Florida Condo Market Rules

Florida enacted four condominium laws from 2022 to 2025 after Champlain Towers in Surfside partially collapsed on June 24, 2021, adding mandatory structural inspections, reserve studies, board training and stronger state enforcement.

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation's condo timeline records 98 lives lost in Surfside and lists the Florida laws in order: SB 4-D, the Building Safety Act, of May 26, 2022; SB 154 of June 9, 2023; HB 1021, effective July 1, 2024; and HB 913, effective July 1, 2025 (DBPR condo law timeline). The Florida Senate bill pages give the session law numbers: chapter 2022-269 for SB 4-D, chapter 2024-244 for HB 1021, and chapter 2025-175 for HB 913, which the Governor approved on June 24, 2025 (Florida Senate, SB 4-D; HB 1021; HB 913). SB 4-D created milestone inspections for buildings three stories or higher and required adequate reserves; SB 154 widened the pool of professionals allowed to do the visual part of a reserve study and created a searchable building database.

DBPR stresses that reserves for structural work were not new in Florida: associations have had to set aside money for structural repairs costing $10,000 or more since 1997, but owners could vote to delay those assessments (DBPR). After Surfside, the department says, it became apparent that many associations knew repairs were needed but deferred them because of the high costs. HB 1021 added mandatory board education, websites for condominiums with 25 units or more and wider DBPR enforcement powers, and carried an appropriation of $7,416,269 (Florida Senate, HB 1021); HB 913, by DBPR's account, raised standards for managers, enabled electronic voting and introduced alternate reserve funding options (DBPR).

Every Florida condominium or cooperative building three habitable stories or taller needs a milestone inspection by December 31 of the year it turns 30, counted from its certificate of occupancy, and again every 10 years.

Section 553.899 of the Florida Statutes sets those triggers (s. 553.899, F.S.). The first round had fixed deadlines: buildings that were already 30 before July 1, 2022 had to be inspected before December 31, 2024, and those turning 30 between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024 had until December 31, 2025. The local enforcement agency may move the trigger to 25 years where local conditions such as proximity to salt water require it, and may extend the initial deadline for good cause, for example when an owner already has an engineer or architect under contract and the inspection cannot reasonably be finished in time.

Small Florida buildings are outside the law: it does not apply to single-family, two-family, three-family or four-family dwellings with three or fewer habitable stories above ground (s. 553.899). The local enforcement agency must send the association written notice of a required inspection by certified mail, and the association must tell unit owners within 14 days and give the date the inspection must be completed (s. 553.899).

In Florida, a finding of substantial structural deterioration in the first, visual phase triggers a second, deeper phase, and repair work has to begin within 365 days after the local enforcement agency receives the phase two report.

The Florida statute gives the owners 180 days from the local agency's written notice to get phase one done by a licensed engineer or architect (s. 553.899, F.S.). If phase one finds no signs of substantial structural deterioration, phase two is not required. Otherwise the inspector may use destructive or nondestructive testing in phase two, and must send the local enforcement agency a progress report and timeline no later than 180 days after filing the phase one report.

Cosmetic defects do not count on their own: Florida's definition of substantial structural deterioration leaves out cracks, sagging, leaks and peeling finishes unless the engineer or architect concludes they point to real structural distress or weakness (s. 553.899). Unit owners see the result through the association, which has 45 days after it receives an inspection report to hand every owner the inspector's summary.

A Florida structural integrity reserve study, or SIRS, has to look at a fixed list of building systems for each condominium building three habitable stories or higher, and must be repeated at least every 10 years.

For Florida associations that existed on or before July 1, 2022 and are run by unit owners, the statutory SIRS deadline was December 31, 2025; one whose milestone inspection is due on or before December 31, 2026 may combine the two, and the statute sets December 31, 2026 as the latest date any SIRS may be completed (s. 718.112, F.S.). DBPR recalculates the catch-all dollar threshold each year from the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers and posts it by February 1: $25,675 for 2026, with the 2027 figure due by February 1, 2027 (DBPR).

Reporting goes to the state: since July 1, 2024 a Florida association has 45 days after finishing a SIRS to file the electronic reporting form with the state condo division, and all condominium and cooperative associations were required to set up an online account with the division by October 1, 2025 (DBPR SIRS reporting). Filings made through that account show up in DBPR's public SIRS database within one business day.

Not for SIRS items: in Florida budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, owners of an association that needs a SIRS cannot vote to fund less than the required reserves, with limited exceptions.

Section 718.112 of the Florida Statutes also bars those owners from voting to spend reserve funds on anything other than replacement or deferred maintenance of the SIRS components, and lets members of a multicondominium association fund less if an alternative funding method has been approved (s. 718.112, F.S.). Another exception is termination: members who vote to end the condominium under section 718.117 may waive the reserves the latest SIRS recommends. A third is a temporary pause. For a budget adopted on or before December 31, 2028, an association that completed a milestone inspection in the previous 2 calendar years may, if a majority of the total voting interests agree, stop or cut reserve contributions for up to two consecutive annual budgets to pay for the repairs that inspection recommended. Developer-controlled associations, and associations whose unit owners have been in control for less than 1 year, cannot use it.

The same Florida section sets training rules for boards: a director elected or appointed before July 1, 2024 had to complete the written certification and education requirements by June 30, 2025, and the certificate is valid for 7 years after it is issued (s. 718.112).

The Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes in the Department of Business and Professional Regulation oversees associations statewide, while county and city building officials enforce milestone inspections.

DBPR's timeline says HB 1021 expanded the department's authority to investigate complaints and enforce compliance in Florida condominiums, and required online record posting so owners can follow board activity (DBPR condo law timeline). Section 718.111 spells out the website rule: an association managing a condominium with 25 or more units that does not contain timeshare units must post digital copies of listed documents on a website or a mobile app (s. 718.111, F.S.). The division lists its headquarters and Tallahassee regional office at 2601 Blair Stone Road, Tallahassee, FL 32399, phone (850) 487-1395 (DBPR), and takes SIRS questions at (954) 202-6831 (DBPR SIRS reporting), and milestone reports, notices and repair deadlines run through the local enforcement agency named in section 553.899 (s. 553.899).

Last verified: October 19, 2026, against sections 553.899, 718.111 and 718.112 of the 2026 Florida Statutes on Online Sunshine, the Florida Senate pages for SB 4-D, HB 1021 and HB 913, and DBPR's condo law timeline, reserve threshold and SIRS reporting pages, all fetched that day.