For condominium buyers and owners

Milestone inspections and reserve studies: does this reach your building?

Florida's milestone inspection mandate reaches a condominium or cooperative building that is <strong>three habitable stories or more in height</strong>, and the structural integrity reserve study requirement uses the same test. A two-story building is outside both. So count the habitable stories in your own building before reading anything else, because that one number decides which half of this page applies to you. Then the part no portal page says out loud: in Miami-Dade a two-story condominium building still has to recertify with the County, and its members keep a right that their three-story neighbors lost. Every figure here carries a date, and one of them resets every February.

Updated 2026-10-11

Does the milestone inspection apply to a two-story condo building?

No. The statute is explicit, and the word that does the work is habitable. Section 553.899(3)(a), Florida Statutes, reaches "[a]n owner or owners of a building that is three habitable stories or more in height as determined by the Florida Building Code" which is subject, in whole or in part, to the condominium or cooperative form of ownership. Subsection (4) closes it from the other side: "This section does not apply to a single-family, two-family, three-family, or four-family dwelling with three or fewer habitable stories above ground."

The reserve study uses the same threshold. Section 718.112(2)(g)1 requires a structural integrity reserve study — a SIRS — "for each building on the condominium property that is three habitable stories or higher in height, as determined by the Florida Building Code."

The word "habitable" was inserted on 1 July 2025, and almost nothing written about these rules reflects it. Chapter 2025-175, Laws of Florida, put it into s. 553.899(3)(a). The Florida Building Code, Building, 8th Edition (2023), Chapter 2, defines the term: "HABITABLE SPACE. A space in a building for living, sleeping, eating or cooking. Bathrooms, toilet rooms, closets, halls, screen enclosures, sunroom Categories I, II, III and IV as defined in Section 2002.6, storage or utility spaces and similar areas are not considered habitable spaces."

Which matters enormously to the housing stock down here. The Florida Building Commission's staff analysis in declaratory statement DS 2025-024 states the consequence plainly: "This provides relief to 3 story buildings that have a floor that does not meet the definition of Habitable Space per the FBC." On the three configurations put to it, the staff answer and the accompanying Building Officials Association of Florida informal interpretation came out this way: a story used exclusively for commercial purposes with bathrooms but no sleeping areas should not be counted; a story "dedicated solely to a parking garage use, should not be included as one floor or more is not habitable"; but a loft with a sleeping area and no restroom is habitable and should be counted. A garden-style building of two residential floors over open parking may therefore be a two-habitable-story building even though it reads as three floors from the street.

Three honest limits on that, because this is newer than the commentary around it. The BOAF interpretation is expressly informal and nonbinding, and its own closing paragraph pulls the other way, saying "the number of stories would drive the requirement no matter if they are habitable or not." The question of what percentage of a story has to be habitable was refused outright as a question of general applicability. And while the Structural Technical Advisory Committee moved to recommend the staff analysis and the Commission's October 2025 plenary report carries it, I could not locate a signed final order — so treat this as the Commission's position on the record rather than as settled law.

There is also a drafting inconsistency worth knowing rather than papering over. Section 718.112(2)(g)1 says "three habitable stories or higher"; the exclusion two subparagraphs later, (g)5, says the paragraph "does not apply to buildings less than three stories in height" — without the word habitable. A two-story building is excluded on either reading, so the answer above is safe either way. A three-story building with a non-habitable ground floor is now clearly outside the milestone mandate, but the SIRS exclusion text is arguably ambiguous for it. That specific building is a question for the Miami-Dade Building Official and the association's own licensed engineer or architect, not for a web page.

If the building is exempt from the state rules, does anything still apply in Miami-Dade?

Yes — and this is the finding that inverts what most readers expect. A two-story condominium building in Miami-Dade is exempt from the state milestone mandate and from SIRS, is still subject to County recertification, and keeps the right to fund no reserves at all. The two-story buyer has less protection, not more.

