The two obligations that now sit on almost every condominium and cooperative board in Palm Beach County — what triggers them, who can sign them, every deadline the statutes actually impose, and what happens to your reserves afterward. Written for boards by a licensed Florida Community Association Manager (CAM34850) who also holds a Certified General Contractor license (CGC1528750).
If your building is a residential condominium or cooperative that is three habitable stories or more in height, Florida law now requires two separate things of the association. First, a milestone inspection under Florida Statute §553.899 — a structural inspection performed by a Florida-licensed engineer or architect, due by December 31 of the year the building reaches 30 years of age (or 25, where the local enforcement agency has adopted the earlier trigger), and every 10 years after that. Second, a structural integrity reserve study, or SIRS, under §718.112(2)(g) — a visual inspection and funding plan covering eight specific building systems, required at least every 10 years.
They are different documents, produced for different reasons, and one does not substitute for the other — though a recent milestone inspection can sometimes stand in for the SIRS's visual-inspection component, which is one of the few genuine cost savings available to a board. Below is the plain-English version of both, with the Palm Beach County specifics that generic statewide articles leave out.
If you would rather talk it through than read it, call (561) 779-3213. Two questions — your building's certificate-of-occupancy year and its number of habitable stories — usually settle in five minutes whether any of this applies to you.
Both statutes turn on the same two facts, and getting them wrong is the most common reason a board either panics unnecessarily or misses a real deadline.
Habitable stories, not stories. The milestone inspection applies to a building "three habitable stories or more in height as determined by the Florida Building Code." The word habitable is doing real work: a floor used purely for parking, storage, or mechanical equipment is not automatically a habitable story. A three-storey-looking building over an open parking deck may or may not cross the line, and that determination belongs to your building official — not to a board member with a tape measure.
Form of ownership. The milestone requirement reaches buildings subject, in whole or in part, to the residential condominium form under Chapter 718 or the residential cooperative form under Chapter 719. It expressly does not apply to a single-family, two-family, three-family, or four-family dwelling with three or fewer habitable stories above ground. The SIRS requirement likewise excludes buildings under three stories, those same small dwellings, and any portion of a building that has not been submitted to the condominium form or that is maintained by someone other than the association.
A mixed-use building is worth flagging: where part of a building is not under association ownership, that other owner shares responsibility for arranging the milestone inspection, and the association pays only for the portions it is obligated to maintain under the declaration. That split is worth resolving in writing early, because it becomes an argument later.
The statewide default in §553.899 is December 31 of the year the building turns 30, measured from the date the certificate of occupancy was issued, then every 10 years. Where the CO date cannot be found, the statute falls back to the occupancy date evidenced in the local building official's records.
The 25-year trigger is not automatic and is not statewide. The statute lets a local enforcement agency determine that local circumstances — including proximity to salt water — require the inspection by December 31 of the year the building turns 25. That is a local decision, which is exactly why "my building is 26 and near the beach, so I'm late" and "we're inland, so we have until 30" are both guesses until you check.
For unincorporated Palm Beach County, the County's Planning, Zoning & Building department publishes an inspection schedule that applies a 25-year first inspection for buildings within three miles of a coastline and 30 years for buildings farther inland, with inspections every 10 years after. If your building sits inside a municipality — West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter and the rest each run their own building departments — confirm the schedule with that city, because the county's rule is not automatically theirs.
Catch-up deadlines. The statute also swept in older buildings: one that reached 30 years of age before July 1, 2022 was required to have its initial milestone inspection performed before December 31, 2024, and one that reached 30 between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024 was required to have it before December 31, 2025. If your association has not done one and the building is well past the age threshold, you are not in a grey area — get a licensed engineer or architect engaged and talk to your association attorney about the exposure.
Extensions exist, but they are narrow. A local enforcement agency may extend the initial deadline on a showing of good cause — typically that the association has already signed a contract with an architect or engineer and the inspection cannot reasonably be finished in time. Note the order of operations: the contract comes first, then the extension request. A board that has done nothing has no good cause to show.
There is also a credit worth asking about. A local enforcement agency may accept a structural integrity and condition inspection report prepared by a licensed engineer or architect before July 1, 2022, if it substantially complies with the statute. Where such a report is accepted, it counts as the milestone inspection and the clock for the next 10-year inspection runs from that earlier inspection date. Older buildings that did a serious structural assessment for an insurance carrier or a loan in the late 2010s should dig that report out before commissioning a new one.
Notice. When the local enforcement agency determines a building is due, it must give the association written notice by certified mail, return receipt requested. The association then has 14 days to notify unit owners of the required inspection and of the date it must be completed — which may be done by electronic transmission to owners who have consented, or by posting to the association website.
