Structural Integrity Reserve Study Support in Miami & South Florida

A structural integrity reserve study is a Florida-mandated study of your building's reserve funds: a licensed professional visually inspects the structural components of the condominium property, estimates the remaining useful life and replacement costs of each item, and produces a funding schedule so the association sets aside enough money, every year, to repair or replace them on time. In short, it is financial planning with an engineering backbone — a plan for building safety, not just a budget line.

The requirement came out of the Surfside condominium collapse in 2021, which exposed how years of deferred upkeep and underfunded reserves put lives at risk. Florida's legislature responded with Senate Bill 4-D in 2022, refined it with SB 154 in 2023 (which clarified who may perform the studies and how inspections are triggered), and updated it again with HB 913 in 2025. Together they rewrote the Florida Statutes on reserves — condominium associations under Fla. Stat. 718.112(2)(g) and cooperative associations under §719.106 — ending the era when boards could routinely waive reserves for structural items.

The SIRS requirements apply to every residential condominium or cooperative building in Florida that is three habitable stories or higher — associations that existed on or before July 1, 2022, and every one created since. Height is measured by habitable stories, so most of the mid-rise and high-rise condominium buildings along the Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach coastline qualify. Buildings under three stories are exempt, and commercial-only buildings fall under different rules such as the 40-year recertification. If you sit on a board, this is not optional homework: directors have a fiduciary duty to comply, and unit owners, buyers, and lenders can now look up your association in the state's public database.

The statute names the components the study must address: the roof; the structure — 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; and any other item whose deferred maintenance or replacement cost exceeds $25,000 and affects the building's structural integrity (a threshold adjusted for inflation — many older guides still cite the original $10,000 figure). For each, the report states condition, remaining useful life, and estimated replacement cost, then converts those numbers into recommended annual reserve contributions.

The deadline. Covered associations must have completed their initial study by December 31, 2025 (HB 913 extended the original 2024 date). Associations required to complete a milestone inspection on or before December 31, 2026 may complete the SIRS in conjunction with it — with both due by December 31, 2026. After the first study, a new one is required every 10 years.

Who can perform it. The visual inspection portion must be done by a licensed engineer, an architect, or a certified reserve specialist (Community Associations Institute) or professional reserve analyst (Association of Professional Reserve Analysts, APRA). HB 913 also added a conflict-of-interest disclosure rule for providers. New Age does not perform the study itself — by design. We execute the repairs, so your engineer's findings stay independent.

The funding rules. For budgets adopted on or after January 1, 2025, associations can no longer waive or reduce reserves for SIRS items below what the study recommends (budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2024 could still waive, but must fund per the study starting January 1, 2026). HB 913 gave boards practical flexibility: a baseline funding plan (reserves may fluctuate but never reach zero), a two-budget-year pause after a milestone inspection so repair costs are known before the numbers lock in, and the option — approved by a majority of the association's total voting interests — to meet funding requirements with a loan or line of credit instead of cash contributions alone.

Reporting. Completed studies must be reported to the DBPR (Department of Business and Professional Regulation) within 45 days, and the association's status is publicly visible in the SIRS Reporting Database. Associations were also required to open a DBPR online account by October 1, 2025 — and if a proposed budget's reserve funding no longer aligns with the most recent study, the association must obtain an updated SIRS before adopting it.

Miss the deadline and the board faces real exposure: breach of fiduciary duty claims, insurance and lending complications, and buyers who walk when the SIRS report is missing from the document package.

They're related but different obligations. The milestone inspection is an engineering inspection of structural safety — what's wrong today. The structural integrity reserve study is a financial plan: what it will cost to keep the building sound over the next decades. And the 40-year recertification is Miami-Dade and Broward's local building-code recertification of structural and electrical systems. The state programs feed each other — a completed inspection can pause the SIRS funding timeline for two budget years, and an association required to complete a milestone inspection by the end of 2026 may run its SIRS in conjunction with it, with both due by December 31, 2026.

The repairs each one identifies often overlap, which is exactly why a single contractor helps. If your building is coming up on any of these, our guide to milestone inspections in Florida and our 40-year recertification service explain the timelines in detail.

Once your study is in hand, we review the findings with your board and engineer, translate the identified components into a prioritized, executable scope, and phase the work to match how your reserves are funded — addressing the most critical structural and waterproofing components first. We perform the concrete, structural, and waterproofing repairs ourselves and document every phase.

For a board, the value is one accountable contractor who understands the SIRS process and turns a compliance document into a maintained, funded, code-ready building — with a record for the next study cycle.