Florida Condo Law in 2026: What Every Miami Buyer Must Check

Florida condo law in 2026 comes down to four things a Miami buyer has to check before closing: the building's milestone inspection under Fla. Stat. s. 553.899, its structural integrity reserve study (SIRS) under s. 718.112(2)(g), whether the association is actually funding reserves or has paused them, and its separate Miami-Dade recertification status under County Code Sec. 8-11(f). You are entitled to the first two documents at the seller's expense under s. 718.503(2)(a), and since July 1, 2025 you have 7 days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, to cancel the contract after you receive them.

Updated 21 August 2026Published 19 August 2026

That last sentence is the whole ballgame. Most of the anxiety I hear from buyers along the Biscayne corridor is really a document problem wearing a legal costume. The statutes are not hard to read; the difficulty is that the four regimes overlap, run on different clocks, and are enforced by different bodies. A building can be perfectly current on one and delinquent on another. I sell and lease in Edgewater, so I read these packets constantly. Below is what each requirement says, what I look for, and where the law now gives associations room to make a building look healthier on paper than it is.

The four regimes, and why they are not the same thing

People use "the 40-year," "the milestone" and "the reserve study" interchangeably. They are three different obligations with three different triggers.

• Milestone inspection — state law, s. 553.899. A structural inspection of load-bearing elements and primary structural systems. Applies to condominium and cooperative buildings three habitable stories or more.
• Structural integrity reserve study — state law, s. 718.112(2)(g). A money document, not an engineering verdict. It prices out what the building will need and over what horizon.
• Reserve funding — s. 718.112(2)(f). Whether the association is collecting the money the SIRS says it needs.
• Building recertification — local, Miami-Dade County Code Sec. 8-11(f), administered here by the City of Miami. Structural and electrical, and it comes with its own fees and citations.

A seller's agent telling you "the building passed its inspection" has told you almost nothing until you know which one.

Milestone inspections: s. 553.899

The statute requires a milestone inspection for buildings three habitable stories or more in height held in condominium or cooperative form, by December 31 of the year the building turns 30, and every 10 years after that. Single-family through four-family dwellings are excluded outright.

Subsection (3)(b) lets a local enforcement agency pull that forward to 25 years where local circumstances — the statute names proximity to salt water — warrant it. Miami-Dade has done exactly that, which is why coastal buildings here run on a 25-year clock while inland Florida runs on 30.

The inspection runs in two phases. Phase one is a visual, qualitative examination by an architect licensed under chapter 481 or an engineer licensed under chapter 471. If phase one finds no substantial structural deterioration, it ends there. If it does, phase two follows, which can include destructive and nondestructive testing, with a progress report due within 180 days of the phase one submittal. Where substantial structural deterioration is identified, repairs must be commenced within 365 days of receiving the report.

Notice runs through the local enforcement agency, which notifies the association by certified mail, return receipt requested. The association then has 14 days to notify unit owners of the completion deadline. The report itself must be sealed and signed and must identify any unsafe condition as defined in the Florida Building Code.

The full deadline schedule and what to request during your inspection period is here.

What I actually look for

Two things. The date the phase one report was issued, not the date the association circulated a summary — those can be a year apart. And if there is a phase two, how much of the 365-day repair clock is already gone. A building that received a phase two report ten months ago and has not opened a construction contract is about to have a very loud owners' meeting.

The structural integrity reserve study: s. 718.112(2)(g)

A residential condominium association must complete a SIRS at least every 10 years after the condominium's creation, for each building on the property three habitable stories or higher. It is expressly based on a visual inspection.

The study must cover the roof; the structure, including load-bearing walls and primary structural members; fireproofing and fire protection systems; plumbing; electrical systems; waterproofing and exterior painting; windows and exterior doors; and any other item with a deferred maintenance or replacement cost exceeding $25,000 whose failure would negatively affect the listed items.

It 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.

The deadline moved. Associations existing on or before July 1, 2022 and controlled by owners other than the developer had to complete a SIRS by December 31, 2025 — extended from the original December 31, 2024 by the 2025 legislation. An association performing a milestone inspection at the same time could delay, but no later than December 31, 2026. So through this year you will still encounter buildings legitimately without one.

I go through how to read a SIRS, and which findings should end a deal, here.

The 2025 changes, and why they cut against buyers

Chapter 2025-175, Laws of Florida — HB 913 — is usually written up as relief for owners. For a buyer, parts of it are a warning label.

The provision that matters most: where an association has completed a milestone inspection within the previous two calendar years, the board, with the approval of a majority of the total voting interests, may temporarily pause reserve contributions or reduce reserve funding for a period of no more than two consecutive annual budgets, for the purpose of funding repairs the milestone inspection recommended. An association that pauses must have a SIRS performed before contributions resume.

Read that carefully. A building can now show you a current milestone inspection, a repair program, and a budget with reduced reserve line items, all lawfully. The pause does not reduce what the building needs. It moves it. If you buy into year two of a pause, you are buying the restart.

The same act authorizes owner-controlled associations to obtain a line of credit or a loan to fund capital expenses required by a milestone inspection. Sensible tool — and it also means a building's obligations can now sit on a balance sheet rather than in a special assessment notice. Ask for the loan documents and what the debt service does to the monthly.

HB 913 also extended the resale rescission window. Buyers under a resale contract previously had 3 days after receiving the required disclosures; for contracts executed on or after July 1, 2025 it is 7 days, excluding weekends and legal holidays. Use them.