Phase one — 180 days. Phase one must be completed within 180 days after the owners receive that written notice, and "completed" has a specific meaning: the engineer or architect has submitted the report to the local enforcement agency. It is a visual examination of habitable and non-habitable areas covering the building's major structural components, producing a qualitative assessment. A contractor, however experienced, cannot sign it — the statute requires an architect licensed under Chapter 481 or an engineer licensed under Chapter 471, though the work may be done by a team with that professional in responsible charge and signing and sealing the report.
What "substantial structural deterioration" is not. This is where boards lose the most sleep for the least reason. The statute defines the term as substantial structural distress or weakness that negatively affects the building's general structural condition and integrity, and then expressly excludes surface imperfections — cracks, distortion, sagging, deflections, misalignment, signs of leakage, peeling finishes — unless the inspecting professional determines those imperfections are a sign of substantial structural deterioration. A stucco crack is not a finding. A stucco crack the engineer reads as evidence of something structural underneath is.
Phase two, if triggered. Phase two is required only if phase one identifies substantial structural deterioration. It may involve destructive or non-destructive testing at the inspector's direction, and can be as limited or extensive as needed to confirm the building is sound. The statute directs the inspector to prefer testing locations that are least disruptive and most easily repaired while still being representative. Where phase two is required, a progress report with a completion timeline is due to the local enforcement agency within 180 days of the phase one report.
The report itself. A milestone report must bear the professional's seal and signature, state the manner and type of inspection, identify any substantial structural deterioration and recommended repairs, state whether unsafe or dangerous conditions as defined by the Florida Building Code were observed, recommend remedial or preventive repair for damaged items that fall short of substantial structural deterioration, and identify anything needing further inspection. It is also worth knowing that the milestone inspection is not a code-compliance or firesafety review; it does not certify that an older building meets today's code.
In unincorporated Palm Beach County, reports are submitted to the Building Division on the county's designated form under Chapter 18 of the Florida Building Code — Existing Buildings, and the county also recognizes a phase one amended report, filed after the noted repairs are completed and the professional has re-inspected. Ask your engineer to price that re-inspection at the outset rather than as a change order eighteen months later.
45 days to distribute. Within 45 days after receiving the inspection report, the association must distribute the inspector-prepared summary to every unit owner — regardless of what the report says. Nothing in the statute lets a board sit on a clean report or a bad one. Distribution is by U.S. mail or personal delivery to the addresses already on file for association notices, plus electronic transmission to owners who have consented to it.
Post it, and publish it. A copy of the summary must also be posted in a conspicuous place on the condominium or cooperative property, and the full report plus the summary must be published on the association's website if the association is required to have one.
365 days to start repairs. Counties and municipalities are required to adopt an ordinance setting a timeframe within which an association must schedule or commence repairs for substantial structural deterioration after the local agency receives a phase two report — and in any event those repairs must be commenced within 365 days of receiving the report. If the association fails to submit proof that repairs have been scheduled or started, the local enforcement agency must review and determine whether the building is unsafe for human occupancy. That is the sharp end of this statute, and it is why a phase two finding needs a contractor engaged early, not after the funding argument is settled.
Local penalties. Separately, local enforcement agencies may prescribe their own timelines and penalties for compliance. Two associations in different cities can face materially different consequences for the same delay.
A residential condominium association must have a structural integrity reserve study completed at least every 10 years for each building on the property that is three habitable stories or higher. At minimum it must study these items as they relate to the structural integrity and safety of the building:
That $25,000 threshold replaced the old $10,000 figure and is now indexed: the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes at DBPR must annually adjust it for inflation using the Consumer Price Index released each January, and must post the adjusted amount conspicuously on its website by February 1 each year. Use the posted figure for the budget year you are working on rather than assuming it is still exactly $25,000.
Who may perform it. A SIRS, including its visual inspection, must be performed or verified by an engineer licensed under Chapter 471, an architect licensed under Chapter 481, or a person certified as a reserve specialist or professional reserve analyst by the Community Associations Institute or the Association of Professional Reserve Analysts. That is a broader list than the milestone inspection allows, and it matters when you are pricing the two together.
What the report must contain. Each inspected item must be identified with its estimated remaining useful life and estimated replacement cost or deferred maintenance expense, plus a reserve funding plan with a recommended annual amount that reaches that cost by the end of the item's useful life. At minimum the study must recommend a funding schedule based on a baseline funding plan — one that keeps the reserve cash balance above zero for every budget year. It may also recommend other schedules, so long as each is sufficient to meet the association's maintenance obligation.
