Florida Condo Law Reform Explained: Milestone Inspections, Structural Reserves, and the Special Assessment Wave

The Direct Answer

Florida’s post-Surfside condominium reforms — enacted in 2022 (SB 4-D), refined in 2023 (SB 154), expanded in 2024 (HB 1021), and partially relaxed in 2025 (HB 913) — impose three core obligations on condominium and cooperative buildings three or more habitable stories tall: (1) a milestone structural inspection by a licensed architect or engineer once the building reaches 30 years of age (local officials may require 25 in some coastal conditions), repeated every ten years thereafter; (2) a Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS) every ten years that determines how much money the association must set aside for roof, structure, waterproofing, plumbing, electrical, fire-protection, and window components; and (3) mandatory funding of those structural reserves — associations can no longer vote to waive or underfund them, as most did for decades.

The financial consequence is the special assessment wave now working through Florida’s roughly 1.5 million condo units: buildings that deferred maintenance for years are levying five- and six-figure per-unit assessments, older-building condo prices have fallen sharply in many markets, and listings have surged.

The 2025 relief law added flexibility — loans and lines of credit for reserve funding, temporary funding pauses after a milestone inspection, and narrower SIRS scope — but the core obligations remain. What follows is a full explanation of each requirement, the statutory citations, the market data, and what owners, buyers, and boards should do.

Why This Happened: The Surfside Collapse and What It Exposed

On June 24, 2021, the twelve-story Champlain Towers South in Surfside partially collapsed in the middle of the night, killing 98 people. Investigators and journalists subsequently documented what many Florida condo owners recognized from their own buildings: a 2018 engineering report had identified “major structural damage” to the pool deck slab and “abundant cracking and spalling” in the parking garage; the association had been debating a repair program whose cost had grown to roughly $15 million; and the special assessment to fund it had only been approved months before the collapse, after years of deferral and board turnover.

The collapse turned a slow-motion problem into a legislative emergency. Florida had roughly 1.5 million condominium units in more than 27,000 associations, an enormous share of them in buildings constructed during the 1970s and 1980s boom and now well past the 30-year mark. Under prior law, associations were permitted to vote annually to waive or reduce reserve contributions — and most did, because underfunded reserves meant lower monthly dues, which meant more attractive listings. The result was a statewide inventory of aging concrete-and-rebar buildings in a salt-air environment with nothing set aside to fix them.

The legislature’s first attempt, during the 2022 regular session, failed to pass. Governor DeSantis called a special session in May 2022, and Senate Bill 4-D passed unanimously. Everything since has been refinement of that framework.

Requirement 1: Milestone Structural Inspections

Statutory basis: Section 553.899, Florida Statutes, with related provisions in Chapter 718 (condominiums) and Chapter 719 (cooperatives).

Who must comply. Condominium and cooperative buildings that are three or more habitable stories in height. Single-family, two-family, and three-family dwellings with three or fewer habitable stories are excluded. The 2023 clarifications tied the trigger to the certificate of occupancy date and settled several definitional questions that had generated confusion in the first year.

When the inspection is due. The milestone inspection must be performed by December 31 of the year the building reaches 30 years from its certificate of occupancy, and then every ten years thereafter. Local enforcement agencies — the county or municipal building officials — may set a 25-year threshold for buildings within their jurisdiction based on local environmental conditions such as proximity to salt water, though the original 2022 bill’s automatic three-mile coastal rule was replaced with this local-discretion approach in 2023.

Buildings that were already past 30 years when the law took effect were subject to initial compliance deadlines that have now passed; associations that missed them are in violation and should be dealing with their local building department immediately.

What the inspection involves. The statute establishes a two-phase process:

Phase One is a visual examination of the habitable and non-habitable areas of the building — including the major structural components — by a licensed architect or engineer, who produces a qualitative assessment of structural condition. If the inspector finds no signs of substantial structural deterioration, Phase Two is not required.
Phase Two is triggered by findings of “substantial structural deterioration” — a defined term meaning distress that negatively affects a building’s general structural condition and integrity. Phase Two may involve destructive or non-destructive testing at the inspector’s direction, and the inspector must produce a report identifying the deterioration, whether it is in need of repair, and recommending a program of repairs.

