6 Holiday Decoration Rules a Florida HOA Can Actually Enforce

Florida’s flag law protects some flags, but your snowman flag isn’t one of them.

If you live under an HOA, holiday decorating comes with limits that can stand up legally.

Here are the holiday decoration rules a Florida HOA can actually enforce.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Association rules vary by community and are subject to change, so check your governing documents.

1. Start Dates

Holiday decorations can come with a start date in your HOA’s rules.

Florida gives an HOA the powers written in its governing documents, except where the law expressly limits them.

The state’s fine law deals with decorations left up too long, not with when they go up, so a start date depends on what your governing documents provide.

Some homeowners in a Port Orange neighborhood said in November 2023 that their HOA had sent letters barring Christmas lights before Thanksgiving.

The homeowners said those letters gave them 14 days to take the lights down.

That account comes from the homeowners’ side, so it shows what such a rule can look like, not how a dispute over it would end.

If your governing documents set a start date, check the calendar before you plug anything in.

A missed start date goes through the same fine process as any other violation.

2. Take-Down Deadlines

A take-down deadline is the one holiday decoration rule that section 720.305(7)(b) of the fine law speaks to directly.

Your HOA can set a date in your governing documents for decorations to come down.

Since a July 2024 change, the fine law bars an HOA from fining you or imposing a suspension over decorations that stay up past that date.

The exception comes when they’re still up more than one week after the HOA sends written notice of the violation.

That week is counted from the notice, not from the deadline.

Once the week ends with your lights still up, your HOA can start the fine process.

3. Seasonal Flags

A snowman flag is a holiday decoration, and it isn’t among the flags Florida’s flag law protects.

The flag law doesn’t stop an HOA from applying its limits to a visible Santa, pumpkin or snowman flag, if your governing documents set such limits.

The law protects up to two portable, removable flags at a time.

The American flag and the official state flag are on the list.

So are flags for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force and Coast Guard, plus POW-MIA flags and first responder flags.

Each flag can be no larger than 4 1/2 feet by 6 feet.

4. Common-Area Decorations

Common areas are generally land the association owns or leases, or land dedicated to it or its members for use or upkeep, and decorations there fall under rules your HOA can enforce.

State law lets an association adopt reasonable rules for how members use those spaces.

Lights you string on a shared tree are a use of that space, so the association can write rules about them.

Not sure whether a spot is common area? Ask your HOA before you hang anything there.

5. Size, Type and Placement

An architectural committee can limit the size, type and placement of your decorations when your governing documents give it that job.

That committee's authority covers only what your governing documents state or reasonably imply about location, size, type or appearance.

The committee has to apply those standards fairly to every owner.

If it turns down your plan, it has to tell you in writing which rule you broke and which part of your plan doesn't fit.

6. Displays Visible From the Street

Your HOA's rules can generally reach displays that can be seen from your parcel's frontage.

A 2023 law bars associations from restricting items on a parcel that aren't visible from the parcel's frontage, an adjacent parcel, an adjacent common area or a community golf course.

A front-yard inflatable that the street can see falls outside that shield.

A display behind a fence, out of sight from every one of those spots, may fall inside it.

Notice of Rule Changes

A board can amend the rules on how you use your parcel at a meeting, but members must get written notice at least 14 days ahead.

That notice can arrive by mail, in person or electronically.

The HOA must post it conspicuously on the property or broadcast it on closed-circuit cable television.

Limits on Board Power

Holiday decoration rules depend on whether your HOA's governing documents give it the power to make them.

Under section 720.303(1), an association's powers come from its governing documents, except where chapter 720 limits them.

A rule that stretches past what those documents allow is open to challenge.