Florida condo boards spent two budget cycles adjusting to structural reserve requirements, and 2025's HB 913 gave them a workable path: baseline funding. Then the mortgage rulebook moved the other way. Since August 2026, the funding method Florida law permits is one the conventional-mortgage tests specifically do not accept. Both statements are true at once, and a board needs to see both.
What HB 913 permits
For buildings of three or more habitable stories, the association's reserve funding plan may use a baseline: the projected reserve balance must stay at or above zero in every year of the study period. The plan funds what the schedule needs to avoid a deficit, rather than a fixed percentage.
Baseline funding is a real discipline — the projection has to work, year by year, against the study's component schedule. What it is not is full funding: the balance is allowed to run down toward zero ahead of major replacements.
What the mortgage tests require
Fannie Mae's Lender Letter LL-2026-03 sets a different bar for project eligibility. For applications dated on or after August 3, 2026, the budget must include the reserve study's highest recommended contribution — and the letter names baseline funding as no longer accepted. From January 4, 2027, a 15%-of-assessment-income floor applies as well, unless a qualifying study is used.
Reading both at once
So a Florida building can hold a green light and a red light at the same time: the state statute asks "does the balance stay at or above zero?" while the project review asks "does the budget fund the study's highest schedule?" A budget built to the first question satisfies the board's legal duty and still leaves units hard to finance conventionally. Neither answer cancels the other — which is why a funding decision deserves both columns side by side, priced per unit by declaration share, before the vote.
The milestone pause
HB 913 also lets a board that has completed its milestone inspection pause or reduce reserve contributions for up to two consecutive budgets adopted by December 31, 2028, with a majority vote. That flexibility is state-side only: the mortgage tests keep reading the budget as adopted. A board weighing the pause should price what it does to both rulebooks — and confirm the conditions with counsel.
Run both against your budget
The five numbers below answer the two mortgage tests, and the full report adds the Florida baseline projection from the study's component schedule. The check runs in your browser and stores nothing.