Milestone inspections and SIRS: the two building-safety duties every condo director must learn.

By Carlos Castellano · Current as of July 6, 2026

After the Surfside collapse, Floridabuilt two structural-safety requirements into condominium law: the milestone inspection and the structural integrity reserve study, or SIRS. If you sit on the board of a condo building three habitable stories or taller, these are now among the most consequential duties you carry, and the state considers them so central that both are required topics in the director certification course. Here is what each one is, when it is due, and what the board must do with the results. HOA boards can relax: these rules apply to condominiums and cooperatives, not homeowners’ associations.

Two documents, two different jobs

Boards mix these up constantly, so start here. The milestone inspection (Section 553.899, Florida Statutes) is the building’s physical checkup: a structural inspection of the load-bearing elements and primary structural systems, performed by a Florida-licensed architect or engineer, attesting to the building’s life safety. The SIRS (Section 718.112(2)(g)) is the financial plan: a study of the building’s major structural components that sets the reserves the association must save to maintain and replace them. One examines the structure; the other funds it.

When a milestone inspection is due

The trigger is age and height. A residential condominium or cooperative building of three or more habitable stories must have its milestone inspection by December 31 of the year it turns 30, measured from the certificate of occupancy, and every 10 years after that. There is a local wrinkle: a local enforcement agency may require the first inspection at 25 years instead, based on local conditions such as proximity to salt water. So a coastal board should never assume 30; confirm the trigger age with your local building department. Single-family through four-family dwellings of three or fewer habitable stories are exempt.

The clock is formal. The local enforcement agency notifies the association by certified mail, and the association must notify unit owners within 14 days of receiving that notice.

How the inspection unfolds

Phase one is a visual examination, completed within 180 days of the agency’s written notice. What decides everything after that is one phrase: substantial structural deterioration, which the statute defines as structural distress or weakness that negatively affects the building’s structural condition and integrity. Ordinary surface cracks, sagging, signs of leakage, or peeling finishes do not qualify on their own, unless the inspector determines they point to something structural. If phase one finds no substantial structural deterioration, the inspection is done until the next 10-year cycle.

If it does, phase two follows: testing, as extensive or as limited as needed to assess the distress and recommend a repair program. The board’s duties then come with deadlines. Within 45 days of receiving any inspection report, the association must distribute the inspector’s summary to every owner, post it conspicuously on the property, and publish the report on the association’s website if it is required to have one. And repairs for substantial structural deterioration must commence no later than 365 days after the phase-two report; a board that cannot show progress faces a review of whether the building is unsafe for occupancy.

Keep the inspection independent

A milestone inspection can lead straight to large repair contracts, so the statute polices self-dealing. An architect or engineer bidding on the inspection must disclose in writing any intent to bid on the repair work it may recommend, and a contractor bidding on that work may not have an undisclosed relationship with the inspection firm. Skip the disclosure and the contract is voidable. The practical board rule: get the disclosures in writing before hiring, and be alert when the inspector is also angling for the repair job.

The SIRS: where the money side gets real

A SIRS is required for residential condominiums three habitable stories or higher, at least every 10 years. For each major structural component, the roof, the load-bearing structure, fireproofing and fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and exterior painting, windows and exterior doors, plus any related item with a replacement cost over $25,675, the figure the Division adjusts for inflation each year (the statutory base is $25,000), the study identifies the item, estimates its remaining useful life and replacement cost, and recommends an annual reserve amount. It may be performed by an engineer, an architect, or a qualified reserve specialist.

Here is the part that changes board meetings: the reserves a SIRS sets for structural components cannot be waived and cannot be spent on other purposes. The era of voting to skip reserve funding for the roof is over for covered buildings. And the phase-in is behind us: the statute gave associations existing before July 1, 2022 until December 31, 2025 to complete their first study, so a covered association with no SIRS today is late, not early.

Why this is board education now

Milestone inspections and structural integrity reserve studies are two of the statutory topics every new condo director’s certification course must cover, part of the two-part certification requirement. The legislature has also kept adjusting the details, most recently in HB 913 (2025), which clarified the three-habitable-stories threshold and extended the initial SIRS deadline; the running history is in what the 2024 and 2025 laws changed. A director who understands the two-phase process, the notice deadlines, and the non-waivable reserves is a director whose board does not get surprised.