Are all Florida HOA bylaws required to be recorded in their respective county? If not, do we have to follow them?

It depends. Chapter 720 governing HOAs only requires that the "initial" governing documents be recorded. The amendment needing to be recorded is address led in those initial governing documents. They will say the subsequent amendments need to be recorded or is silent on the issue. They really should be recorded, yes, but it likely does not mean that you do not to follow the amended version if recording was not required for amendments in the initial by-laws. This is something that should be discussed with your association's lawyer.

Fla. Stat. 720.303(1) requires, after October 1, 1995, for associations to be incorporated and the governing documents to be recorded in the county records. Many HOAs regard this to mean if the HOA was organized after 1995 and an argument could be made this is the unconstitutional retroactive application of a statute to an existing contract. Industry practice is to record the documents in the county records no matter when the HOA was organized. An often misunderstood argument is earlier HOAs are subject to FS 617 because the documents state they were organized under 617. All mandatory HOAs are subject to FS 720 and FS 617 as well as FS 607 if the issue is not covered by FS 617. FS 720 was originally part of FS 617 prior to the late 1990s when it was extracted and renumbered. When there is a conflict between the documents, the Declarations are the superior document with the Articles of Incorporation being superior over the Bylaws. You association should hire a HOA attorney to help assist with these issues.

Generally, when documenting an HOA, the articles and bylaws are incorporated into the declaration. The declaration is then recorded, referencing the articles and bylaws as exhibits. Usually, the declaration identifies which document controls in the event of conflicts between the documents. Review the recorded documents of your HOA for such a provision. In addition, for a document to run with the land, it must be recorded. The documents that must be recorded according to the current controlling statute is the declaration. Section 720.301(8)(a) and (b), Florida Statutes, states, in its definitional section that the governing documents are: “The recorded declaration of covenants for a community, and all duly adopted and recorded amendments, supplements, and recorded exhibits thereto; and (b) [t]he articles of incorporation and bylaws of the homeowners’ association, and any duly adopted amendments thereto.” (Note that I underlined recorded for emphasis). Based on the foregoing, and notwithstanding that your declaration was recorded prior to the current statute going into effect, even if the declaration does not state which document controls, it is most likely that a court would rule that in the event of conflict between the governing documents the recorded declaration controls. Hence, your association should consider amending the bylaws to be in concert with the declaration or vise-versa, in the absence of which, the recorded document will continue to control.