Reporting obligations. The inspector’s report goes to the association and to the local building official. The association must distribute a summary to every unit owner, post it on the association website (if it is required to maintain one — a threshold lowered to associations of 25 or more units by the 2024 law), and provide the full report to any buyer under the disclosure requirements discussed below. Associations must also report milestone status to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), whose Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes oversees the process.

The cost. Phase One inspections have been widely reported in the range of several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars depending on building size and complexity. Phase Two, when triggered, can run substantially higher because of the testing involved. And the inspection cost is trivial compared to what it usually reveals: the inspection is the diagnostic, and the repair program it recommends is the real bill.

Requirement 2: Structural Integrity Reserve Studies (SIRS)

Statutory basis: Section 718.112(2)(g), Florida Statutes (with a parallel provision in Chapter 719 for cooperatives).

What a SIRS is. A reserve study is a financial and engineering analysis that estimates the remaining useful life and replacement cost of a building’s major components and calculates how much the association must set aside each year to fund those replacements when they come due. Reserve studies have long been standard practice in well-run associations. What the reforms did was make a specific kind of reserve study — one focused on structural components — mandatory for buildings three or more habitable stories, on a ten-year cycle, and then require that the reserves it identifies actually be funded.

Who performs it. The visual inspection portion of a SIRS must be performed by a licensed engineer, architect, or a reserve specialist credentialed by a recognized professional organization, in accordance with the statute’s requirements. This professional-qualification requirement was one of the areas clarified in the 2023 and 2025 amendments.

Which components a SIRS must cover. The statute enumerates the structural and life-safety items:

Roof
Structure, including load-bearing walls and other primary structural members and primary structural systems
Fireproofing and fire protection systems
Plumbing
Electrical systems
Waterproofing and exterior painting
Windows and exterior doors
Any other item that has a deferred maintenance expense or replacement cost exceeding a statutory threshold and whose failure would negatively affect the items above, as determined by the inspecting professional

The 2025 relief law gave associations somewhat more discretion — allowing the inspecting professional to exclude certain items from the SIRS on a documented basis and adjusting threshold amounts — but the core list remains.

The deadline. Associations existing when the law passed were required to complete their initial SIRS by December 31, 2024. The 2025 legislation provided extensions for associations that had completed a milestone inspection and were pursuing repairs, effectively allowing some to complete their SIRS by the end of 2025. Newly formed associations are subject to SIRS requirements at developer turnover, and developers must fund reserves before turnover.

Why the SIRS is the financial center of the reforms. The SIRS produces a number: the annual reserve contribution required to fund the structural components on schedule. Under the reformed statute, associations may no longer vote to waive or reduce funding for SIRS components — the decades-old practice that allowed buildings to defer their way into crisis. The monthly dues in an older building are now, in effect, set by the engineer’s spreadsheet rather than the board’s political appetite. For buildings that had waived reserves for twenty or thirty years, the required annual contribution is often a multiple of what owners were previously paying.

Requirement 3: Mandatory Reserve Funding and the End of Waivers

This is the provision that changed owners’ monthly bills.

Under prior law, Section 718.112(2)(f) allowed a majority of owners voting at a meeting to waive reserve funding or fund reserves at less than the required amount, year after year. The reforms eliminated that option for SIRS components in buildings three or more habitable stories. Associations may still make funding decisions about non-structural reserves — pool furniture, clubhouse renovations, landscaping — but the roof, structure, waterproofing, plumbing, electrical, fire protection, and windows must be funded at the level the SIRS specifies.