Miami-Dade County Code section 8-11(f)(2)(A) contains no story count: "All buildings, except single-family residences, duplexes, and minor structures as defined above, are required to undergo recertification in the manner described below once such building or structure has reached a Building Age of 30 years and every 10 years thereafter." A "minor building or structure" is defined at 8-11(f)(1)(B) as one with an occupant load of 10 or less and a gross area of 2,000 square feet or less. A garden-style condominium building is not a single-family residence, not a duplex, and far past the minor-structure limit.

The same subsection also makes the County report do double duty where both apply: recertification "shall serve as compliance with any 'milestone inspection' requirements under section 553.899, Florida Statutes."

Two County specifics that catch people out. "Building Age" is defined at 8-11(f)(1)(D) as the present year minus "the year-built information recorded with the County Property Appraiser notwithstanding any renovations or modifications" since — a 1979 building that was gutted in 2012 is still a 1979 building for this purpose. And "Miami-Dade moved from 40 years to 30" is only half right: under 8-11(f)(2)(A)(ii), for buildings built on or before 1982, "the recertification requirement shall run from when the building or structure has reached a Building Age of 40 years and subsequent recertifications shall be required every 10 years thereafter." Pre-1983 stock still runs a 40-year initial cycle.

There is no phase one report in this county. The County's own General Considerations and Guidelines, version 01/25R2.0, states that "[t]he Miami-Dade Recertification Program, which is synonymous with the State of Florida Milestone Inspection Program, combines both Phase 1 and Phase 2 inspections into a single inspection." OPPAGA confirms the same thing from the state side, noting that jurisdictions in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach "accept one inspection that combines phase one and phase two requirements." Every statewide page that walks a reader through two phases is describing a document a Miami-Dade buyer will never be handed.

And the County certifies something the state inspection does not: electricity. Under 8-11(f)(2)(E) the owner must furnish, within 90 days of the Notice of Required Inspection, a written report by a Florida-registered professional engineer or architect certifying the building is "structurally and electrically safe, or has been made structurally and electrically safe, for the specified use for continued occupancy." Section 553.899 requires no electrical inspection at all. The County guidelines go further: where service entrance conductors are rated at 400 amperes or greater in the aggregate, an infrared thermography inspection with a written report is required, performed by "a Level-II or higher certified infrared thermographer" with over five years of experience on commercial electrical systems. On a threshold building — over three stories or 50 feet — the structural and electrical portions must come from separate engineers specializing in each.

The reserve consequence is the uncomfortable half. Section 718.112(2)(f)2.b first permits what it then restricts: "The members of a unit-owner-controlled association may determine, by a majority vote of the total voting interests of the association, to provide no reserves or less reserves than required by this subsection." The ban that followed, for budgets adopted on or after 31 December 2024, applies only to "the members of a unit-owner-controlled association that must obtain a structural integrity reserve study." An association whose buildings are under three habitable stories never had to obtain one, so nothing in that ban touches it. It can lawfully carry County recertification obligations and no reserves whatsoever.

What does a Miami-Dade recertification report actually say?

It carries a one-word condition rating, and the County defines all four in its Guidelines. The second one is read backwards constantly.

Good: "No Substantial Structural Deterioration and No Dangerous Condition Observed." Fair: "Indication of Substantial Structural Deterioration Observed and No Dangerous Condition Observed." Poor: "Actual Substantial Structural Deterioration Observed and No Dangerous Condition Observed." Significant: "Any Observation which is an Indication of Dangerous Condition or Actual Dangerous Condition."

So "Fair" is not middling-but-fine. On the County's own scale it means an indication of substantial structural deterioration was observed. A buyer who treats it as a passing grade has misread the single most important word in the document.

One owner's enclosed balcony can hold up the whole building. The Guidelines are blunt about it: "Unpermitted additions found by the recertification process present an unsafe situation and must be identified in the report, even if found to be properly built," and legalizing one "would be a prerequisite to the completion of a successful recertification report." The examples given are "additions, alterations, balcony enclosures, etc." Recertification runs on the entire structure including every subsequent permitted addition, and the Guidelines direct the engineer to investigate open code compliance cases because they "may lead to issues pre-existing with the building." If that sounds familiar on a single-family file, it is the same machinery — see unpermitted work in Miami-Dade.

