Florida Milestone Inspection Requirements

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

Published September 22, 2026
Updated September 23, 2026
Reviewed by Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA, September 23, 2026
Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026
Applies to: Condominiums · Cooperatives · Hotel condominiums

A milestone inspection is a structural inspection of a condominium or cooperative building that is three or more habitable stories tall, performed by a licensed architect or engineer when the building reaches a set age and every ten years afterward. It has two phases: a visual inspection, and, only if that inspection finds substantial structural deterioration, a more detailed inspection with testing. Florida enacted the requirement in 2022 after the Champlain Towers South collapse.

Which buildings are covered

Section 553.899 applies to condominium and cooperative buildings that are three or more habitable stories in height. Single-family, two-family and three-family dwellings with three or fewer habitable stories are excluded. The requirement follows the building, not the association: a condominium with a seven-story tower and several two-story villas must inspect the tower, not the villas.

The age trigger is measured from the date the certificate of occupancy was issued. A building must have its first milestone inspection by December 31 of the year in which it reaches 30 years of age, and then every ten years. A local enforcement agency may determine that local circumstances, including environmental conditions such as proximity to salt water, require the inspection at 25 years instead, so boards in coastal Collier, Lee and Charlotte County should check whether the county or municipality that enforces the building code has made that determination. Buildings that had already passed the trigger age when the law took effect were required to complete their first inspection by a fixed statutory deadline, with local building officials authorized to grant extensions in limited circumstances.

If a building's certificate of occupancy date cannot be determined, the local enforcement agency determines the date the requirement applies.

How the process starts

The local enforcement agency (the county or city building department) is required to notify the association when a building is due, and the association must complete the Phase 1 inspection within 180 days after receiving that notice. Boards should not wait for the letter. Engineers with milestone experience are booked months ahead in Southwest Florida, and an association that begins the search when the notice arrives may not be able to meet the deadline.

The association is responsible for arranging and paying for the inspection; the cost is a common expense. For a building still under developer control at turnover, the developer must provide a turnover inspection report, and the milestone obligation then continues with the association.

Phase 1: the visual inspection

In Phase 1 a licensed architect or engineer performs a visual examination of the habitable and non-habitable areas of the building, including the major structural components, and provides a qualitative assessment of the structural condition. If the inspector finds no signs of substantial structural deterioration, Phase 1 is the end of the process for that cycle, and the inspector says so in the report.

"Substantial structural deterioration" has a statutory definition: substantial structural distress that negatively affects the building's general structural condition and integrity. It does not include surface imperfections such as cracks, distortion, sagging, deflections, misalignment, signs of leakage or peeling of finishes, unless the inspector determines they are a sign of substantial structural deterioration. That definition is why most Phase 1 reports in well-maintained buildings close the cycle even when the report lists maintenance items.

Phase 2: when deterioration is found

If Phase 1 identifies substantial structural deterioration, a Phase 2 inspection is required. Phase 2 may involve destructive or nondestructive testing at the inspector's direction, and it must be as extensive or as limited as necessary to fully assess the areas of distress. The Phase 2 report identifies the deterioration, recommends repairs and any remedial or preventive measures, and states whether unsafe or dangerous conditions were observed and whether any areas require restricted access.

Phase 2 is where the money is. Concrete restoration, post-tension cable repair and waterproofing projects in coastal buildings routinely run into seven figures, and the report's repair recommendations become the scope of work the board must fund and complete.

What the association must do with the report

The inspector must submit a sealed report to the association and the local enforcement agency. The association must then:

Distribute a copy of the inspector-prepared summary to every unit owner (by mail, delivery or electronic transmission to consenting owners) within 45 days after receiving it, and post the summary conspicuously on the property.
Post the full report and the summary on the association's website or application if it is required to have one (associations of 25 or more units).
Keep the reports as official records for at least fifteen years and make them available for owner inspection.
Provide the summary to prospective purchasers as part of the resale disclosures under section 718.503, along with the association's most recent Structural Integrity Reserve Study.
Begin repairs for any substantial structural deterioration identified in a Phase 2 report within 365 days after receiving it. If the association has not begun repairs by then, the local enforcement agency may review and determine whether the building is unsafe.