The 2025 relief law (HB 913), signed in June 2025 after a session dominated by owner testimony about unaffordable assessments, introduced flexibility around how those reserves are funded without changing whether they are funded:

Loans and lines of credit. Associations may, with owner approval, fund reserve obligations through borrowing rather than immediate cash contributions — converting a lump-sum assessment into financed payments over time.
Temporary pause after a milestone inspection. An association that has completed its milestone inspection and is undertaking the recommended repairs may, with a vote, pause or reduce reserve contributions for a limited period (the statute specifies the conditions and maximum duration) so that owners are not simultaneously paying for repairs and building reserves for the same components.
Pooled reserves and investment. The law clarified that associations may use pooled (cash-flow) reserve methods and may invest reserve funds, subject to fiduciary standards, rather than holding them in non-interest-bearing accounts.
Narrowed SIRS scope and professional discretion, as described above.

These changes were a genuine response to real hardship, but they are financing and timing relief, not a return to waivers. An owner in a 40-year-old oceanfront building whose SIRS calls for a seven-figure roof and waterproofing program will pay for that program; the 2025 law changed the payment schedule, not the invoice.

The Governance Layer: The 2024 Accountability Law

HB 1021 (2024) addressed a different problem the reforms had exposed: boards that resisted inspections, hid reports, or in some documented cases engaged in outright fraud. Its provisions include:

Board member education. Directors must complete DBPR-approved education on their fiduciary duties, financial literacy, and the new structural requirements within a set period of election and periodically thereafter.
Official records and websites. Associations of 25 or more units must maintain a website or app where owners can access official records — including milestone reports, SIRS, budgets, and reserve schedules — with specific posting deadlines.
Criminal penalties. The law created or enhanced criminal penalties for board members who fraudulently conceal records, accept kickbacks, or engage in specified conflict-of-interest conduct — a direct response to prosecuted cases in South Florida, including the widely reported Hammocks Community Association fraud case in Miami-Dade.
DBPR enforcement. The division gained clearer authority and resources to investigate complaints, conduct compliance monitoring, and require associations to report milestone and SIRS status.
Meeting and voting rules. Expanded provisions for electronic voting and virtual meetings, and clearer rules on owner access to meetings and records.

The Disclosure Regime: What Buyers Are Entitled To

The reforms significantly changed the information a condo buyer receives, and buyers who understand these rights have real leverage.

Under Sections 718.503 and 718.504 and related provisions, a seller (or developer) must provide prospective buyers with — among other documents — the association’s most recent milestone inspection report, the most recent SIRS, and a statement of whether the association has completed both, along with the current budget, reserve schedule, and information about any pending or approved special assessments. Buyers of resale units have a statutory rescission period after receiving the required documents (three days for resales; longer for developer sales), and failure to provide the documents extends the buyer’s cancellation rights.

The practical result: the milestone report and SIRS are now the two most important documents in any Florida condo purchase. A buyer who reads them can see whether the building has been inspected, what the inspector found, what the reserve shortfall is, and — combined with the budget — roughly what assessments are coming. A building that cannot produce these documents is telling the buyer something too.

The Market Impact: A Composite of the Public Data

The financial effect of the reforms has been the most-covered Florida real estate story of the past two years. Assembling the publicly reported data from state agencies, industry associations, and financial press coverage produces a consistent picture. (Figures below are drawn from public reporting and are approximate; current data should be confirmed against the cited sources.)

The inventory at stake. Florida has roughly 1.5 million condominium units. Various analyses have estimated that on the order of a million of those are in buildings 30 or more years old, and industry groups have reported that a large majority of buildings subject to the milestone requirement were built before 1994 — meaning they predate the post-Hurricane Andrew building code era and were constructed under materially weaker standards.

Reserve shortfalls. Because reserve waivers were the norm for decades, reserve studies conducted since 2022 have routinely found that structural reserves were funded at a small fraction of the required level. Reports from reserve-study firms and association attorneys have described typical older buildings arriving at their first SIRS with structural reserves funded in the low double digits as a percentage of what the statute now requires.

Special assessments. Assessments in the tens of thousands of dollars per unit have become common in older coastal buildings; assessments exceeding $100,000 per unit have been reported in a number of high-profile South Florida cases, generally involving concrete restoration, waterproofing, and roof programs in oceanfront towers. The distribution is highly skewed: many newer or well-managed buildings have faced modest increases, while a minority of older, deferred-maintenance buildings account for the extreme cases that dominate headlines.

