Can a Tampa HOA or Condo Association Approve or Reject Your Tenant?

For a condo, Section 718.104(5) lets a declaration include covenants restricting the use, occupancy, and transfer of units, which is the legal hook an association uses to claim lease-approval authority in the first place. Section 718.116(4) then limits what that approval process can turn on: a unit owner's assessment delinquency at the time approval is sought is an expressly valid ground, alongside other lawful criteria the declaration sets, applied consistently and without discrimination.

Chapter 720 contains no equivalent provision. An HOA's power to approve or reject a tenant, where it exists at all, comes entirely from the community's own declaration and bylaws, under the general grant in Section 720.303(1) that an association's powers include what the governing documents set out. There is no HOA-specific statute naming assessment delinquency or any other ground as presumptively valid the way Section 718.116(4) does for condos.

Outside the servicemember rule below, neither Chapter 718 nor Chapter 720 sets a deadline for how fast an association has to approve or deny an ordinary tenant application. A board can take as long as its own bylaws or informal process allows, which in practice means a landlord's timeline depends entirely on how that specific association runs its approval meetings or committee reviews.

Section 83.683 is the exception, and it's a narrow one. A prospective tenant who is a servicemember, active duty, state active duty, Florida National Guard, or U.S. Reserve, must get a written approval or denial within 7 days of submitting the application, with a stated reason if denied. This applies the same way across a condominium association, a cooperative association, and a homeowners' association, and the deadline cannot be waived or modified by agreement under any circumstances.

Section 83.683 doesn't just set a deadline; it attaches a specific outcome to blowing it. If the association doesn't deliver a timely denial, the landlord must lease the unit to the servicemember applicant, provided the rest of the application and lease terms are satisfied. There's no equivalent "deemed approved" rule for a non-servicemember applicant under either Chapter 718 or Chapter 720; for everyone else, a slow or non-responsive board simply delays the move-in rather than losing its say.

Chapter 718 doesn't specify a fixed list of documents an association must or may request for lease approval beyond what the declaration sets, but the fee and deposit rules that apply at move-in give a sense of the paperwork load: an application, a per-applicant fee capped at $150, and sometimes a security deposit. For HOAs, Section 720.303(5)(g) adds a protection most generic guidance skips: information an association obtains in connection with approving a lease, sale, or other transfer is confidential, and cannot be accessed by other members of the association.

That confidentiality rule matters for a landlord handing over a tenant's financial or background information during the approval process. It isn't a guarantee of privacy from the board itself, but it does mean a curious neighbor on the same HOA's board of directors doesn't automatically get access to a tenant's screening file just by virtue of also being a member.

Both statutes let an association apply its own lawful criteria to an approval decision, but that permission has a hard ceiling. Section 760.23 makes it unlawful to refuse to rent, or otherwise make a dwelling unavailable, because of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, familial status, or religion, along with related protections for pregnancy and those pursuing custody of a minor. A declaration provision that reads as neutral on its face doesn't survive if it's applied in a way that tracks one of these categories.

Keep the submitted application with its date stamp, since that date starts the 7-day servicemember clock if it applies, and nothing else in either statute runs on a fixed deadline. If the association denies an application, keep the written reason it gave, since a reason that doesn't trace to the declaration or to a specific lawful ground is the kind of denial worth challenging. If a tenant identifies as a servicemember, document that fact and the date clearly enough to prove the clock, since a late denial only matters if the submission date is on record.

Substantive review means an editor or reviewer checked this article against the current statute text. Whether a specific Tampa association has lease-approval authority at all, and what grounds it may use beyond assessment delinquency, depends entirely on that community's declaration; verify the current language with the managing agent or a Florida community association attorney before relying on this for a specific application dispute. This is general information, not legal advice. Corrections: compliance@platuni.com