Funding the repairs

Milestone repairs arrive at the same time as mandatory reserve funding under the SIRS, and the two are meant to work together: the visual inspection can be shared, and the repair scope informs the reserve schedule. Funding options include existing reserves for the same components, special assessments, association loans and lines of credit, and, under legislation enacted in 2025, limited flexibility to redirect reserve contributions toward inspection-required repairs with owner approval. Each option has statutory conditions. Boards should have counsel, the engineer and the accountant in the same meeting before adopting a funding plan, because the special assessment notice, the loan documents and the reserve schedule must all describe the same project.

Consequences of not complying

If an association fails to have the milestone inspection performed, the failure is, by statute, a breach of the officers' and directors' fiduciary relationship to the unit owners. The local enforcement agency may enforce the requirement, insurers frequently condition renewal on a completed inspection, and buyers' lenders ask for the report at closing. An association that cannot produce a compliant report faces a slower market for every unit in the building.

For community association managers: see The condominium received its milestone inspection report or SIRS: what happens next? in the Manager Resource Center.

Frequently Asked Questions About Milestone Inspections

Our building is 28 years old and two miles from the Gulf. When is our inspection due?

It depends on the local enforcement agency. The statute sets the trigger at 30 years, but the county or municipality that enforces the building code may determine that local circumstances, including proximity to salt water, require the inspection at 25 years. If your local government has made that determination, the inspection was due by December 31 of the year the building turned 25.

What is the difference between Phase 1 and Phase 2?

Phase 1 is a visual inspection by a licensed architect or engineer. If it finds no substantial structural deterioration, the cycle ends. Phase 2 is required only when Phase 1 finds such deterioration; it may include testing and produces a repair plan.

Do we have to send the whole report to the owners?

The statute requires the association to distribute the inspector-prepared summary to owners within 45 days and to post it. The full report is an official record that owners may inspect, and associations required to maintain a website must post it there.

How long do we have to make the repairs?

For substantial structural deterioration identified in a Phase 2 report, the association must begin repairs within 365 days after receiving the report. Boards should document the engineering, bidding and permitting steps so the record shows the project began within the period even if construction is still being scheduled.

Can we do the SIRS and the milestone inspection at the same time?

Yes, and most associations should. The engineer's visual inspection can serve both, the repair scope from the milestone inspection informs the reserve schedule in the SIRS, and one engagement is usually less expensive than two.

Who pays for the inspection?

The association. The inspection and any resulting repairs are common expenses, funded through the budget, reserves, special assessments or borrowing as the governing documents and statute permit.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes guides Southwest Florida condominium and cooperative boards through milestone inspections, the repair contracts that follow and the funding decisions they require. Call 239-594-7227 or learn more about our Construction and Budgeting and Financial Reporting practices.

Statutes and authorities referenced

§ 553.899, Fla. Stat. (mandatory structural inspections for condominium and cooperative buildings)
§ 718.112(2)(g) and § 718.301(4), Fla. Stat. (association duties; developer turnover inspection)
§ 718.111(12), Fla. Stat. (inspection reports as official records; website posting)
§ 718.503(2), Fla. Stat. (resale disclosure of the inspection summary)
Session laws: SB 4-D (2022), SB 154 (2023), HB 1021 (2024), HB 913 (2025)

About this article. This article is published by Hamilton Mikes, P.A. for general educational purposes. It is not legal advice, it is not a legal opinion, and it is not a substitute for advice from a lawyer who has reviewed your association's governing documents and the facts of your situation. Reading it, downloading it, or corresponding with the firm about it does not create an attorney-client relationship. No such relationship arises until the firm and the client have signed a written engagement agreement. Please do not send confidential or time-sensitive information to the firm until a conflicts check has been completed and an engagement is confirmed in writing; information sent before that point may not be treated as privileged.

