A two-bedroom condo near the beach at $240,000 looks like a bargain right up until someone asks what the monthly dues are and whether an assessment has been approved. That is when the bargain turns into an awkward conversation — and the conversation almost always arrives late, with the offer accepted and the deposit posted. This guide exists so it arrives earlier.
What changed in the Florida condo market was not demand. It was the law. After the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside in June 2021, the state imposed two obligations on condominium buildings that used to be left to each association’s judgment: a recurring structural inspection, and a reserve study whose numbers can no longer be voted down. Both are paid for out of owners’ pockets. That is why they show up in the price.
The timeline, in five moments
- 2021 — the Surfside collapse. Until then, Florida had no statewide requirement for recurring structural inspections of condominium buildings.
- 2022 — in a special session, the Legislature creates two new instruments: the milestone inspection and the structural integrity reserve study, the SIRS.
- 2023 — SB 154 refines the scope and the deadlines of the inspection.
- 2024 — the door on reserves closes: for budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, owners can no longer vote for no reserves — or for less than required — on the items the SIRS covers.
- 2025 — HB 913, effective July 1, 2025, loosens a few bolts: it extends the SIRS deadline to December 31, 2025, raises the reserve item threshold from $10,000 to $25,000, allows pooling across components, and permits a line of credit by vote.
Five changes in four years explain why so much outdated information is still circulating. Everything below is checked against the statutory text in force on the review date shown above, and every fact carries its link.
What the milestone inspection is, and which buildings it hits
The rule lives in statute 553.899 and applies to residential buildings three habitable stories or more in height under the condominium or cooperative form of ownership. One- to four-family dwellings with three or fewer habitable stories above ground are excluded. The initial inspection happens when the building turns thirty, counted from the certificate of occupancy, and repeats every ten years.
One nuance matters enormously on the coast: the local enforcement agency may pull the first inspection forward to twenty-five years when local circumstances justify it — the statute names environmental conditions such as proximity to salt water. A Miami Beach building and an Ocala building of the same vintage can be on different calendars.
The catch-up deadlines were staggered: buildings that turned thirty before July 1, 2022 had until December 31, 2024; those that turned thirty between that date and December 31, 2024 had until December 31, 2025; from there on, each building has until December 31 of the year it turns thirty. The local agency may extend the date for good cause, and it is worth asking — an extension on record is not the same thing as non-compliance.
The inspection has two phases. Phase one is visual. If the engineer or architect finds no signs of substantial structural deterioration, that is the end of it. Phase two is triggered only when phase one finds something, and it may involve destructive or nondestructive testing of the areas flagged. Translate this carefully for a client: a phase two does not mean the building is falling down. It means someone has to look closely. What it almost always does mean is money.
The SIRS: the study that sets the dues for the next ten years
The structural integrity reserve study lives in statute 718.112(2)(g). Every residential association must have one, at least every ten years, for each building three habitable stories or higher. Associations that already existed on July 1, 2022 and are controlled by unit owners had until December 31, 2025 — the extension HB 913 granted.
The study is not a formality: it puts a price and a calendar on eight groups of components — roof, structure and load-bearing walls, fireproofing and fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and exterior painting, windows and exterior doors — plus any other item whose deferred maintenance or replacement cost exceeds $25,000. That figure, formerly $10,000, is adjusted for inflation.
And here is the change that actually moves the market: for budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, an association required to obtain a SIRS may no longer decide to fund no reserves, or less than the study calls for, on those items. For decades, the way to keep dues low in an aging building was to vote reserves down at the annual meeting. That exit is closed. The dues you see today in a thirty-year-old building are, increasingly, what maintaining it actually costs.
The statute does leave one valve, and it is worth knowing because it distorts what you see: an association that completed its milestone inspection within the previous two calendar years may, with the approval of a majority of the total voting interests, temporarily pause or reduce reserve contributions for no more than two consecutive annual budgets in order to fund the repairs the inspection recommended. Before contributions resume, the SIRS has to be done. If a building shows you flat dues right after an inspection, that is exactly the question to ask.
How it shows up in the market
Clearly, in the statewide numbers. In July 2026 the median price of condos and townhouses in Florida had been flat for twelve straight months while single-family homes rose 3.7%, and condo inventory sat at 7.8 months of supply against 4.5 months for houses. The full picture, metro by metro, is in the Florida housing market snapshot.
No statewide dataset separates buildings with a pending assessment from those without one, so be careful with explanations that are too tidy. What can be said without inventing anything: a Florida condo buyer is buying two things at once — a unit, and a share in the upkeep of a building — and since 2022 the second half comes with documented pricing that simply did not exist before.
The eight questions to settle before you offer
This is the list to have answered before writing the offer, not after the inspection. Almost all of it is paperwork the association already holds and the seller is required to hand over.
- Has the milestone inspection been done? Ask for the inspector-prepared summary of the report, not an email from the manager saying it went fine.
- Was there a phase two? And if so: what did it find, what has already been repaired, and what is still open.
- Is the SIRS complete? If it is not, that is the answer: the building does not yet know what it is going to cost.
- What does the current budget say about the SIRS items, and how much is actually sitting in the reserve account?
- Are there assessments approved, voted, or under discussion? Those are three different things and all three matter.
- Were reserve contributions paused after the inspection? If so, today’s dues are temporarily low by design.
- Meeting minutes for the last twelve months. The dullest document and the most informative: it is where the discussions that are not yet decisions live.
- What does the building’s insurance cover, and with what deductible? Insurance has been one of the biggest forces pushing Florida dues upward.
The estoppel, and the seven days almost nobody uses
The estoppel certificate is where the association states, in writing and on the record, what is owed on that unit and what is coming. Under statute 718.116(8), the association has ten business days to deliver it after a written request, and the fee may not exceed $250 when nothing is delinquent; expedited delivery within three business days may add $100, and a delinquent unit up to $150 more. Once issued, it is effective for thirty days if hand-delivered or sent electronically, thirty-five by regular mail. Request it on day one. There is no upside to requesting it on the last one.
And the protection that gets wasted most often: in a resale between owners, statute 718.503(2) requires the seller to deliver the declaration of condominium, the bylaws and rules, the annual financial statement and budget, the inspector-prepared summary of the milestone inspection report, the SIRS — or the record that it has not been done — and the frequently asked questions document. The buyer may cancel within seven days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, after signing and receiving those documents, whichever comes later. That window is the tool your client has to read carefully what you just asked for.
This is general information, not legal advice: the deadlines and the dollar figures have been amended several times since 2022 and are worth confirming with your title attorney before applying them to a specific deal. The craft part does not change, though: an agent who arrives at the table with these eight points answered is not doing paperwork. They are keeping a client from buying an $80,000 problem that was written down in a set of minutes.