Milestone Inspections and Building Safety: Section 553.899 From Creation Through the 2025 Amendments

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

• Published September 26, 2026
• Reviewed by Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA, September 26, 2026
• Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026
• Applies to: Condominiums · Cooperatives

This page is current through the 2026 regular session and reflects the 2026 Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026. Section 553.899 was created by SB 4-D in 2022 and amended in 2023, 2024 and 2025. It was not touched in 2026. For a condominium or cooperative board, the practical questions are whether your building is covered, whether a deadline has already run, and what happens in the year after a phase two report lands.

Four sessions, one section

The history line at the end of section 553.899 is short enough to read: section 3 of Chapter 2022-269; section 2 of Chapter 2023-203; section 4 of Chapter 2024-244; section 4 of Chapter 2025-175. Four amendments, no 2026 entry.

Boards sometimes assume milestone inspections live in Chapter 718. They do not. Section 553.899 sits in the building construction standards chapter, and it applies to buildings by their form of ownership rather than to associations by their chapter. Chapter 718 and Chapter 719 connect to it, principally through the reserve study provisions, but the inspection obligation itself is not in either one.

Which buildings are covered

Under section 553.899(3)(a), the owner or owners of a building that is three habitable stories or more in height, as determined by the Florida Building Code, and that is subject in whole or in part to the condominium or cooperative form of ownership, must have a milestone inspection performed. Section 553.899(4) makes the condominium or cooperative association, and any owner of a portion of the building not subject to that form of ownership, each responsible for ensuring compliance. The section does not apply to a single-family, two-family, three-family or four-family dwelling.

Two points of frequent confusion. First, habitable stories is a Florida Building Code determination, not a count of floors from the parking deck. A building your owners describe as two stories over parking may or may not be three habitable stories, and that is a question for the building official or your engineer, not for the board. Second, the words in whole or in part matter in a mixed-use building. A commercial ground floor does not take the building out of the section, and the commercial owner shares the compliance obligation.

Our page on milestone inspection requirements covers how to establish the building's age and story count from the certificate of occupancy and the code.

The triggers: 30 years, 25 on the coast, and the deadlines that already ran

The basic trigger is age. A covered building must have a milestone inspection performed by December 31 of the year in which the building reaches 30 years of age, and every 10 years after that.

Section 553.899(3)(b) gives the local enforcement agency an alternative. The agency may determine that local circumstances, including environmental conditions such as proximity to salt water, require the inspection at December 31 of the year the building reaches 25 years of age, and every 10 years after that. This is a local determination, which is why two buildings of the same age in Lee and Collier Counties can be on different schedules. A board in a coastal community should confirm its schedule with the local building department rather than assume 30 years.

The transitional deadlines are both in the past.

• A building that reached 30 years of age before July 1, 2022 had to have its initial milestone inspection performed before December 31, 2024.
• A building that reached 30 years of age between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024 had to have its inspection performed before December 31, 2025.

Section 553.899(3)(c) allows an extension on a showing of good cause that the inspection cannot be timely completed, where the association has entered into a signed contract with the professional who will perform it. That is a narrow door, and it is not a substitute for having started.

How the process actually runs

The sequence is set out across subsections (5) through (11), and each step has a clock.

1. Notice. Upon determining that a building must have a milestone inspection, the local enforcement agency must provide written notice to the association, and to any owner of a portion of the building not subject to the condominium or cooperative form, by certified mail, return receipt requested. Section 553.899(5).
2. Owner notification within 14 days. The association must notify the unit owners of the required inspection within 14 days after receiving that written notice, and must provide the date by which the inspection must be completed. Section 553.899(5).
3. Phase one within 180 days. Phase one must be completed within 180 days after the owners receive the written notice. Completion means the licensed engineer or architect who performed phase one submitted the report to the local enforcement agency by e-mail, United States Postal Service or commercial delivery service. Section 553.899(6).
4. Phase one is a visual examination. A licensed architect or engineer performs a visual examination of habitable and nonhabitable areas, including the major structural components. If no substantial structural deterioration is identified, phase one completes the inspection. Section 553.899(7).
5. Phase two if deterioration is found. Phase two is required if any substantial structural deterioration is identified during phase one, and it may involve destructive or nondestructive testing at the inspector's direction. Section 553.899(7).
6. Sealed reports. On completion of phase one or phase two, the architect or engineer submits a sealed report. Section 553.899(8).
7. Owner distribution within 45 days. Within 45 days after receiving the applicable inspection report, the association must distribute the inspector-prepared summary to each unit owner regardless of the findings, by mail or personal delivery and by electronic transmission to owners who consented to it, must post a copy conspicuously on the property, and must publish the full report and the summary on the association's website if the association is required to have one. Section 553.899(9).
8. Repairs within 365 days. Each county and municipality must adopt an ordinance requiring repairs for substantial structural deterioration to be scheduled or commenced within a specified time after the local enforcement agency receives a phase two report; in any event such repairs must be commenced within 365 days after receiving the report. Section 553.899(11).

