Fla. Stat. Chapter 719
Cooperative Act
The Florida Cooperative Act
Governs cooperative associations (co-ops) in Florida — residential housing where members own shares in a corporation that owns the real property, rather than units in fee simple. Parallel structure to Chapter 718 but with co-op-specific provisions around share transfers, proprietary leases, and member voting.
Official source on leg.state.fl.usSections (10)
§ 719.103
Definitions
Common Elements summary — Section 719.103 defines the foundational terms for Florida cooperatives. Unlike a condominium, a "cooperative" is a form of ownership in which the cooperative association (almost always a Florida nonprofit corporation under Chapter 617) owns the real property, and individual residents hold shares plus a proprietary lease — sometimes called an occupancy agreement — that gives them the right to occupy a specific unit. Key defined terms include "unit" (the part of the cooperative subject to exclusive occupancy under a proprietary lease), "cooperative documents" (articles, bylaws, ground lease, proprietary lease, and rules), "association property" (property owned by the cooperative association as distinct from individual units), and "common areas" (all portions of the cooperative not within any unit). For practitioners crossing over from condo work: the share-plus-lease structure is the single biggest mental switch. Members are technically tenants of the association, which gives the board landlord-like remedies under Chapter 83 in addition to the Chapter 719 enforcement toolkit. Get this distinction wrong in a foreclosure or eviction and you'll lose on standing alone.
definitionscooperativeproprietary-leaseshares§ 719.104
Cooperatives; access to units; records
Common Elements summary — Section 719.104 is the cooperative parallel to 718.111(12). It requires the association to maintain official records — articles, bylaws, ground lease, proprietary leases, rules, meeting minutes, financial records, insurance policies, contracts, ballots, voting proxies, and a current roster of members — for at least seven years. It also gives the association a right of access to individual units for maintenance, emergency, and rule-enforcement purposes on reasonable notice. Members have the right to inspect and copy the records on five-business-day written notice, at a reasonable time and place. The association can charge for copies but cannot charge for the inspection itself. Refusal to produce records that aren't exempt is a violation that triggers DBPR jurisdiction and, in litigation, potential statutory damages and fees. The exemptions parallel the condo statute: medical records, personnel records of association employees, attorney-client privileged communications, social security numbers and account numbers in member records, and security-system details. Everything else is open. Boards that withhold records on the theory that the requesting member is "just trying to make trouble" are setting up a fee award.
recordsinspectionaccesstransparency§ 719.1055
Amendment of cooperative documents
Common Elements summary — Section 719.1055 governs how the cooperative's declarative documents (articles, bylaws, ground lease, proprietary lease) get amended. The default approval threshold is the percentage stated in the bylaws, but the statute imposes hard floors: amendments that materially alter or modify the size or configuration of any unit, or change the unit's appurtenant share of common expenses, require the affirmative consent of the affected member AND any mortgagee of record. The section also requires that proposed amendments be circulated to every member with the meeting notice, that the full text (with deletions stricken and additions underlined) be available, and that the amendment be recorded in the public records of the county where the cooperative sits. Unrecorded amendments do not bind successor members. For boards: cooperatives often have older, looser bylaws that don't specify amendment procedure clearly. When in doubt, default to two-thirds of all voting members at a duly-noticed meeting and run the draft past association counsel. Sloppy amendments are how cooperative governance disputes spiral into quiet-title actions.
amendmentgoverning-documentsvotinggovernance§ 719.106
Bylaws; cooperative association
Common Elements summary — Section 719.106 sets the mandatory contents of every Florida cooperative's bylaws and the rules of association governance. It requires bylaws to address officers, board composition, election procedures, meeting notices, quorums, voting, and the procedure for filling board vacancies. It also sets statutory defaults that apply where the bylaws are silent. Key defaults: members' meetings must be held at least annually; notice must be posted on cooperative property and mailed or hand-delivered to every member at least 14 days in advance; the agenda must accompany the notice; board meetings must be open to all members with at least 48 hours' posted notice (executive sessions are permitted only for personnel matters, pending litigation, and similar narrow topics). For practitioners: 719.106 is more prescriptive than condo 718.112 in some respects (cooperative bylaws cannot waive most procedural requirements) and looser in others (no statutory committee requirements). When advising a cooperative board, always read the bylaws side-by-side with 719.106 to spot where the bylaws purport to override a statutory mandate — the statute wins.
bylawsgovernancemeetingsboard§ 719.108
Rents and assessments; liability; lien and priority
Common Elements summary — Section 719.108 is the cooperative assessment-collection engine. It establishes that every member is liable for assessments and rent under the proprietary lease, and that the association has a lien against the member's cooperative interest (shares plus proprietary lease) for unpaid amounts. The lien is enforceable by foreclosure in the same manner as a real-property mortgage foreclosure. Three Florida-specific rules matter. First, the cooperative's lien has priority over all other liens recorded after the date of recordation of the original declaration of cooperative — meaning the association generally beats subsequent mortgagees, but a first mortgage recorded before the declaration retains its priority. Second, a cooperative can pursue both judicial foreclosure of the lien AND an eviction action under Chapter 83 for the same delinquency — the dual-track remedy is unique to the cooperative structure. Third, a 45-day pre-foreclosure notice is required, just like Chapter 718. For boards: when an owner falls behind, the cooperative's remedies are stronger than a condo's because of the landlord-tenant overlay. But the procedural steps (notice, hearing, lien, foreclosure) must be followed in order. Skipping the pre-foreclosure notice is a complete defense to the foreclosure.