Prices and listings. Florida Realtors data and major brokerage analyses through 2024 and 2025 showed condo listings surging statewide — with the sharpest increases in South Florida and the Tampa Bay area — while single-family inventory rose more modestly. Median condo prices declined year over year in most major Florida metros during that period, with older buildings and buildings facing known assessments seeing the steepest discounts. Analysts have consistently described a two-tier market: newer, fully reserved, post-2002-code buildings holding value or appreciating, and older buildings with pending SIRS obligations trading at significant discounts, sometimes for less than the cost of the assessments attached to them.

Lending. The secondary-mortgage market compounded the effect. Following Surfside, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tightened project eligibility standards, effectively blacklisting buildings with significant deferred maintenance, unfunded structural repairs, or inadequate reserves. A building that cannot pass agency review cannot offer conventional financing to buyers, which pushes those units toward cash buyers and further depresses prices. Industry sources have reported thousands of Florida projects on the agencies’ ineligible lists.

Insurance. The same buildings face the property insurance pressures covered in our companion article: older roofs, older construction, and coastal exposure mean association master policies have seen dramatic premium increases, and those costs flow into the same monthly dues that reserve funding is raising. For an owner in an older building, the combined dues increase from reserves plus insurance is frequently the number that forces a sale.

Foreclosures and distress. Association liens and foreclosures for unpaid assessments have increased in the buildings hardest hit, and owner advocacy groups have documented cases of retirees on fixed incomes unable to meet assessments on units they owned outright. This testimony drove the 2025 relief legislation.

The redevelopment dynamic. At the far end of the distribution, older coastal buildings whose repair costs approach or exceed their value have become termination and redevelopment targets. Developers have assembled buyouts of aging oceanfront towers — sometimes over the objections of minority owners — under Florida’s condominium termination provisions, which the legislature has also revisited. For owners in these buildings, the assessment crisis and the buyout offer often arrive together.

What Owners Should Do

Read your building’s documents. Your association is required to give you the milestone report and SIRS. If it hasn’t produced them, that is itself the finding. If it has, read the inspector’s conclusions and the reserve funding schedule, and compare the required contribution to your current dues.

Understand the timeline. A milestone inspection with Phase Two findings starts a clock on repairs; a SIRS sets an annual funding number. Ask the board for the repair plan and its financing structure — cash assessment, loan, or the 2025 law’s pause provisions.

Engage with governance. The 2024 law gives owners real records access and gives boards real liability. Attend meetings, request records in writing (the statute sets response deadlines), and understand that board members now face personal consequences for concealment.

Plan financially. If your building faces a large assessment, the options are: pay from savings; finance individually (some lenders offer assessment loans; HELOCs are common); vote for association financing under the 2025 law; sell before the assessment is levied (with full disclosure — concealing a known pending assessment from a buyer creates liability); or, in the rare extreme, evaluate a termination or buyout offer.

Verify the professionals. Milestone inspections and SIRS must be performed by properly licensed or credentialed professionals. Demand for these services has exceeded supply, and unqualified providers have appeared. Check licenses with DBPR and the Florida Board of Professional Engineers.

What Buyers Should Do

Treat the milestone report and SIRS as the core of due diligence — ahead of the unit inspection. Ask for both before making an offer, and if the seller cannot produce them, price that uncertainty or walk.

Check agency eligibility. Ask your lender early whether the building is on the Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac ineligible list. If it is, your financing options narrow and your resale market narrows with them.

Read the budget and reserve schedule against the SIRS. The SIRS says what must be funded; the budget says what is being funded. A gap between them is a future assessment.

Ask directly about pending assessments — and get the answer in writing. Sellers must disclose approved and pending assessments; buyers should also ask whether repairs recommended by a milestone inspection have been funded.

Price the total cost of ownership. Dues plus insurance plus the amortized reserve contribution plus any assessment is the real monthly number. In older coastal buildings it can be double what the listing implies.

