The Surfside collapse rewrote Florida condominium law. What began as emergency legislation in 2022 has settled, after several rounds of amendment — most recently HB 913 in 2025 — into a permanent compliance regime built on two documents: the milestone inspection and the structural integrity reserve study. Boards that treat them as paperwork are discovering that lenders, insurers, and buyers treat them as the building's report card. Here is the current state of the law, the dates that matter, and what boards, owners, and buyers should each be doing about it.
Who Is Covered
The regime applies to condominium and cooperative buildings three or more habitable stories tall. Traditional two-story HOAs and single-family communities under Chapter 720 are outside the milestone/SIRS rules (they have their own governance and records obligations). For covered buildings, the association — meaning the board — carries the compliance duty.
The Milestone Inspection — F.S. § 553.899
A milestone inspection is a structural inspection by a Florida-licensed architect or engineer, in two phases:
- Phase one is a visual examination for signs of substantial structural deterioration. If none is found, the building is done until the next cycle.
- Phase two is triggered when phase one finds substantial deterioration — a deeper investigation that can involve destructive and non-destructive testing, and that ends in a report describing the repairs the building actually needs.
Timing: the first inspection is generally due when the building reaches 30 years of age, and every 10 years thereafter. Local enforcement authorities may set the trigger at 25 years for buildings within three miles of the coastline — which describes a large share of the Florida condo stock, including most of the Volusia County beachside. Buildings hitting their trigger age in 2026 should be planning around a December 31, 2026 completion.
The SIRS — F.S. § 718.112(2)(g)
The structural integrity reserve study is the money side of the same coin: a reserve study, informed by a visual inspection, that prices the remaining life and replacement cost of the building's key structural components and sets the reserve funding schedule. After HB 913, the component list is consolidated to eight structural categories — roof, load-bearing structure, fireproofing and fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and exterior painting, windows and exterior doors, and any other item over a $25,000 replacement threshold affecting structural integrity.
The deadline structure:
| Situation | SIRS due |
|---|---|
| Covered association, milestone inspection NOT due by end of 2026 | Generally was due by December 31, 2025 |
| Milestone inspection due on or before December 31, 2026 | SIRS may be completed together with the milestone inspection |
| Every covered association, no exceptions | No later than December 31, 2026 |
HB 913 also added limited funding flexibility — including the ability to use certain loans and lines of credit toward reserve obligations, and a temporary ability to prioritize funding based on the study's findings — along with tighter conflict-of-interest rules for the professionals performing the work, stronger DBPR reporting, and a requirement that associations keep milestone and SIRS reports for at least 15 years as official records.
What Boards Should Be Doing Now
- Map your dates. Building age, coastal status, local authority rules, and any inspections already on file. The single most common failure is simply not knowing the trigger has passed.
- Engage the engineer early. Qualified firms are booked — waiting until mid-2026 for a December 2026 deadline is how buildings end up non-compliant by accident.
- Budget honestly. If phase two or the SIRS says money, the answer is a funding plan — reserves, assessment, or borrowing under the new flexibility — not a drawer.
- Paper the record. Reports into the official records (15-year retention), DBPR reporting handled, owner communication in writing. When a dispute comes, the record is the defense.
What Unit Owners Can Do
Owners are not hostages to a passive board. You have statutory rights to inspect the official records on written request — including inspection reports and the SIRS. A written demand that cites the statute, followed where needed by an attorney letter, resolves most stonewalling; directors who ignore structural-safety obligations face breach-of-fiduciary-duty exposure that most board members take seriously the first time it is spelled out. And because non-compliance now poisons unit financing and resale, every owner has a wallet-level stake in forcing the issue.
Buying a Condo? This Is Your Diligence List
Before closing on a unit in any 3-story-plus Florida building, review: the latest milestone inspection report (and any phase two), the SIRS, current reserve funding against the study, the last two budgets, recent meeting minutes (special assessments get discussed before they get levied), and the seller's condo disclosures. Lenders increasingly decline units in non-compliant buildings — meaning the building's paperwork is now part of your unit's title story. We review these packages for buyers as flat-fee engagements alongside the closing itself.
Milestone & SIRS FAQ
Board, owner, or buyer — know exactly where you stand.
A focused consultation maps your building's statutory dates, your obligations or rights, and the cleanest path to compliance — before December 31, 2026 decides it for you.
Request a Consultation →This article summarizes Florida law as amended through the 2025 legislative session (HB 913) as of its last-updated date. Statutory deadlines and requirements are fact-specific — building age, coastal proximity, and local-authority rules all matter — and the Legislature has amended this regime repeatedly. It is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Attorney advertising: Arthur Simpson, Esq., Florida Bar #529265, Ormond Beach.