The enforcement calendar, all from section 8-11(f)(2). The report is due within 90 days of the Notice of Required Inspection, and is deemed timely from two years before the recertification anniversary through 90 days after the Notice. Repairs not requiring a permit must be completed, and necessary permits obtained, within 150 days of the Notice. An engineer's letter that the building may stay occupied during repairs is valid no more than 180 days. The Building Official may grant an extension of not more than 60 days on a signed and sealed written request. Courtesy notices go out two years and one year ahead, but "the failure by a Building Official to provide courtesy advance notices shall not affect a building owner's requirement to timely recertify."

Non-compliance leaves a sign on the building, which is the cheapest piece of due diligence there is. Under 8-11(f)(2)(J) the Building Official may order electrical utilities disconnected, after certified mail and a notice posted conspicuously on the building reading: "NOTICE OF INTENT TO DISCONNECT ELECTRICAL UTILITIES. This building or structure has not complied with the recertification procedures under Section 8-11 of the Miami-Dade County Code. As a result, there is uncertainty in the opinion of the Building Official as to whether this building or structure may continue to be safely occupied." Walk the property.

You can also check it from your desk without asking the seller anything. The County runs a public Building Recertification Portal, searchable by property address, folio, case number, recertification year and enforcement status, with coverage from May 1996 to the present and a link through to the Unsafe Structures case where one exists. Recertification fees as posted on the County's building recertification page, effective 1 October 2025 and checked 11 October 2026: an extension request is $75.58 and a late submission $453.52. A citation for failing to recertify on time carries an initial penalty of $510.00, with accumulated penalties of up to $10,000.00 per violation, and unpaid amounts can become a lien. Those are posted fees and they move, so read them from the County rather than from here.

When is a milestone inspection due, and what happens after one?

By 31 December of the year the building reaches 30 years of age, based on the date its certificate of occupancy was issued, and every 10 years after that. Where the issuance date is unavailable, s. 553.899(3)(a) allows "the date of occupancy evidenced in any record of the local building official."

The coastal 25-year trigger, attributed correctly. Section 553.899(3)(b) says only that "[t]he local enforcement agency may determine that local circumstances, including environmental conditions such as proximity to salt water as defined in s. 379.101, require that a milestone inspection must be performed by December 31 of the year in which the building reaches 25 years of age." There is no three-mile figure in the statute. The three miles is Miami-Dade's own definition of coastal — the County's recertification page describes coastal buildings as those "located within three miles of the coastline," identified through a GIS mapping project, with three-story-or-taller condominium and cooperative buildings built in 1998 or later recertifying at a Building Age of 25. That is a correction to the attribution on my own Miami-Dade investment property page, which sources the three miles to the statute; the practical advice there is unchanged.

Which band a given building sits in is not something to infer from a city name. Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay front Biscayne Bay and plausibly fall inside the band; Kendall, West Kendall, Country Walk and the Redland are nowhere near it. But the County says it is drawing these lines by GIS parcel, so confirm the building's own trigger with the Building Official rather than reasoning from the mailing address.

After the notice, the clocks. The local enforcement agency gives written notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, and under s. 553.899(5) the association must then notify unit owners within 14 days and "provide the date that the milestone inspection must be completed." Phase one is due within 180 days after the owner receives that notice, and "completion" means the architect or engineer has submitted the report to the local enforcement agency. Phase one is a visual examination of habitable and nonhabitable areas including major structural components; if the professional "finds no signs of substantial structural deterioration," phase two is not required. Where phase two is triggered it may involve destructive or nondestructive testing, the inspector "must give preference to locations that are the least disruptive and most easily repairable while still being representative of the structure," and a progress report with a timeline is due within 180 days of the phase one submission. In Miami-Dade, as above, these arrive as one inspection.

What comes out of it, and who gets it. A sealed report plus a separate inspector-prepared summary of "at minimum, the material findings and recommendations" goes to the association, to any owner of non-condominium portions, and to the local building official. The report must identify any substantial structural deterioration and the recommended repairs, "[s]tate whether unsafe or dangerous conditions, as those terms are defined in the Florida Building Code, were observed," recommend preventive repair for damaged items that fall short of substantial structural deterioration, and "[i]dentify and describe any items requiring further inspection." Within 45 days the association must send the summary to every unit owner "regardless of the findings or recommendations in the report," post a copy conspicuously on the property, and publish the full report and the summary on its website if it is required to have one.

