at the board meeting, in one line per director. June 1: final notice to anyone short on hours. June 30 is the deadline. July board meeting: report that all directors are current, or name who is not, and record it in the minutes. Wording for the first email: "Congratulations on joining the board. Florida law requires a certificate from a state-approved board member course within 90 days. Your certificate is due to me by [date]. The state offers a free self-paced course, and the approved provider list is linked below. Check that the provider is approved for homeowners' associations. Please send me the certificate as a PDF the day you finish. You also owe [4] hours of continuing education by June 30."

When a deadline passes

The statute says a director who does not timely file is suspended until the director complies. The rule tells the board to carry that out. Do not let it slide because the person is well liked. An owner can ask to inspect the certificates, and uneven treatment is hard to explain. First, the secretary confirms with the director that no certificate exists, in case one is stuck in an inbox. If a course is finished, get the certificate that day. Then put it on the next board agenda. A motion to adapt: "Moved that, because [Director] did not submit the certificate required by section 720.3033(1), Florida Statutes, by [date], the board records that [Director] is suspended from the board until the secretary receives a valid certificate, and that [Name] will temporarily fill the vacancy during the suspension." The temporary appointment is optional. Before the next vote, ask your attorney how the suspension affects your quorum count and whether the director holds an office. The temporary director has been appointed, so by the plain text they have their own 90-day clock unless they already hold a valid certificate. The statute also says that failing to have a certificate on file does not affect the validity of any board action. That protects past decisions from a paperwork gap. It says nothing about a suspended director continuing to vote, so take that person out of votes during the suspension. Do not count on a state reminder. The Division's FAQ says it has no statutory authority to investigate complaints against homeowners' associations.

Texas, Colorado and other states

Texas Property Code chapter 209 has no director education requirement. Colorado's section 38-33.3-209.6 is permission, not a mandate: the board may reimburse actual and necessary expenses of educational meetings on association governance as a common expense, and the content must be specific to Colorado. Rules elsewhere differ, so check your own state's statute and your bylaws, which can require training on their own. Boards outside Florida can still borrow the tracker for any training their own documents require.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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