The official records of a homeowners association have, historically, been limited to a number of specific documents. Unlike a condominium association, homeowners associations were not required to maintain all records of the association as official records of the association and were not required to disclose all of the association's records to lot owners.

Effective October 1, 2004, the legislature amended Section 720.303 (4) to add a catch all to the records which are considered a part of an association's official records. The new amendment provides that the official records of a homeowners association include all written records of the association not specifically included in the other paragraphs of the statute which are related to the operation of the association.

The statute now also provides that, if the association has a photocopy machine available where the records are maintained, it must provide parcel owners with copies of the official records upon request during that owner's inspection if the entire request is limited to no more than 25 pages.

The association is authorized to adopt reasonable written rules governing the frequency, time, location, notice, records to be inspected and manner of inspections, but is not authorized to impose a requirement that a parcel owner demonstrate any proper purpose for the inspection, state any reason for the inspection or limit a parcel owner's right to inspect records to less than one eight-hour business day per month. The association is authorized to charge up to $0.50 per page for copies made on the association's photocopy machine. If the association does not have a photocopy machine available where the records are kept, or, if the records requested to be copied exceed 25 pages in length, the association may have copies made by an outside vendor and may charge the homeowner the actual cost of copying.

The amendments to the official records statute exclude from the association's official records any record protected by the lawyer-client privilege as described in the Florida Evidence Code and any record protected by the lawyer's work-product privilege, including, without limitation, any record prepared by an association attorney or prepared at the attorney's express direction which reflects a mental impression, conclusion, litigation strategy or legal theory of the attorney or the association and which was prepared exclusively for civil or criminal litigation or for adversarial administrative proceedings or which was prepared in anticipation of imminent civil or criminal litigation or for adversarial administrative proceedings. The protection of those materials expires at the conclusion of the litigation or adversarial administrative proceedings. Also excluded from the homeowners association's official records is information obtained by an association in connection with the approval of the lease, sale or other transfer of a parcel. Disciplinary, health, insurance and personal records of the association's employees along with medical records of parcel owners or community residents are excluded from the association's official records.