Then the repair clock. Section 553.899(11) requires the county or municipality to set a timeframe for scheduling or commencing repairs for substantial structural deterioration, and "such repairs must be commenced within 365 days after receiving such report." If the owner fails to submit proof that repairs were scheduled or commenced, the local enforcement agency "must review and determine if the building is unsafe for human occupancy."

Two counterweights to panic. The statutory definition of substantial structural deterioration specifically excludes "surface imperfections such as cracks, distortion, sagging, deflections, misalignment, signs of leakage, or peeling of finishes" unless the engineer or architect determines they are a sign of it — so a hairline crack on a walkway is not, by itself, the thing the statute is about. And the inspection's reach is narrower than people assume: "The purpose of such inspection is not to determine if the condition of an existing building is in compliance with the Florida Building Code or the firesafety code."

One check nobody writes about. Under s. 553.899(12) an architect or engineer who bids a milestone inspection "must disclose in writing to the association his or her intent to bid on any services related to any maintenance, repair, or replacement which may be recommended by the milestone inspection," related-party interests must be disclosed, and a contract is voidable for failure to disclose. Section 718.112(2)(g)3.b carries the same rule for the SIRS. When you read a report, it is fair to ask whether the firm that found the problem also bid the repair.

What must a structural integrity reserve study cover?

Eight categories, and only those. Section 718.112(2)(g)1 requires the study to cover, "as related to the structural integrity and safety of the building": the roof; structure, including load-bearing walls and other primary structural members and primary structural systems as defined in s. 627.706; fireproofing and fire protection systems; plumbing; electrical systems; waterproofing and exterior painting; windows and exterior doors; and any other item whose deferred maintenance expense or replacement cost exceeds the reserve threshold where failing to maintain it would negatively affect the first seven.

Notice what is not on that list: elevators, pools, docks, seawalls, pavement, landscaping, clubhouses. A SIRS is a structural-and-systems study, not a full reserve study. An association can hold a perfectly compliant SIRS and be completely unfunded for the elevator.

Two more boundaries. The study "is based on a visual inspection of the condominium property" — it is not destructive and it is not a structural engineering investigation. And it does not have to be done by an engineer: under (g)3.a 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."

What the document has to contain, and the word that misleads. It must identify each item visually inspected, state each one's estimated remaining useful life and estimated replacement cost or deferred maintenance expense, and provide a funding plan that reaches those costs by the end of each item's remaining useful life. At minimum it must recommend a schedule "based on a baseline funding plan that provides a reserve funding goal in which the reserve funding for each budget year is sufficient to maintain the reserve cash balance above zero." Baseline funding keeps the balance above zero. It does not mean fully funded. A study whose recommendation is baseline is describing the statutory floor, not the building's health.

The sentence that makes a budget checkable. Under (g)4.c, "[t]he association must obtain an updated structural integrity reserve study before adopting any budget in which the reserve funding from regular assessments, special assessments, lines of credit, or loans does not align with the funding plan from the most recent version of the structural integrity reserve study." A budget that departs from the study's plan without an updated study is non-compliant on its face — and both documents are ones a buyer can get hold of.

Two plumbing details worth knowing. A milestone inspection performed within the past five years, "or an inspection completed for a similar local requirement," may be used in place of the visual inspection portion of the study — that clause is how Miami-Dade recertification plugs into the state scheme. And under (g)10 a willful and knowing failure to complete a study is a breach of an officer's or director's fiduciary duty, and "[a]n officer or a director of an association must sign an affidavit acknowledging receipt of the completed structural integrity reserve study." That affidavit is an official record and a required website posting, so its absence is itself evidence. Within 45 days of receiving the study the association must distribute it or give notice it is available, and within 45 days must tell the Division it was completed and made available.

