Is an email a &quot;written request&quot;?
<p>In Florida, HOAs are required to provide records to owners.   Owners must provide a written request for.  Is an email to the hired record keeper a written request? </p>

<p>Update: Assume for the exercise that recipient replies to the message indicating that the message is read.</p>

<p>Although <a href="http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;URL=0700-0799/0720/Sections/0720.303.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Florida law</a> simply says that records </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>shall be made available to a parcel owner.. within 10 business days
  after receipt by the board or its designee of a written request</p>
</blockquote>

<p>what else you may want to know is that </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The failure of an association to provide access to the records within
  10 business days <em>after receipt of a written request submitted by
  certified mail, return receipt requested</em>, creates a rebuttable
  presumption that the association willfully failed to comply with this
  subsection.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The teeth in the record law is/are that</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>A member who is denied access to official records is entitled to the
  actual damages or minimum damages for the association’s <em>willful
  failure</em> to comply with this subsection.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Technically, email constitutes a written request, but there is no penalty for failing to comply with a written request, there is a penalty for failing to timely comply with a written request submitted by certified mail, return receipt requested.</p>

<h2>Yes</h2>

<p>So is a text message or Facebook or Whatsapp post.</p>

<p>However, strange and different rules of service (i.e. when and how they have legal effect) may apply to different methods.</p>

hoa