The long-life carve-out. A study may recommend that no replacement reserves be maintained for an item whose useful life or replacement cost cannot be determined, or whose estimated remaining useful life exceeds 25 years — though it may still recommend a deferred-maintenance amount for such items. Where a study recommends reserves for something the statute does not require, that amount must be separately identified as such in the study. Boards should ask for that separation explicitly; it is the difference between a defensible budget and an argument at the annual meeting.
The credit worth asking for. If a milestone inspection under §553.899 — or an inspection done for a similar local requirement — was performed within the past five years and meets the SIRS requirements, it may be used in place of the visual inspection portion of the structural integrity reserve study. Associations that have just completed a milestone inspection should raise this with every firm they solicit before accepting a full-price SIRS proposal.
Deadlines. Associations existing on or before July 1, 2022 and controlled by unit owners were required to complete a SIRS by December 31, 2025 for each building three stories or higher. An association whose milestone inspection is due on or before December 31, 2026 may complete the SIRS at the same time as that inspection — but the statute is explicit that in no event may the SIRS be completed after December 31, 2026. Separately, before a developer turns over control, the developer must have a turnover inspection report for each building three stories or higher.
The blanket waiver is gone. For budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, members of a unit-owner-controlled association required to obtain a SIRS may no longer vote to provide no reserves, or lower reserves, for the SIRS components. The reserve amounts for those items must be based on the findings and recommendations of the association's most recent study. Multicondominium associations have a narrow exception where an alternative funding method has been approved by the Division.
And the money cannot wander. For those same budgets, members may not vote to use SIRS reserve funds, or interest on them, for anything other than the replacement or deferred-maintenance costs of the listed components.
How reserves may be funded. Reserves for the SIRS components may be funded by regular assessments, special assessments, lines of credit, or loans — with a special assessment, line of credit, or loan requiring approval by a majority of the total voting interests. A unit-owner-controlled association that must have a SIRS may also secure a line of credit or loan to fund capital expenses required by a milestone inspection or the study, sized to cover previously waived or unfunded reserve amounts, and drawable by the board without a further member vote. Any such facility must be disclosed in the annual financial statement and to prospective purchasers.
Pooling. Reserve accounts may be pooled across two or more required components — but SIRS components may only be pooled with other SIRS components. The pooled funding in the proposed budget must be sufficient to meet or exceed projected expenses for every component in the pool, based on the funding plan in the most recent study. Changing between pooled and straight-line accounting no longer requires a member vote.
Two narrow pauses. For budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2028, a board whose association completed a milestone inspection within the previous two calendar years may — with approval of a majority of total voting interests — temporarily pause or reduce reserve contributions for no more than two consecutive annual budgets, so the money can fund repairs the milestone inspection recommended. An association that pauses must have a SIRS performed before contributions resume. Separately, if the local building official determines the entire building is uninhabitable due to a natural emergency, the board may pause or reduce reserve funding and may spend reserve funds to make the building habitable again, resuming contributions immediately once it is declared habitable. Neither pause is available to developer-controlled associations or associations where non-developer owners have had control for less than a year.
If reserve funding from any source stops matching the plan in the current study, the association must obtain an updated study before adopting that budget. In practice, a special assessment or a loan usually means the study needs revisiting.
Both statutes now police the relationship between the professional who writes the report and the contractor who profits from it, and the consequences fall on the association if the paperwork is not right.
An architect or engineer bidding a milestone inspection must disclose in writing to the association any intent to bid on services the inspection may recommend. A design professional or a contractor licensed under Chapter 489 who bids on that recommended work may not hold a direct or indirect interest in the firm that performed the inspection, or be a relative within the third degree of consanguinity by blood or marriage of someone with such an interest, unless the relationship is disclosed to the association in writing. The same disclosure regime applies to anyone bidding to perform a SIRS. Where the required written disclosure was not given, the contract for services is voidable and terminates on the association's written notice — and the professional can face discipline under their own practice act.
The practical takeaway for a board: put the disclosure requirement in the RFP itself, collect the written disclosures with the bids, and keep them with the minutes. It costs nothing and it is the cheapest insurance in this entire process. For the record, BeacCorp does not perform milestone inspections or structural integrity reserve studies — those require the licensed professionals described above — which is exactly why we can help a board procure and manage them without sitting on both sides of the table.
