Structural Integrity Reserve Studies: The Document That Should Decide Your Offer

A structural integrity reserve study (SIRS) is the document required by Fla. Stat. s. 718.112(2)(g) that prices out what a Florida condominium building will need to spend on nine specified components, and over what horizon. It is the single most decision-relevant document in a resale packet, because it is the only one that translates a building's physical condition into a number you will be asked to pay.

Updated 21 August 2026Published 19 August 2026

Every residential condominium association must complete one at least every 10 years after the condominium's creation, for each building on the property three habitable stories or higher in height.

What a SIRS is — and what it is not

It is not an engineering verdict on whether the building is sound. That is the milestone inspection, and it is a different document with a different trigger. The statute is explicit that a SIRS "is based on a visual inspection of the condominium property." Nobody is opening walls.

It is a budgeting instrument. It answers: what are these components, how much life is left in each, what will replacement cost, and what should the association be collecting each year to be able to pay for it.

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. If yours was produced by none of those, that is a defect in the document, not a formality.

The components the study must cover

Section 718.112(2)(g) requires the study to inspect seven named components plus a catch-all:

1. Roof
2. Structure, including load-bearing walls and primary structural members
3. Fireproofing and fire protection systems
4. Plumbing
5. Electrical systems
6. Waterproofing and exterior painting
7. Windows and exterior doors
8. Any other item with a deferred maintenance or replacement cost exceeding $25,000, where failure would negatively affect the items above

That $25,000 catch-all is where the interesting things hide. Elevators, chillers, cooling towers, garage post-tension cable systems, seawalls and dock structures on a bayfront parcel — none is named in the statute, all routinely clear the threshold, and whether they appear tells you a great deal about how seriously the study was performed. On a Biscayne Bay building with a seawall, a SIRS that does not mention the seawall is an incomplete SIRS.

Reading the funding schedule

Skip to the schedule. Three columns decide everything: remaining useful life, estimated replacement cost, and current reserve balance for that component.

Then do one piece of arithmetic the study will not do for you. Take the components with fewer than five years of remaining life, add their replacement costs, and compare that sum to the total reserve balance. If the near-term obligations exceed what is on hand — and in Miami buildings that predate the current rules they very often do — the gap is going to be closed by an assessment, a loan, or a dues increase. There is no fourth option.

Divide that gap by your unit's share of common expenses. That number, not the asking price, is the one to negotiate against.

Findings that should end a deal

I said I would be direct, so: these are the ones where I tell a buyer to renegotiate hard or walk.

Zero or near-zero remaining life on waterproofing and exterior painting with no funded plan. On a bayfront building this is not cosmetic. Failed envelope waterproofing is how water reaches structure, and it is among the most expensive line items in the study. A building carrying it at zero years with an unfunded reserve is telling you an assessment is already decided, just not yet voted.

A structure line item with a materially reduced remaining life and no corresponding milestone inspection. Those two documents should agree. When the reserve analyst has shortened the structural horizon and there is no engineering report explaining why, someone saw something. Find out who and what.

Plumbing or electrical at end of life in a building that has never repiped or rewired. These are whole-building, unit-invasive projects. They displace residents, they run long, and they are close to impossible to phase cheaply in an occupied tower.

A study that omits an obvious $25,000-plus component. No seawall on a waterfront parcel, no elevators in a 30-storey tower, no garage structure on a podium building. An omission is not a saving. It is an unpriced liability.

A study more than a few years old that the association has not acted on. The document exists; the budget did not change. That combination tells you the board's decision-making, and it will not improve because you closed.

The pause provision, and why buyers should read it as a warning

Since the 2025 amendments (ch. 2025-175, Laws of Florida), where an association completed a milestone inspection within the previous two calendar years, the board — with approval of a majority of the total voting interests — may temporarily pause or reduce reserve contributions for no more than two consecutive annual budgets, to fund repairs the milestone inspection recommended. An association that pauses must have a SIRS performed before contributions resume.

So a building can lawfully show you a current milestone inspection and a budget with a reduced reserve line. Nothing improper has happened. But the pause defers the funding; it does not reduce the need. Ask which annual budget the pause is in. If you are buying into year two, you are buying the restart.

Getting the document

Under s. 718.503(2)(a) a resale seller must furnish, at their expense, the association's most recent SIRS or a statement that none has been completed. Owner-controlled associations existing on or before July 1, 2022 were required to complete one by December 31, 2025, extendable to no later than December 31, 2026 where a milestone inspection was being performed at the same time.

In a condominium of 25 or more units without timeshare units, s. 718.111(12)(g) requires the most recent SIRS to be posted to the association's website or application. And under s. 718.111(12)(a) it must be retained for at least 15 years — so prior studies exist, and comparing two consecutive studies shows you the direction of travel better than either one alone. Request the previous study too. Almost nobody does.

Frequently asked questions

Reading one on a specific building

If you are under contract and want a SIRS and the budgets read side by side before your rescission period runs, that is work I do regularly in Edgewater and along the bayfront. See the 2026 Florida condo law guide for how this fits with the other requirements, Edgewater condos for sale, or get in touch.

General information about Florida statutes, not legal, engineering or financial advice. I am a licensed real estate sales associate, not an attorney or an engineer. Verify current statutory text at the source.