Now the most time-sensitive fact on this page. Section 718.112(2)(g)7: "Associations existing on or before July 1, 2022, which are controlled by unit owners other than the developer, must have a structural integrity reserve study completed by December 31, 2025, for each building on the condominium property that is three stories or higher in height." An association required to complete a milestone inspection on or before 31 December 2026 may do the study alongside it, but "[i]n no event may the structural integrity reserve study be completed after December 31, 2026."

That base deadline passed more than nine months ago, and the outer limit is 81 days from today. Which changes what a seller's "the study is being scheduled" means. In 2024 that was an administrative note. In October 2026, for a building of three or more habitable stories, it is a compliance question and a material fact, and it deserves a written answer before an inspection period runs out rather than after. One thing I will not assert: the Division is directed by (g)13 to adopt a standard SIRS form by rule, and I could not confirm whether that rule has been adopted, so do not expect a standard-looking document.

Can a Florida condo association still waive its reserves?

Often, yes. The widely repeated line that associations can no longer waive reserves is wrong as stated, and there are five routes in the statute plus a sixth that produces the same result. This is the single most useful correction on the page, because it changes what a buyer should ask for.

One. The milestone pause. Section 718.112(2)(f)2.e: "For a budget adopted on or before December 31, 2028, if the association has completed a milestone inspection pursuant to s. 553.899 within the previous 2 calendar years, the board, upon the approval of a majority of the total voting interests of the association, may temporarily pause, for a period of no more than two consecutive annual budgets, reserve fund contributions or reduce the amount of reserve funding for the purpose of funding repairs recommended by the milestone inspection." It does not reach a developer-controlled association, one where nondeveloper owners have held control under a year, or one controlled by bulk assignees or bulk buyers. An association that paused must have a SIRS performed before contributions resume.

Two. The natural-emergency pause, at (f)2.d: where the local building official determines the entire building is uninhabitable due to a natural emergency, the board may pause or reduce reserve funding and spend reserve funds to make the building habitable, resuming immediately once it is declared habitable.

Three. A building under three habitable stories was never in the ban at all — the restriction in (f)2.b reaches only an association "that must obtain a structural integrity reserve study," and its members retain the general power to vote no reserves. Four. A multicondominium may provide no reserves or less reserves where an alternative funding method has been approved by the Division. Five. On a vote to terminate the condominium under s. 718.117, the members may waive the reserves recommended by the most recent study.

And the sixth, which is adjacent and does the same work: delay the study itself. Section 718.112(2)(g)9 lets an association that completed a milestone inspection "or an inspection completed for a similar local requirement" delay a required SIRS "for no more than the 2 consecutive budget years immediately following the milestone inspection." Stack that with the pause and an association can lawfully be sitting in October 2026 with a recent Miami-Dade recertification, a paused reserve line, and no reserve study at all.

So here is the consequence that matters to anyone writing an offer: a reserve line in the current budget is not proof that reserves are being funded. Ask for the last two budgets. One shows you a number. Two show you whether the number moved, and a pause only becomes visible in the comparison. That is the same point made on the pre-offer checklist and the investment property page, and the mechanism above is why.

The reserve mechanics behind the line item. Reserve accounts must cover roof replacement, building painting and pavement resurfacing "regardless of the amount," plus any other item whose deferred maintenance expense or replacement cost exceeds a threshold that the Division adjusts for inflation each year. That threshold is $25,675 for 2026; it was $25,000 for 2025, and the Division must post the new figure by 1 February annually under (f)6, so expect a different number next February. Those are the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes figures as posted and read on 11 October 2026. Any page still quoting $10,000 is two changes behind. For an association required to obtain a SIRS, the reserve amount for the covered items "must be based on the findings and recommendations of the association's most recent structural integrity reserve study."

Reserves for those items may be funded by regular assessments, special assessments, lines of credit or loans, and the last three require a majority vote of the total voting interests. A loan taken for milestone or SIRS capital expenses must be large enough "to fund the cumulative amount of any previously waived or unfunded portions of the reserve funding amount" — and, decisively for a buyer, it "must be included in the annual financial statement that is required under s. 718.111(13) to be delivered to unit owners and required under s. 718.503 to be provided to prospective purchasers of a unit." The loan shows up in a document you are already entitled to.