There is no statutory fee and no honest single number — pricing turns on building height, footprint, construction type, access, and how much of the structure the professional has to reach. As general industry guidance rather than a quote: phase one milestone inspections are commonly quoted as a mid-four-figure to low-five-figure engagement for a small or mid-sized building, rising materially for large or coastal high-rises; a phase two investigation, because it involves testing and often scaffolding or lifts, can cost several times a phase one. A SIRS is normally priced separately, and bundling it with the milestone inspection — or applying the five-year visual-inspection credit described above — is where a board realistically saves money.
The association is responsible for the costs attributable to the portions of the building it maintains under its governing documents, and for the repairs the inspection identifies. That second number is the one that reshapes budgets, which is why getting real contractor pricing on the engineer's recommendations before the budget is adopted matters more than shaving a few thousand dollars off the inspection fee. Reserve math built on an engineer's order-of-magnitude allowance is what produces the surprise special assessment two years later.
Solicit at least three proposals, make them quote the same scope, and confirm in writing that the deliverable meets the statutory report requirements listed above. A cheap report that has to be redone is the most expensive option on the table.
A milestone inspection under Florida Statute 553.899 is a structural safety inspection by a licensed engineer or architect that asks whether the building is sound. A structural integrity reserve study under 718.112(2)(g) is a budgeting document: it prices eight building systems, estimates their remaining useful life, and sets a reserve funding plan. One is about safety, the other about money, and an association three habitable stories or higher generally needs both.
The statewide default is 30 years from the certificate of occupancy, but the statute allows a local enforcement agency to require it at 25 years where local conditions such as proximity to salt water justify it. For unincorporated Palm Beach County, the county publishes a schedule applying 25 years within three miles of a coastline and 30 years farther inland. If your building is inside a municipality, confirm the trigger with that city's building department rather than assuming the county rule applies.
Three habitable stories or more, as determined by the Florida Building Code. The word habitable matters — floors used only for parking, storage, or mechanical equipment are not automatically habitable stories, and the determination belongs to your building official. Single-family, two-family, three-family and four-family dwellings with three or fewer habitable stories above ground are excluded.
An architect licensed under Chapter 481 or an engineer licensed under Chapter 471, authorized to practice in Florida. The work may be delivered by a team of professionals, but that architect or engineer must act as the registered design professional in responsible charge, with the reports signed and sealed. A general contractor cannot sign a milestone inspection, however experienced.
The association must notify unit owners within 14 days of receiving the local enforcement agency's written notice, and phase one of the milestone inspection must be completed within 180 days after the owners receive that notice. Completion means the engineer or architect has actually submitted the report to the local enforcement agency, not merely finished the site visit.
Not by itself. The statute defines substantial structural deterioration as distress or weakness that negatively affects the building's general structural condition and integrity, and it expressly excludes surface imperfections such as cracks, distortion, sagging, deflections, misalignment, signs of leakage, and peeling finishes — unless the inspecting engineer or architect determines that those imperfections are a sign of substantial structural deterioration. Phase two is only triggered if that threshold is met.
Yes. Within 45 days of receiving the inspection report the association must distribute the inspector-prepared summary to every unit owner regardless of the findings, post a copy conspicuously on the property, and publish the full report and summary on the association website if it is required to have one. There is no discretion to hold a report back.
Roof; structure including load-bearing walls and primary structural members and systems; fireproofing and fire protection systems; plumbing; electrical systems; waterproofing and exterior painting; windows and exterior doors; and any other item whose deferred maintenance or replacement cost exceeds $25,000 or the inflation-adjusted amount, where failing to maintain it would negatively affect the other seven. In South Florida the roof and the waterproofing and exterior painting lines usually drive the number.
Not for the SIRS components. For budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, members of a unit-owner-controlled association required to obtain a structural integrity reserve study may not vote to provide no reserves or lower reserves for those items, and may not vote to spend those funds on anything else. There is a narrow, temporary option: for budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2028, a board whose association completed a milestone inspection in the previous two calendar years may, with majority approval of the total voting interests, pause or reduce those contributions for no more than two consecutive annual budgets to fund the repairs the inspection recommended — and must obtain a SIRS before resuming. Take that decision with your association attorney.
Often, yes. If a milestone inspection under 553.899, or an inspection performed for a similar local requirement, was completed within the past five years and meets the SIRS requirements, it may be used in place of the visual inspection portion of the structural integrity reserve study. Raise this with every firm you solicit before accepting a full-price proposal.
No — those must be performed by the licensed professionals the statutes name, and that separation is deliberate. What we do is manage the process for boards: track the deadlines, issue the owner notices on time, run the RFP and collect the required conflict-of-interest disclosures, translate the engineer's findings into scoped and priced repair work, and supervise that work as a licensed general contractor (CGC1528750). Call (561) 779-3213 to talk through your building.