Florida CDD fees: the charge on your community that is not HOA and not a tax

Almost nobody sees it in the listing: it turns up when the first bill arrives.

When a new community is built, someone pays for the roads, pipes, drainage and common areas before the first home is sold. Florida law (Chapter 190 of the Florida Statutes) allows an independent special district, the CDD (Community Development District), which works like a small local government with one job: finance, build and maintain that infrastructure.

The district borrows by selling bonds (public debt), and the owners of the properties in the district pay it back year after year. A five-member board of supervisors runs it: at first the landowner, the developer, elects them, and over time the residents do.

Three things a CDD is not:

• It is not the HOA. The HOA (homeowners association) is private and charges for its rules and services. The CDD is a government and its charge is public. One community can have both, and you pay both.
• It is not a tax on your home's value. It is not calculated on your home's value: it is split per property, based on lot type. If your home goes up in price, the charge does not go up with it.
• It is not optional. If the property sits inside the district, the charge goes to whoever buys it.

In most districts the charge arrives as a non-ad valorem line (not calculated on your home's value) on the same county tax bill, collected by the Tax Collector. If you have escrow (the account where your lender collects taxes and insurance), it normally rides inside that same payment. If you do not have escrow, you normally pay the tax bill yourself, this charge included.

An owner may prepay their share of the debt, in whole or in part, and the annual charge drops. O&M cannot be paid off forever: it is the cost of operating the district and it comes every year.

• The debt belongs to the property, not the person. If you buy with several years of bonds ahead, those years are yours from closing. The districts explain it this way (for example, Celebration's): if the owner sells before the bonds are paid off, the next owner becomes responsible for that property's share.
• "Bond paid" tells half the story. It means that property's debt service was retired. O&M continues, like every other home in the district. A listing that says "no CDD" for that reason is telling half the story.
• Resales are the blind spot. The law (§190.048) requires the initial sales contract, the developer's to the first buyer, to carry a large-type notice: the district may levy taxes or assessments, on top of the county's. In a resale between private parties, that paragraph is not waiting for you. You have to go find the charge before you offer.
• Not paying it follows the tax collection path. Because it is collected on the tax bill, nonpayment follows the collection rules for those taxes, including the sale of tax certificates (§197.3632). The detail for each district is confirmed in its own documents.

1. 1This year's amountDebt service plus O&M, on that property's tax bill or TRIM notice (the proposed-tax notice). It is a yearly cost that belongs in your budget. Ask your lender how it counts it.
2. 2How much debt remains, and until whenThe district's disclosure documents say. Since debt service is fixed, today's number is every year's number until it ends.
3. 3Whether the seller already paid their shareConfirm it with the district, not with the listing's word.
4. 4O&M over the last few yearsIt is the part that moves. One that rises every year says more about the future than this year's number.
5. 5CDD, HOA and taxes, added separatelyThe classic mistake is comparing two homes by HOA fee alone and finding out later that the cheaper one carries a whole CDD on top.

This guide explains the mechanism and gives no district's amount: it varies by district and lot type, and it comes only from the district's documents and the property's bill. Sources: Florida Statutes §190.048 and §190.009, and the official district pages for Celebration, Rolling Hills and Renaissance, read on October 18, 2026.