The Legislature's own summary of the stakes is printed in capitals on the proxy that authorizes a waiver, at (f)5: "WAIVING OF RESERVES, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, OR ALLOWING ALTERNATIVE USES OF EXISTING RESERVES MAY RESULT IN UNIT OWNER LIABILITY FOR PAYMENT OF UNANTICIPATED SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS REGARDING THOSE ITEMS." Whether a particular vote was validly taken, or whether a particular pause was lawful, is a question for a Florida community association attorney. What I can do is read the documents with you and tell you which ones are missing.

What is a condo buyer entitled to receive, and when?

Eight documents, at the seller's expense, once a contract is signed. Section 718.503(2)(a) entitles a prospective purchaser to a current copy of the declaration; the articles of incorporation; the bylaws and rules; an annual financial statement and annual budget; the inspector-prepared summary of the milestone inspection report as described in s. 553.899, if applicable; the association's most recent structural integrity reserve study, or a statement that the association has not completed one; the turnover inspection report under s. 718.301(4)(p) and (q) for a turnover performed on or after 1 July 2023; and the Frequently Asked Questions and Answers document. The Division's governance form comes with it.

Four precision points, each of which is routinely stated wrong.

You get the summary, not the report. Item 5 is the "inspector-prepared summary." Item 6 is the reserve study itself, in full. The complete sealed milestone report is not in the statutory resale package at all — it is an official record under s. 718.111(12)(a)15, retained 15 years, and a required website posting under (12)(g)2.o. Ask for it by name.

The resale cancellation window is 7 days, not 15. Fifteen days is the developer window under s. 718.503(1)(d). On a resale, for contracts entered into after 31 December 2024, the buyer either acknowledges receiving the documents "MORE THAN 7 DAYS, EXCLUDING SATURDAYS, SUNDAYS, AND LEGAL HOLIDAYS, BEFORE EXECUTION OF THIS CONTRACT" or the agreement is voidable by written notice within the same 7 days after execution and receipt. There are two document sets on two clocks: (2)(d) covers the core package, and the milestone summary, turnover report and reserve study sit in (2)(e). Both carry the same hard edges — "ANY PURPORTED WAIVER OF THESE VOIDABILITY RIGHTS SHALL BE OF NO EFFECT," a right to extend closing by the same period if requested in writing, and "BUYER'S RIGHT TO VOID THIS AGREEMENT SHALL TERMINATE AT CLOSING."

The contract itself has to tell you the scope answer. Where the association is required to have a milestone inspection, a turnover report or a reserve study and has not completed it, the contract "shall contain in conspicuous type a statement" saying so. Where the association is not required to have a milestone inspection or a reserve study, the contract must say that instead. If you are buying in a two-story building, the first section of this page should appear on the face of your contract.

The statute gives you one budget, not two. Item 4 is singular, so asking for the last two budgets is good practice rather than an entitlement — and the route to the earlier one runs through the seller. Official records "are open to inspection by any association member and any person authorized by an association member as a representative of such member," and a prospective buyer is not a member. So either the seller requests the prior budget, or the right to it goes into the contract. Records must be made available within 10 working days of a written request, most official records are kept at least 7 years, and both the reserve study and the milestone report are kept 15. Useful on the rental side too: a renter may inspect only the declaration, the bylaws and rules, "and the inspection reports described in ss. 553.899 and 718.301(4)(p)."

Before you ask anyone for anything, read the website. An association managing a condominium with 25 or more units and no timeshare units must post digital copies of specified records, within 30 days of receiving or creating them. The list at s. 718.111(12)(g)2 includes the inspection reports, "[t]he association's most recent structural integrity reserve study, if applicable," all affidavits required by the chapter, and the sleeper: "Copies of all building permits issued for ongoing or planned construction." Permits for planned construction have to be posted, which means the repair project is visible before the assessment that pays for it. The honest caveat is in (g)4: failure to post "is not in and of itself sufficient to invalidate any action or decision of the association's board or its committees."

Then do the arithmetic, because it is tighter than it looks. The default inspection period in paragraph 12(a) of the FloridaRealtors/FloridaBar "AS IS" contract, form ASIS-7 (Rev 12/24), is 15 days, within which the buyer may cancel in sole discretion. Fifteen calendar days against a 10-working-day records response and a 10-business-day estoppel certificate leaves almost no slack. Send the document requests the day the contract is signed.

