Florida milestone inspections: who, when and what happens

Which buildings need a Florida milestone inspection

The milestone inspection requirement in Florida Statutes 553.899 applies to condominium and cooperative buildings of three or more habitable stories. Florida condominium and cooperative buildings of three or more habitable stories need a milestone inspection by Dec 31 of the year the building turns 30, then every 10 years. That is the whole test. A two-story garden condo is out. A three-story walk-up condo is in. A twenty-story tower on the beach is in.

Ownership form matters as much as height. The statute is written for buildings run by a condominium association or a cooperative association. A rental tower owned by one landlord is not covered by this requirement, however tall it is. A mixed building where the residential floors are a condominium is covered on the strength of that condominium.

The requirement came out of the Surfside collapse in 2021. The Legislature passed the first version in 2022 and has amended it more than once since, most recently through HB 913 in 2025. The amendments changed details of timing and process. The core test, three or more habitable stories in a condominium or cooperative building, has not changed.

The count is of habitable stories, not total height, so an association near the line should confirm the count with its local building official rather than assume it is exempt. Parking levels and mechanical floors are the usual source of argument.

When a milestone inspection is due

There are two clocks, depending on how old the building was when the law arrived.

For most buildings the rule is simple: the first inspection is due by Dec 31 of the year the building turns 30 years, and a further inspection is due every 10 years after that. A building that reaches 30 in 2027 is due by Dec 31, 2027, and again ten years later.

Buildings that were already past 30 when the law took effect got a catch-up date. Florida buildings that had already reached 30 years before July 1, 2022 had until Dec 31, 2024 to complete their first milestone inspection. That date has passed. Any older building that has not completed its first inspection is late, not waiting.

The statute fixes how a building's age is counted. The association's own records of when the building was completed are the place to start, and the local building official applies the rule. Associations do not get to choose the year.

Two things are worth saying about the schedule. First, the dates are set by statute, not by an inspector or a board, so they can be worked out in advance for every covered building in the state. Second, Florida built a lot of condominiums in the late 1970s and through the 1980s, which means a large block of buildings reaches 30 or 40 years of age in the current decade and comes due under this rule in a predictable sequence.

What the inspection is: phase one and phase two

In broad terms, a milestone inspection is a structural inspection of the building by a licensed engineer or architect, carried out in up to two phases.

Phase one is visual. The inspector examines the building's structure, including the load-bearing walls and the primary structural members and systems, looking for signs of substantial structural deterioration. If phase one finds none, the inspection ends there. The inspector reports that the building showed no substantial structural deterioration and the association is done until the next ten-year inspection.

Phase two happens only if phase one finds substantial structural deterioration. It goes deeper into the affected parts of the structure, with closer examination and whatever testing the inspector decides is needed to work out how far the deterioration goes and what repairs it calls for. Phase two is not automatic and not routine. It is the result of phase one finding a problem.

In either case the inspector writes a report. The association receives it and so does the local building official, and unit owners are informed. The report records whether the building shows substantial structural deterioration and, where it does, what was found and what repair is recommended. That report is the record a Florida condo lead is built on: a dated, professional finding, filed with a public body, that the board is required to act on.

Plain wear is not the trigger. The statute's threshold is substantial structural deterioration. Cosmetic cracking, stained stucco and corroded railings may well be mentioned, but it is deterioration of the structure that moves a building from phase one to phase two and from a report into a repair contract.

How the milestone inspection ties to the SIRS

The milestone inspection has a companion requirement, the structural integrity reserve study, set out in Florida Statutes 718.112. A structural integrity reserve study is required for each Florida condominium or cooperative building of three or more habitable stories, at least every ten years, covering the roof, structure, fireproofing, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and other listed items.

The two answer different questions. The milestone inspection asks whether the structure is sound today. The SIRS asks how much money the association needs to set aside, year by year, to keep the building's major components in shape over time. One is an inspection; the other is a funding study. Both apply to the same buildings, and both are repeated on a ten-year rhythm.

The deadlines are linked. Florida associations had to complete a structural integrity reserve study by Dec 31, 2025, or by Dec 31, 2026 where a milestone inspection was also due by then. No later date is allowed (HB 913 of 2025). So an association whose building had a milestone inspection falling due by the end of 2026 was given until the same point to finish its reserve study, so the two could be done together and the structural findings could feed the funding plan. Associations without a milestone inspection in that window had to complete the SIRS by Dec 31, 2025.

The Florida SIRS deadline guide covers the reserve study in detail, including what it has to cover and what the deadline means now that it has passed.

What it means for restoration contractors

Every milestone inspection produces a dated report. A phase two report names structural deterioration and recommends repairs, and the repairs are the kind of work restoration contractors do: concrete restoration, balcony and slab-edge repair, waterproofing, roof replacement, structural steel and post-tension repair. The association has a professional finding in hand, a board that has to act on it, unit owners who have been told about it, and often no contractor on record yet.

The timing is the unusual part. Because the due dates come from the statute rather than from a board's maintenance plan, the buildings due in any given year can be listed before the inspections happen. A building that turns 30 in 2027 is due by Dec 31, 2027. The report, when it comes, will carry that date or an earlier one. A contractor who knows which buildings are due this year knows where the phase two reports will come from next year.

That is the Florida version of the compliance-trigger lead described in the construction leads guide: a public record that gives an owner a legal reason to hire, before the job reaches a bid board. New York has run the same kind of program for its facades for decades under Local Law 11; Florida's is younger, and the first full wave of 30-year and catch-up inspections is still working through the system.

Building Sauce is building a Florida condo feed from public records on milestone inspections and reserve studies. It is not live yet. If you sell structural or restoration work to Florida associations, join the Florida condo waitlist and we will tell you when it is, with a sample first. How it works explains what a feed row contains.