Know what protection your unit has — and what's approved
Florida law requires condominium boards to adopt hurricane protection specifications for each building — standards for shutters, impact glass, and other code-compliant protection, so installations are consistent and up to code. Before you buy or install anything, ask your association for its adopted specifications: an owner installation generally needs to match them. The statutory background is in our guide to hurricane protection rules for Florida condos.
If your unit already has shutters, operate them once before the season starts. A shutter that hasn't moved since last year is a shutter you'll be fighting in a warning window.
The unit-level checklist
- Water: know where your unit's main shut-off valve is and confirm it turns. If you'll be away for the season, many associations ask that water be shut off at the unit — check your building's policy.
- Balcony and lanai: everything that isn't bolted down comes inside. Furniture, planters, and grills become projectiles in tropical-storm winds.
- Refrigerator and freezer: if you're leaving, empty them or plan for an extended outage. A freezer after two weeks without power is a remediation job.
- Documents and photos: photograph the unit room by room and store copies of your insurance policy, declaration pages, and an inventory somewhere off-site or in the cloud.
- Insurance: review your HO-6 (unit owner's) policy and flood coverage before the season — not during a watch, when binding is typically suspended.
- Contact chain: make sure the association has your current phone, email, and an emergency contact — and that you know how the association will reach owners after a storm.
If you're a seasonal resident
Tell management when you leave and how to reach you. Arrange for someone local — a neighbor, a key-holder service, or building staff where the association offers it — to check the unit after a storm. The most expensive storm damage in condo buildings is often water that ran for days in an empty unit.
What the association handles
Common-element protection, generator and elevator plans, debris contracts, and the board's emergency powers during a declared emergency are association responsibilities. If you're not sure where the line falls in your building, ask before the season — the answer is in your declaration and the board's adopted specifications.