The consequence of missing that last clock is stated in the statute. If the owner of the building fails to submit proof to the local enforcement agency that repairs have been scheduled or have commenced for substantial structural deterioration identified in a phase two report within the required timeframe, the local enforcement agency must review and determine whether the building is unsafe for human occupancy. Separately, section 553.899(10) allows a local enforcement agency to prescribe its own timelines and penalties for compliance with the section.

For a board, the practical sequence after a phase two report is not one project but three running at once: engineering and scoping, owner communication and the statutory distribution, and funding. Our page on major project oversight covers how to keep those three from colliding, and our page on special assessments covers the funding vote.

The reporting duty most boards have never heard of

Section 553.899(13) puts an annual reporting obligation on the local enforcement agency, not on the association, and it changes the environment your board operates in.

On or before December 31, 2025, and on or before each December 31 after that, the local enforcement agency responsible for milestone inspections must provide the department, in an electronic format the department determines, information including the number of buildings required to have a milestone inspection in its jurisdiction, the number for which a phase one inspection has been completed, the number granted an extension under paragraph (3)(c), the number required to have a phase two inspection, the number for which phase two has been completed, the number, type and value of permit applications received to complete phase two repairs, a list of buildings deemed unsafe or uninhabitable as determined by a milestone inspection, and the license number of the building code administrator responsible for milestone inspections. The department then provides all of it to the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, which reports to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House.

Read that list from the association's side. Your jurisdiction is compiling, every year, a count of buildings that were required to be inspected and a count of those actually inspected, and it is naming buildings deemed unsafe. A board that has quietly not scheduled an inspection is not invisible; it is a line in a dataset that goes to the Legislature. That is also the mechanism by which the next round of legislation will be drafted, which is a reason to expect this subject to return to a future session even though 2026 was quiet.

How the inspection interlocks with reserves

The milestone inspection and the structural integrity reserve study are separate obligations that the Legislature deliberately wired together. Three connections matter.

• Timing relief. Under section 718.112(2)(g)9., an association that completes a milestone inspection may delay performance of a required reserve study for no more than the two consecutive budget years immediately following the inspection, so it can put resources into the repair recommendations. Section 718.112(2)(g)7. also permits an association required to complete a milestone inspection on or before December 31, 2026 to complete the reserve study simultaneously with the inspection.
• Funding. Under section 718.112(2)(f)2.c.(II), an association required to have a reserve study may secure a line of credit or a loan to fund capital expenses required by a milestone inspection or by the study, with the funding immediately available to the board without further member approval.
• The pause. Under section 718.112(2)(f)2.e., for a budget adopted on or before December 31, 2028, an association that completed a milestone inspection within the previous two calendar years may, on a majority of the total voting interests, pause or reduce reserve contributions for no more than two consecutive annual budgets to fund the repairs that inspection recommended.

None of those three exist without a completed milestone inspection. An association that has not done the inspection has also locked itself out of the reserve flexibility the same legislation created. Our reserves and SIRS legislative page traces that side of the arc, and our page on SIRS for cooperatives covers the earlier cooperative deadline.

One more connection, on the records side: the inspection reports and the reserve study are both on the condominium website posting list at section 718.111(12)(g)2., and section 553.899(9) independently requires publication of the full report and summary on the association's website where the association is required to have one. A board that distributes the summary and stops has completed half the duty.

What to confirm this quarter

Short list, in order.

1. Establish the building's certificate of occupancy date and its habitable story count under the Florida Building Code, in writing, from the building department rather than from memory.
2. Ask the local enforcement agency whether it has applied the 25-year coastal trigger in your jurisdiction.
3. Locate the agency's written notice if one was received, and confirm the 14-day owner notification went out and that the 180-day phase one clock was met.
4. If a phase two report exists, calendar the 365-day repair commencement date and the proof you will submit to the agency.
5. Confirm the inspector-prepared summary was distributed within 45 days, posted conspicuously, and published on the website if you are required to have one.
6. Check whether the two-budget-year reserve study delay under section 718.112(2)(g)9. was used, and whether the December 31, 2026 outside date is still satisfiable.
7. If any of the above is unclear, treat it as a legal question before it becomes a code enforcement question.

The statute puts the building's habitability on the line at the end of this sequence. That is a different category of risk from most association deadlines, and it is worth the cost of getting the answer right the first time.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes advises condominium and cooperative boards in Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties on milestone inspection compliance, phase two repair scoping and contracting, owner communications and funding, and on dealings with the local enforcement agency when a deadline has been missed. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Construction page.