Remember the two-tier market. Newer, fully reserved, post-2002 buildings are a fundamentally different asset from a 1980 oceanfront tower with a fresh SIRS. Discounts on the latter may be real bargains or may be traps, and only the documents tell you which.

What Boards Should Do

Comply, document, and communicate. The statutory deadlines have passed for most existing buildings; a board that has not completed its milestone inspection and SIRS is exposed to DBPR enforcement, owner litigation, and — under the 2024 law — potential personal liability. Complete the work, post the documents, and explain them to owners.

Build the repair program deliberately. Get competitive bids, use qualified engineers to scope the work, and structure financing under the 2025 law’s options. Owners who understand the plan pay; owners who feel ambushed sue.

Fund reserves honestly. The waiver era is over for structural components. Budgets that quietly underfund the SIRS schedule create liability for every director.

Manage the insurance and lending relationship. Document repairs and reserve funding in ways that satisfy the master-policy carrier and the agency lending reviews. Both directly affect every owner’s unit value.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Florida condos must have a milestone inspection? Condominium and cooperative buildings three or more habitable stories tall, by December 31 of the year they reach 30 years from their certificate of occupancy, and every ten years thereafter. Local building officials may require a 25-year threshold based on local conditions.

What is a SIRS and which buildings need one? A Structural Integrity Reserve Study — a professional analysis determining required reserve funding for structural and life-safety components — required every ten years for buildings three or more habitable stories, with initial deadlines that fell at the end of 2024 (extended into 2025 for some associations under the 2025 relief law).

Can a Florida condo association still waive reserves? Not for SIRS components in buildings three or more habitable stories. Waivers remain possible for non-structural reserves. The 2025 law permits financing and temporary pauses under specific conditions but not waivers.

Are special assessments tax-deductible or covered by insurance? Generally neither, for a personal residence. Some assessment costs for rental units may be capitalized or deducted as rental expenses — consult a CPA. Loss assessment coverage under a unit owner’s HO-6 policy applies only to assessments arising from covered losses, not deferred maintenance.

What happens if my association hasn’t complied? It is in violation of Chapter 718 and Section 553.899, subject to DBPR enforcement and local building-official action, and its directors are exposed to liability under the 2024 accountability law. Owners can file complaints with DBPR’s Division of Florida Condominiums.

Do buyers get to see the milestone report before closing? Yes. The milestone report and SIRS are required disclosures, and the buyer’s rescission period does not begin until the required documents are delivered.

Did the 2025 law roll back the reforms? No. It added financing flexibility — loans, temporary contribution pauses after a milestone inspection, pooled reserves, investment authority — and narrowed some SIRS scope, but the inspection, study, and mandatory funding obligations remain.

Is the condo market crash real? It is real and it is bifurcated. Older buildings with unfunded structural obligations have seen substantial price declines and surging inventory; newer, fully reserved buildings have largely held value. The statewide averages obscure both extremes.

Sources

Florida Statutes: § 553.899 (milestone inspections); Chapter 718, including §§ 718.112, 718.503–718.504 (condominiums); Chapter 719 (cooperatives) — Online Sunshine (leg.state.fl.us)
Senate Bill 4-D (2022), Senate Bill 154 (2023), House Bill 1021 (2024), and House Bill 913 (2025) — Florida Legislature bill archives (flsenate.gov / myfloridahouse.gov)
Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes — milestone and SIRS reporting and guidance (myfloridalicense.com)
Florida Realtors monthly market reports — condo/townhouse inventory and price data (floridarealtors.org)
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac condominium project eligibility standards (fanniemae.com / freddiemac.com)
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Champlain Towers South investigation (nist.gov)
Florida Board of Professional Engineers — license verification (fbpe.org)
Public reporting on assessments, listings, and pricing from the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Tampa Bay Times, and the Wall Street Journal, 2022–2026

This article is general information, not legal, financial, or tax advice. It synthesizes publicly reported data and statutory provisions current as of the verification date above; Florida condominium law has been amended in every legislative session since 2022 and may change again. Owners, buyers, and boards should confirm current statutory text and consult a Florida community association attorney and a CPA about their specific situation.