Florida estoppel and resale requests

The clock starts when you write

Florida section 718.116(8) gives the association 10 business days from a written or electronic request from a unit owner or the owner’s designee, or a unit mortgagee or the mortgagee’s designee. A request that does not identify the requester in one of those capacities is not on the clock at all, so name it in the first line.

The statute also requires each association to publish on its website an address, street or email, for receiving these requests. Where that is published, it is the address to use.

What a request should carry

• The legal name of the association as it appears in the declaration, rather than the name on the sign.
• The unit number and the phase.
• The owner of record.
• The closing date.
• Your capacity, which is usually as designee of the unit owner or of the mortgagee.
• Where the certificate should be sent.
• Whether you also need the resale package or only the estoppel.

Who is allowed to answer it

The statute is specific. An estoppel certificate may be completed by any board member, authorized agent, or authorized representative of the association, including any authorized agent, authorized representative, or employee of a management company authorized to complete the form on behalf of the board or association.

Nobody outside that list can issue it, whatever documents they hold. If the answer you receive is signed by someone else, it is not the certificate you asked for.

The other document on the same file

An estoppel certificate is not a lender questionnaire, and asking for one does not get you the other. Both now land on the same Florida closing far more often than they used to: Limited Review and Streamlined Review were retired for applications dated on or after August 3, 2026, so conventional condo loans in buildings of eleven or more units go through Full Review, and Full Review means the complete project questionnaire on every file.

If that is what you are waiting on instead, how to ask so it comes back complete is the guide for the requesting side.

What a complete answer looks like

A finished package is published in full: the same building answered three ways, clean, with findings, and blocked, so the difference between a usable answer and an unusable one is visible rather than described.

If you are waiting on a manager right now

Send them this page. The desk completes the package for the management company, which reviews and signs it. The first package for a management company that has not used the desk is free, there is no account to open and nothing to install: a manager writes to support@averbrook.com and sends the documents they already have.

One line to forward:

• We are waiting on the estoppel for [unit] at [association]. If it helps, the desk at averbrook.com/fl-estoppel-requests completes these for management companies and the first one is free.

Common questions from the requesting side

Short answers to what escrow officers and title processors ask most often when an estoppel has not come back.

How long does the association have?

Ten business days from a written or electronic request, under Florida section 718.116(8). The clock runs from a request made by a unit owner or the owner’s designee, or a unit mortgagee or the mortgagee’s designee, so the request should say which of those you are.

What happens if they miss the deadline?

The statute removes the fee entirely for that certificate rather than reducing it. That is a matter between the association and the payor; it does not get the document to you any faster, which is why naming your capacity and sending a complete request in the first place is worth more than the remedy.

Who is allowed to sign it?

Any board member, authorized agent, or authorized representative of the association, including any authorized agent, authorized representative, or employee of a management company authorized to complete the form for the board or association. Nobody outside that list, whatever documents they hold.

Where should the request be sent?

Each association is required to publish on its website an address, street or email, for receiving these. Where that is published, use it rather than a general office address.

We need the resale package as well. Is that the same request?

No, and saying which you need avoids a round trip. The estoppel certificate and the resale or governing document package are different deliverables, and asking for one does not get you the other.