Director financial disclosure. F.S. 720.3033 after the 2024 amendments

Director financial-disclosure requirements are one of the quieter corners of Florida HOA law, but they became materially more enforceable after the 2024 amendments to Ch. 720. What used to be a best-practice guideline is now a statutory obligation with named penalties. Every sitting director on a Florida HOA board needs to know what F.S. 720.3033 requires, and what the 2024 changes added.

What the statute says

The governing text is F.S. 720.3033(1):

An officer, director, or manager may not solicit, offer to accept, or accept any good or service of value for which the officer, director, or manager has not paid the provider of the good or service for any item or service, including gifts of value.

And F.S. 720.3033(2):

An officer, director, or manager may not solicit, offer to accept, or accept any kickback from a contractor or vendor of the association.

The gift and kickback prohibitions are broad. "Any good or service of value" captures meals beyond nominal value, tickets, product samples, not just cash.

The 2024 amendments, what's new

The 2024 legislative session tightened three specific areas:

1. Mandatory conflict disclosure before the vote

Under the amended F.S. 720.3033(3), a director who has a potential conflict of interest with a contract or transaction the board is voting on MUST:

• Disclose the potential conflict in writing before the vote
• Recuse themselves from both the discussion AND the vote
• Have the recusal recorded in the minutes

Failure to disclose exposes the director to personal liability AND makes the resulting contract voidable at the association's option.

2. Penalties formalized

Violations of F.S. 720.3033 now carry explicit penalties:

• Removal from office by a majority vote of the board or upon petition by the parcel owners
• Civil liability for actual damages caused by the conflict
• Ineligibility for re-election to the board for a period specified in the governing documents

3. Family-member transactions scoped

The 2024 amendments made clear that "director" for purposes of the disclosure requirement includes the director's spouse, parent, child, brother, and sister, mirroring the committee-composition rule under F.S. 720.305(2)(b). A contract with a director's brother-in-law's landscaping company triggers disclosure just as much as a contract with the director's own company.

See the related fine-hearing-committee-composition walkthrough for how the family-scope logic works in practice.

What counts as a "potential conflict"

The statute doesn't enumerate, but court interpretations have settled on a reasonable-person standard. Conflicts that trigger disclosure:

• Director is an owner, officer, employee, or contractor of the vendor under contract
• Director's family (as defined above) is in any of those roles
• Director receives compensation, bonuses, or referral fees from the vendor
• Director's unrelated business benefits from the vendor's work
• Director has a pending transaction with the vendor outside the association

Conflicts that do NOT trigger disclosure (but are worth logging anyway for defense):

• Director is a satisfied customer of the vendor (no special relationship)
• Vendor sponsored a community event the director attended
• Director received a promotional item under $25 at a trade show

Practical implementation

The defensible pattern every HOA board should run:

1. Standing annual disclosure. Every January, each director completes a written disclosure form listing any known conflicts or potential conflicts. Form is kept in association records (10 business days inspection under F.S. 720.303(5)(a)).

2. Per-vote disclosure. Before any vote on a vendor selection, material contract, or assessment-levy, each director confirms their disclosure is current. If a conflict surfaces mid-meeting, the conflicted director leaves the room for discussion AND the vote.

3. Minutes discipline. The minutes explicitly record:

   • The conflict disclosure
   • The director's recusal
   • That the recused director was not present for the discussion
   • The final vote tally excluding the recused director

4. Contract carve-out. When the association signs a contract, the signed document names the directors who voted in favor and confirms no conflicts were undisclosed. Defeats later "we didn't know about the conflict" unwinding challenges.

Three failure modes

1. "We don't need to disclose, everyone in the community knows Bob's brother does landscaping." Community knowledge is not a statutory substitute for written disclosure. The record has to exist in the minutes.

2. "Bob just left for coffee during the vote." Recusal isn't just physical absence, it's procedural. The director should not be in the discussion, not be in the vote, and the minutes should reflect both.

3. "We'll just disclose if someone asks." The statute requires disclosure BEFORE the vote, not after. Asking-and-disclosing retroactively exposes the director AND makes the contract voidable.

Pairing with records inspection

Director financial-disclosure forms + board meeting minutes documenting recusals are association records subject to the 10-business-day inspection clock under F.S. 720.303(5)(a). A member asking "what conflicts have been disclosed" has a right to see every director's disclosure form from the last 7 years.

Pair this with the records-request-10-day-clock walkthrough for the response-timing mechanics.

Why this post exists

HOAStream quotes F.S. 720.3033 + your declaration's own conflict rules side-by-side in under 500 milliseconds with a citation. Not legal advice. For a specific disclosed conflict, especially one where a contract is already signed and someone is considering challenging it, retained Florida counsel is the only correct next step.

CAM walkthrough: /cam. Board walkthrough: /board.