assessmentsliensforeclosurecollections§ 719.117
Conversion of existing improvements
Common Elements summary — Section 719.117 governs the conversion of existing rental apartments into cooperative ownership. The developer must give every existing tenant a notice of intended conversion at least 180 days before the tenant's lease ends, and must offer each tenant the right of first refusal to buy their unit on the terms first offered to the public for at least 45 days after the notice. Tenants who don't buy generally cannot be evicted as a direct result of the conversion until their lease expires, and the developer must offer a "good faith" extension to month-to-month tenants. Disclosure requirements include a condition-of-property report similar to the SIRS regime for condominiums, and the developer must escrow a portion of the sale proceeds for reserves to fund deferred maintenance on the converted property. For practitioners advising on a conversion: the 180-day notice clock and the right-of-first-refusal mechanics are non-waivable consumer protections. A developer who short-cuts either of them can have the conversion unwound by the Division of Florida Condominiums (which has parallel jurisdiction over cooperatives). The diligence checklist is essentially the same as a 718 conversion.
conversiondevelopertenant-rightsright-of-first-refusal§ 719.301
Transfer of association control
Common Elements summary — Section 719.301 governs the cooperative analog to condominium turnover. The developer must relinquish control of the board of directors and turn over the association to the members within three months after 90% of the units have been sold, OR three years after the first unit is sold, whichever comes first. Members may petition for earlier transfer if the developer has been declared bankrupt or has abandoned development. At turnover, the developer must deliver to the new board: all financial records back to inception, all governing documents, all contracts, all permits and warranties, an audit of the association's finances, all insurance policies, and the keys to everything. The new board has the right (and effectively the duty under fiduciary principles) to immediately commission an independent audit and a forensic engineering review. For successor boards: the construction-defect tolling rule in 719.117(7) (parallel to condo 718.124) means the statute of limitations doesn't start running until turnover. Don't sit on suspected defects post-turnover — the SOL clock is now ticking against you.
turnoverdeveloperboard-controltransition§ 719.303
Obligations of owners; remedies
Common Elements summary — Section 719.303 is the cooperative enforcement statute. Every member, tenant, occupant, and guest must comply with the cooperative documents and Chapter 719. The association's remedies are damages, injunctive relief, any other legal or equitable relief, and the right to levy fines after notice and a hearing before an independent committee of members. The fine procedure parallels condo 718.303: 14-day written notice, hearing before a committee of at least three members who are not officers or directors and not related to officers or directors, statutory cap of $100 per violation with a $1,000 aggregate for continuing violations (unless the bylaws set lower limits). The committee must affirmatively approve the fine — if it doesn't, the fine cannot be imposed. For boards: cooperatives have an additional remedy that condos lack — the proprietary lease is a contract, and the association can pursue lease-termination proceedings under Chapter 83 for serious rule violations. This is the "nuclear option" and should never be invoked without counsel, but it's a meaningfully stronger enforcement lever than condo equivalents.
finesenforcementviolationslease-termination§ 719.501
Powers and duties of Division
Common Elements summary — Section 719.501 vests the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes (within DBPR) with regulatory authority over Florida cooperatives. The Division has the power to investigate complaints, issue subpoenas, impose civil penalties up to $5,000 per violation, and refer matters for criminal prosecution. Its jurisdiction extends to developer disclosure violations, association governance violations, and disputes between members and the association that fall within enumerated categories. The Division's arbitration program is mandatory for many cooperative disputes — including recall disputes, election challenges, and members' records requests — before a member or the association can file in circuit court. The arbitrator's decision is binding unless either party files a de novo civil action within 30 days. For practitioners: the Division's online complaint portal is the first stop for any member who feels stonewalled. It's also where boards learn the practical limits of their authority — a Division investigator showing up to ask about a records request is a much faster education than a year of litigation. Treat any Division correspondence as the priority on the desk that day.
dbprdivisionenforcementarbitration§ 719.503
Disclosure prior to sale; prospectus
Common Elements summary — Section 719.503 requires every cooperative developer to deliver a prospectus to every prospective buyer of a cooperative unit before any binding contract is executed. The prospectus must include the cooperative documents, a description of the project, the proposed budget for the first year, all contracts the association will assume at turnover, all recreational and commonly-used facilities, the estimated first-year assessments, and disclosure of the developer's identity and financial condition. The buyer has a 15-day rescission right running from the later of contract execution or delivery of the prospectus. A defective or late prospectus extends the rescission window indefinitely — meaning a buyer who didn't get the disclosure can rescind years later if the developer cannot prove proper delivery. For resale brokers and attorneys: the 719.503 prospectus is the historical record of what the association was supposed to look like at launch. When current operations have drifted from the original financial plan — common in 30-year-old cooperatives — the prospectus is the artifact that shows what changed. Always pull it from the DBPR filing if the current management can't produce it.
prospectusdisclosuredeveloperrescission