Scope and currency. This article addresses Florida law as applied to Florida community associations, and the firm is licensed to practice in Florida only. Nothing here should be taken as a statement of the law of any other jurisdiction. Florida's community association statutes have been amended in every regular session since 2021, and subsection numbering has moved more than once in that period. Each article states the edition of the Florida Statutes it was written against. The law may have changed after that date, an appellate court may have construed a provision differently, and an administrative rule or a local ordinance may impose requirements this article does not address.

Your governing documents control. Much of what governs a Florida association is not in the statutes at all. Declarations, articles of incorporation, bylaws, rules, plats and recorded amendments differ from community to community, and on many questions they set the rule while the statute sets only a floor or a default. A procedure that is correct in one association may be a breach of the documents in the association next door. No general article can tell you which is which for your community.

Why general information is not advice. Legal questions are resolved by applying the law to particular facts as a judge, jury, arbitrator or hearing officer finds them. An outcome that appears clear in the abstract frequently turns on the documents, the chronology, the board's own prior conduct, and the procedural posture, none of which an article can anticipate. A lawyer supplies what information cannot: the judgment to identify which facts matter, the experience to know how a court or the Division is likely to treat them, the ability to choose among the courses of action actually available, and the advocacy to carry the association's position through negotiation, hearing or trial.

The standard of care, and the protection the statute attaches to counsel. A director of a Florida community association is held to the standard in section 617.0830, Florida Statutes: to act in good faith, in a manner the director reasonably believes to be in the best interests of the corporation, and to discharge the duties of the office with the care an ordinary prudent person in a like position would reasonably believe appropriate under similar circumstances. That standard is measured against the decision the board actually faced, on the record actually before it. The same statute supplies the protection that goes with the duty. Under section 617.0830(4) and (5)(b), a director who has no knowledge making reliance unwarranted is entitled to rely on information, opinions, reports and statements prepared or presented by legal counsel retained by the association as to matters the director reasonably believes are within counsel's professional competence. The Legislature has written the prudent course into the statute. A board that obtains advice on its own documents and its own facts, and acts on that advice, is standing on ground the statute expressly protects. Nothing on this website confers that protection. General information, however carefully prepared, is not advice on your declaration, your amendments, your board's history or your dispute, and a director who relies on it in place of counsel forgoes a statutory protection that was available for the asking.

Personal exposure is real. Service on an association board is usually uncompensated, but volunteer status is not itself immunity. Under section 617.0834, Florida Statutes, a director or an officer is not personally liable in monetary damages for a statement, vote, decision, or failure to act in that role unless two things are both true: the director or officer breached or failed to perform the duties of the office, and that breach was a violation of the criminal law, a transaction from which the director or officer derived an improper personal benefit, conscious disregard or willful misconduct in a proceeding brought by or in the right of the corporation, or recklessness or bad faith in a proceeding brought by anyone else. That protection turns on how the director acted, not on whether the director was paid. Chapters 718, 719 and 720 add consequences of their own, including removal from office, civil penalties assessed against the individual for certain willful and knowing violations, and in defined circumstances criminal liability. Whether any of that reaches a particular director depends entirely on the facts and on the director's conduct. The practical point is narrower and more useful: the decisions that generate this exposure — levying an assessment, enforcing a covenant, denying a transfer, withholding a record, entering a unit, terminating a contract, signing for construction work — are precisely the decisions on which general information is least adequate, and on which counsel costs least relative to what is at stake.

No guarantee; prior results. The firm makes no representation or warranty that the information in this article is complete, current or applicable to any particular matter, and disclaims liability to any person for any action taken or not taken in reliance on it. Any description of prior results does not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other matter; every case turns on its own facts, documents and record.

Do not act on this article alone. If your association faces a decision of consequence, obtain advice from a Florida-licensed attorney who has read your governing documents and the relevant record before the board votes, signs, sends or forecloses. Hamilton Mikes, P.A. represents community associations throughout Southwest Florida and can be reached at 239-594-7227.

Florida Milestone Inspections: Which Buildings, When, and What the Board Must Do With the Report