Why can a special assessment land after closing?

Because unpaid assessments follow the title, and the estoppel certificate only speaks to what has already been levied. Both halves are statutory, and neither requires anybody to behave badly.

The liability. Section 718.116(1)(a): "a unit owner is jointly and severally liable with the previous owner for all unpaid assessments that came due up to the time of transfer of title. This liability is without prejudice to any right the owner may have to recover from the previous owner the amounts paid by the owner."

The shield, and exactly where it stops. An estoppel certificate is powerful for what it names: under (8)(c), an association "waives the right to collect any moneys owed in excess of the amounts specified in the estoppel certificate from any person who in good faith relies upon the estoppel certificate and from the person's successors and assigns." Three limits let a future assessment straight through. Its itemization covers assessments and other moneys "scheduled to become due for each day after the date of issuance for the effective period of the estoppel certificate" — an assessment the board has debated, budgeted toward, or borrowed in anticipation of, but not yet levied, is not scheduled to become due. Its effective period is 30 days delivered by hand or electronically, 35 by regular mail. And it is issued on request "from a unit owner or the unit owner's designee, or a unit mortgagee or the unit mortgagee's designee" within 10 business days — so, like the records right, a buyer reaches it through the seller or the lender.

Put plainly: an estoppel certificate is a complete shield for what it names inside a 30-day window, and silent on everything the board has not yet levied. That is how a five- or six-figure per-unit special assessment arrives weeks after a clean estoppel with nobody at fault. Worth knowing on the mechanics: an amended certificate carries no additional fee and restarts the clock; no fee at all is due if the association misses the 10 business days; the fee is capped at $250 where nothing delinquent is owed, with $100 more for a three-business-day expedite and $150 more where a delinquency exists; and the certificate must provide contact information for all insurance maintained by the association. Each association must designate on its website a person or entity to receive estoppel requests.

Which is why the earlier documents matter more than the estoppel. The minutes show the discussion. The financial statement shows the loan. The posted permits show the project. The County's recertification case and permit records show the repair from outside the association entirely. A levy that is invisible on an estoppel in week three was usually visible in those four places in week one.

The scale of this, from primary state data. OPPAGA published Report 26-04 in July 2026 under s. 553.899(13)(b), covering 2024 and 2025. Across those two years building officials reported 8,736 completed phase one and 1,575 completed phase two milestone inspections, and 903 permit applications for repairs identified in phase two, where "[e]stimated values of identified repairs ranged from under $1,000 to $30 million." There were 1,587 extensions, 94 percent of them in coastal jurisdictions.

And the finding that should calm a south Miami-Dade reader rather than frighten one. Milestone inspections identified 30 buildings statewide as unsafe or uninhabitable in 2024 — none of them in Miami-Dade — and 24 in 2025, of which 23 were in Miami-Dade County and one in Orange. A footnote records that the City of Aventura alone reported 19 of them. Most were not vacated. The exposure is real, it is concentrated, and it is concentrated in older coastal high-rise stock in the north of the county, not in the garden-style stock south of Kendall. Two caveats on those numbers, because the report states them itself: the statute does not define "unsafe" or "uninhabitable" and officials used several different definitions; and DBPR received 2024 data from 71 percent of the 389 jurisdictions and 2025 data from 64 percent, with 7 of 34 Miami-Dade municipal building officials not reporting. These are floors, not totals.

One last routing note, because it decides more condominium contracts than any of the above. Whether a lender will lend on a particular building — and what a milestone finding, a pending assessment or a missing reserve study does to that — is a question for a licensed mortgage loan originator, not for me. The FHA side of condominium approval is covered on the FHA buyer page. What I can do is get the documents in front of you early enough that the answer still has somewhere to go.