Miami-Dade recertification: County Code Sec. 8-11(f)

This is the local requirement people still call "the 40-year," and it has not been 40 years for some time. Miami-Dade recertifies at 30 years, with variations for coastal properties, then every 10 years for the life of the structure. Per the County's published schedule: coastal condominium and cooperative buildings of three or more stories within three miles of the coastline built 1983–1997, and non-coastal buildings built 1983–1992, were due by December 31, 2024; coastal buildings of three or more stories built after 1998 are inspected at 25 years, then every 10; other buildings built after 1993 at 30 years, then every 10. Single-family homes, duplexes, and buildings with an occupant load of 10 or less and 2,000 square feet or less are exempt.

When a building becomes due, the owner receives a Notice of Required Recertification and has 90 days to submit reports prepared by a Florida-licensed engineer or architect. The County's fee schedule effective October 1, 2025 sets the initial review at $403.13, late submission after 90 days at $453.52, re-review at $143.23 per discipline and quality-control inspection at $169.04 per discipline. Non-compliance starts at a $510.00 citation and can accumulate to $10,000.00, plus a lien.

You do not have to take anyone's word on status. Miami-Dade publishes a Building Recertification Portal covering cases from May 1996 forward, searchable by address, folio or case number. I run every building I write a contract in through it. Whether a particular Edgewater address falls on the county's 25-year or 30-year track depends on how the coastline measurement is applied to that parcel — confirm it in the portal or with the City of Miami Building Department rather than assuming.

What the law entitles you to before you close

Under s. 718.503(2)(a) a non-developer seller must furnish, at the seller's expense, current copies of the declaration, the articles of incorporation, the bylaws and rules, an annual financial statement and budget, the inspector-prepared summary of the milestone inspection report if applicable, the association's most recent SIRS or a statement that none has been completed, the turnover inspection report described in s. 718.301(4)(p) and (q), and the Frequently Asked Questions and Answers document.

Separately, s. 718.111(12)(g) requires an association managing a condominium with 25 or more units, without timeshare units, to post official records to a website or application — including inspection reports relating to structural or life safety and the most recent SIRS — generally within 30 days of receiving or creating the record. Inspection reports under ss. 553.899 and 718.301(4)(p) must be kept 15 years, as must SIRS documents. So in a building of 25 or more units, most of what you need should already be posted. If it is not, that is itself information about how the association is run.

Where the Edgewater stock sits

Edgewater's condominium inventory splits into two cohorts facing completely different versions of this problem.

The bayfront towers delivered from roughly 2014 onward — Icon Bay at 460 NE 28th Street, Aria on the Bay at 488 NE 18th Street, Biscayne Beach at 2900 NE 7th Avenue, Paraiso Bay at 650 NE 32nd Street, Gran Paraiso at 480 NE 31st Street, Elysee at 788 NE 23rd Street, Missoni Baia — are a decade or less old and years away from a milestone trigger. Their near-term exposure is not structural; it is insurance, water intrusion at the envelope, and amenity-heavy budgets that were set optimistically at turnover.

The mid-2000s cohort is the one to underwrite carefully. Quantum on the Bay on North Bayshore Drive was completed in 2008; Onyx on the Bay at 665 NE 25th Street, Opera Tower and 1800 Club on North Bayshore Drive, and Blue on the Bay date from the same boom. On a 25-year coastal track that cohort begins reaching its first milestone trigger around 2030 to 2033, and the reserve studies those buildings adopt in the next two or three years will set their assessments for the decade after.

My opinion, plainly: in Edgewater the pricing risk right now is concentrated in the 2005–2008 towers, and it is not evenly distributed within that group. Two buildings a block apart can be on very different footing depending on whether the board funded reserves through the 2010s or waived them annually, which was lawful and common before the current rules. The declaration will not tell you that. Ten years of budgets will.

The checklist I use on an Edgewater contract

1. Phase one milestone report, with its issue date — not a summary memo.
2. Phase two report if one exists, plus the date it was received, so I can count the 365 days.
3. The most recent SIRS, in full, including the funding schedule, not the cover letter.
4. Current budget plus the prior two, lined up side by side. I am looking for the reserve line moving.
5. Any vote to pause or reduce reserves under s. 718.112(2)(f), and the minutes around it.
6. Any association loan or line of credit, with terms and debt service.
7. Board minutes for the last 12 months, and the building's status in the county recertification portal.
8. Master policy declarations page and the current deductible, particularly wind.
9. Any open or pending special assessment, and the resolution that created it.

If a seller or association resists items 3, 5 or 6, that resistance is your answer. And if documents arrive late, remember the clock in s. 718.503(2)(a) runs from receipt.

The downside case

Florida's condominium rules got materially stricter after the Champlain Towers South collapse on June 24, 2021, and stricter rules mean previously deferred costs are now being priced and disclosed. That process is not finished. Some buildings will come through it with modest reserve increases. Others will produce assessments that change what a unit is worth to a buyer paying attention.

The 2025 amendments give boards legitimate flexibility — pauses, loans, phased funding. Flexibility is useful to owners and it is fog to buyers. Nothing about a current milestone inspection or a completed SIRS guarantees a building will not assess you. What the documents give you is the ability to see the bill before you agree to pay a share of it, and the right under s. 718.503(2)(a) to walk if you do not like what you see.

Frequently asked questions

Working through this on a specific building

If you are looking at a particular unit and want the documents read before your rescission period expires, that is the part of the job I am useful for. Start with Edgewater condos for sale, building by building, the buyer representation page, or get in touch.

This is general information about Florida statutes and Miami-Dade County ordinances, not legal or engineering advice. I am a licensed real estate sales associate, not an attorney or an engineer. Statutes are amended; verify current text at the source and retain a Florida attorney and a licensed engineer for advice on a specific building.