Buying a Miami Condo With a Pending Special Assessment: 6 Questions to Ask

A pending special assessment is the single most expensive thing a Miami condominium buyer can fail to ask about, and it is also the easiest to miss. It does not appear in the listing. It does not appear in the photographs. It frequently does not appear in the budget, because a board that has voted to consider an assessment has not yet voted to levy one, and only the second of those shows up in the numbers.

Updated 21 August 2026Published 19 August 2026

Here is what changed in Florida law, what you are entitled to see, and the six questions that will tell you whether the number you have been quoted is the real number.

Why assessments got so much more common

For decades Florida condominium owners could vote to waive reserves or fund them below the recommended level. That kept monthly dues attractive and pushed the true cost of the building into the future. After Surfside the legislature closed the door.

Under HB 1021, effective 1 July 2024, for any budget adopted on or after 31 December 2024, the members of a unit-owner-controlled association that must obtain a structural integrity reserve study may not vote to provide no reserves or less reserves than required for the components the statute lists. Nor may they vote to spend reserve funds on anything other than the replacement or deferred maintenance of those components. Reserves stopped being optional and stopped being raidable.

The practical consequence is that a large number of buildings had to move, in a single budget cycle, from decades of underfunding to statutory funding. Some absorbed it through dues. Some issued special assessments. Some are still deciding, which is the situation you need to detect.

What a reserve study must actually cover

A residential condominium association must obtain a structural integrity reserve study for each building of three or more habitable storeys, and must have one completed at least every ten years. It must be performed by a licensed engineer, a licensed architect, or a certified reserve specialist, and it must include a visual inspection.

The statutory component list is worth knowing, because a study that skips one is not a compliant study:

• Roof
• Structure, including load-bearing walls and other primary structural members and systems
• Fireproofing and fire protection systems
• Plumbing
• Electrical systems
• Waterproofing and exterior painting
• Windows and exterior doors
• Any other item with a deferred maintenance or replacement cost exceeding $25,000 which, if not maintained, negatively affects one of the items above

The deadline has passed. Associations existing on or before 1 July 2022 had to complete a study by 31 December 2025, a date extended from 31 December 2024 by HB 913. The only remaining runway is a narrow one: an association required to complete a milestone inspection on or before 31 December 2026 may complete the reserve study simultaneously with it — but in no event after 31 December 2026.

So as of today, a building that cannot produce a completed structural integrity reserve study is either late or riding that simultaneous-milestone extension, and about four months from the end of it. “We are working on it” is a dated answer now, and you are entitled to ask which of those two situations applies.

The pause most buyers have not heard about

HB 913, effective 1 July 2025, added a safety valve, and you should know it exists because it changes how you read a healthy-looking budget.

For a budget adopted on or before 31 December 2028, if the 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 or reduce reserve contributions for up to two consecutive annual budgets, for the purpose of funding repairs recommended by that milestone inspection.

Read that carefully. A building can lawfully show reduced reserve funding right now precisely because its milestone inspection found repairs that need paying for. Low reserve contributions are not automatically a red flag, and they are not automatically fine either. The question is which of the two you are looking at, and the answer is in the board minutes and the milestone report, not in the budget.

HB 913 also allowed associations required to have a reserve study to fund it by special assessment, a line of credit, or a loan, with majority approval. That is why some buildings are now carrying association debt rather than issuing a lump-sum assessment — which is easier on a buyer’s closing statement and harder on their monthly carry.

What you are legally entitled to receive

Under Florida Statute 718.503, a seller who is not the developer must furnish you, before sale, with:

• The declaration of condominium
• The articles of incorporation of the association
• The bylaws and rules
• The annual financial statement and annual budget
• The association’s most recent structural integrity reserve study, or a statement that the association has not completed one
• The inspector-prepared summary of the milestone inspection report, if applicable
• The turnover inspection report, for turnover inspections performed on or after 1 July 2023
• The statutory Frequently Asked Questions and Answers document

Two gaps in that list deserve naming. You are entitled to the summary of the milestone inspection, not the full report. And beyond the current annual budget and the reserve study itself, you have no statutory right to a longer reserve schedule. Ask for both anyway; most associations will provide them, and an association that refuses has told you something.

Note also the asymmetry: a prospective buyer is not an association member, and the broad inspection right that members have under Section 718.111(12) does not extend to you. Your leverage is the resale document package and the contract, not the records statute.

Your seven-day window

This is the most under-used protection in a Florida condominium purchase, and it was strengthened recently.

A resale contract must contain either an acknowledgment that you received the documents more than seven business days before executing, or a cancellation legend giving you the right to void the agreement within seven business days — excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays — after execution and receipt of the documents, if requested in writing. HB 913 raised that window from three days to seven.

The statute is blunt about it: any purported waiver of these voidability rights has no effect, and a contract that does not conform is voidable at the option of the purchaser before closing. But it is equally blunt about the other end — the right to void terminates at closing. Seven business days is enough time to read a reserve study properly. It is not enough time if you start on day six.

Six questions that surface a pending assessment

1. Has the association completed its structural integrity reserve study, and on what date? If not, is it relying on the simultaneous-milestone extension that ends 31 December 2026?
2. What did the study recommend annually, and what did the adopted budget actually fund? A gap between the two is the assessment, just not yet named.
3. Has the board voted to pause or reduce reserve contributions under the HB 913 provision? If so, which milestone repairs is that money going to instead?
4. Are there minutes from the last twelve to eighteen months discussing an assessment, a loan, or a line of credit? Boards discuss for months before they levy. The minutes are where you see it coming.
5. Is there an approved assessment with instalments still running? An assessment approved before closing but payable afterwards is a real liability, and who bears it turns on your contract language, not on statute. Get it allocated in writing.
6. What is the association’s delinquency rate? A building where a meaningful share of owners are behind will fund its shortfall from the owners who are not, and that is you.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: structural integrity reserve studies in full, Miami building recertification, milestone inspection requirements, why HOA fees went up, and the Edgewater building guides.

This is general information about Florida law, not legal advice. For advice on a specific contract or association, speak with a Florida real estate attorney.