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• What nobody tells you before you move here
• What happens to the house

Written for buyers and owners of condominium and cooperative units in south Miami-Dade - Homestead, Florida City, Cutler Bay, Palmetto Bay, the Kendall corridor, Country Walk and the Redland. This is where the page's sources sit, so that the page itself can stay in plain English. It is general information, not legal, insurance, tax or lending advice. Zac Tranten is a licensed Florida real estate sales associate, license SL3576483, with Keys Gate Realty, 10 NE 3rd Street, Florida City, FL 33034; he is not an attorney, an engineer, an architect, an insurance agent or a mortgage loan originator. Statutes were read directly from the Legislature's own text at leg.state.fl.us on 11 October 2026, not from summaries, because the post-Surfside condominium laws have been amended in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 and secondary coverage of them runs behind. The spine of the page: milestone inspections are section 553.899; the structural integrity reserve study, the reserve requirements and the pause provisions are section 718.112(2)(f) and (2)(g); official records, retention periods and the website posting list are section 718.111(12); the resale document package, the cancellation windows and the required conspicuous contract statement are section 718.503(2); assessment liability and the estoppel certificate are section 718.116(1) and (8); primary structural member and primary structural system are defined in section 627.706. Miami-Dade County recertification is County Code section 8-11(f), read from the ordinance text, together with the County's General Considerations and Guidelines version 01/25R2.0, which is the source of the Good, Fair, Poor and Significant definitions, the combined single inspection, the electrical and infrared thermography scope and the unpermitted-work passage; County recertification fees and penalties were read from the County's building recertification page on 11 October 2026 and carry a fee schedule effective 1 October 2025, and posted fees move. The reserve component threshold of $25,675 for 2026, and $25,000 for 2025, was read on 11 October 2026 from the reserve-threshold page of the DBPR Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes; section 718.112(2)(f)6 requires the Division to post an inflation-adjusted figure by 1 February each year, so that number will change and any page quoting $10,000 is two amendments behind. Statewide inspection counts, repair values, extension counts and the unsafe-or-uninhabitable figures come from OPPAGA Report 26-04, Milestone Inspection Reporting Data 2024 and 2025, published July 2026 under section 553.899(13)(b); that report discloses its own limits, which are repeated here because they matter - the statute defines neither unsafe nor uninhabitable and building officials used several different definitions, and DBPR received 2024 data from 71 percent of the 389 identified jurisdictions and 2025 data from 64 percent, with 7 of 34 Miami-Dade municipal building officials not reporting, so those counts are floors rather than totals. Four things are deliberately not asserted. How the Florida Building Code's habitable-space definition applies to a particular building is a Building Official and licensed design professional question; the Florida Building Commission's staff analysis in declaratory statement DS 2025-024 and the Building Officials Association of Florida informal interpretation reproduced in it are described as the Commission's position on the record because no signed final order was located, the BOAF interpretation is expressly nonbinding and its closing paragraph pulls against its own answers, and the question of what percentage of a story must be habitable was refused as a question of general applicability. Whether Miami-Dade's 25-year coastal schedule was adopted under section 553.899(3)(b) specifically was not confirmed; the three-mile coastline figure is the County's own, from its recertification page, and not statutory language, and the County identifies coastal parcels by GIS, so which trigger applies to a given building must be confirmed with the Building Official rather than inferred from a city name. Whether the Division has adopted the standard reserve-study form that section 718.112(2)(g)13 directs it to adopt by rule was not confirmed. And the share of south Miami-Dade condominium stock that is under three habitable stories is not quantified anywhere this page could verify, which is why the scope limit is written as a test a reader applies to their own building rather than as a market claim. The inspection-period arithmetic uses the 15-day default in paragraph 12(a) of the FloridaRealtors/FloridaBar AS IS Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase, form ASIS-7 (Rev 12/24); your own contract's filled-in period is what governs. No premium figures or insurance savings estimates appear anywhere on this page, because insurance is a licensed activity under chapter 626, Florida Statutes, and those questions belong to a licensed Florida insurance agent. The checklist and the habitable-stories check are reading aids, not an inspection, not a reserve study and not a determination about any building. Nothing here is a comparative market analysis of any property. Verify anything specific with the Miami-Dade Building Official, a Florida-licensed engineer or architect, a Florida community association attorney, a licensed mortgage loan originator or the association itself. Equal Housing Opportunity.