Florida condo law in September 2026 is the post-Surfside framework built between 2022 and 2025, and the 2026 legislative session left it essentially untouched. A condo building of three or more habitable stories must pass a milestone structural inspection at 30 years and every 10 years after, must have a structural integrity reserve study at least every 10 years, and can no longer let owners vote to waive or cut reserves for its structural components. Boca Raton’s own recertification program, a separate city requirement, adds a structural recertification at 25 years for condominiums within three miles of the coast. Resale buyers must receive the inspection summary and the reserve study and have seven days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, to cancel after receiving them. The practical result is higher monthly fees, more special assessments, stricter mortgage approvals, and a wider price gap between well-funded buildings and underfunded ones.

We are Steven, Elliot, and Wendy Koolik, and we have sold condominiums on Ocean Boulevard, along the Intracoastal, and in downtown Boca Raton through every version of these rules. Our practice leans toward sellers, but on both sides of the table the building’s paperwork now matters as much as the unit’s view. This guide goes deeper than our East Boca seller’s guide, which covers the resale document package in brief.

Where Florida Condo Law Stands in September 2026

The current rules came in four waves. Senate Bill 4-D, passed in a 2022 special session and effective May 26, 2022, created milestone inspections and structural integrity reserve studies and ended the waiver of structural reserves. Senate Bill 154 (2023) refined the inspection program, including the rule that phase two repairs begin within 365 days. House Bill 1021 (2024) expanded association duties, including a website requirement that reached 25-unit associations on January 1, 2026. House Bill 913, approved in June 2025 and effective July 1, 2025, extended deadlines, added funding options, and lengthened the resale cancellation window.

The 2026 session was a pause. We compared the 2025 and 2026 editions of the Florida Statutes for the milestone statute (553.899) and the budget, disclosure, and records statutes (718.112, 718.503, and 718.111). The milestone statute was not amended in 2026. The other three were touched only by Chapter 2026-14, the annual reviser’s bill, which renumbered cross-references, and by Chapter 2026-168, a nonprofit-corporation law that reenacted one paragraph of 718.111 without changing it. The framework below is the law in force today.

Milestone Inspections: The State’s 30-Year Rule and Boca Raton’s 25-Year Rule

A milestone inspection is a structural examination by a Florida-licensed architect or engineer of a building’s load-bearing elements and primary structural systems. It is not a building code review; its purpose is to confirm the structure is sound and identify any repair or replacement a structural component needs.

Phase one is visual. The inspector examines habitable and nonhabitable areas and the major structural components. If there are no signs of substantial structural deterioration, the inspection ends there. If there are, phase two follows, which may involve destructive or nondestructive testing and must recommend a repair program. Every report must state whether unsafe or dangerous conditions were observed and identify items needing further inspection. The association has 45 days to deliver the inspector-prepared summary to every owner, post it on the property, and publish the full report on its website if it is required to have one.

The Boca Raton layer

State law lets a local building department require the first inspection at 25 years where salt-water exposure justifies it. Boca Raton acted on its own authority. On August 24, 2021, the City Council adopted Ordinance No. 5589, creating the Building Recertification Inspection Program in Section 19-162 of the city code. It covers condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or more, or 50 feet or taller, at 30 years, and condominium and cooperative property within three miles of a coastline at 25 years. The city charges $500 per recertification and publishes its schedule for 2027 through 2031.

For the towers on Ocean Boulevard and along the Intracoastal, plan on the 25-year clock. For buildings farther west, whether the three-mile rule applies depends on distance from the coastline as the statute defines it, and the city’s Recertification Coordinator can confirm it for a specific address.

Our arithmetic from the statutory ages, for illustration. Confirm any building’s schedule with the association and the city.

Structural Integrity Reserve Studies and the End of Waived Reserves

The structural integrity reserve study, or SIRS, is the financial companion to the milestone inspection. The inspection asks whether the building is sound today; the study asks whether the association is saving enough to keep it that way. It is required at least every 10 years for every residential condominium building of three or more habitable stories, and it must be performed or verified by a licensed engineer or architect or a reserve specialist certified by the Community Associations Institute or the Association of Professional Reserve Analysts.

The study covers eight components: roof; structure, including load-bearing walls; fireproofing and fire protection; plumbing; electrical; waterproofing and exterior painting; windows and exterior doors; and any other item costing more than $25,000 (or the state’s inflation-adjusted figure) whose failure would harm the first seven. For each it states remaining useful life and replacement cost and sets a reserve funding plan, at minimum a baseline plan that keeps the reserve balance above zero every year.

The biggest change is the end of the waiver. Before Surfside, a majority of owners could vote each year to fund partial reserves or none. For any budget adopted on or after December 31, 2024, owners of an association required to have a study may not vote to provide no reserves or reduced reserves for those eight components, or spend those reserves on anything else. Owners may still waive reserves for other items.

After a milestone inspection, an association may delay a required study for up to two budget years to focus on repairs, and a milestone inspection from the past five years can stand in for the study’s visual portion. Directors must sign an affidavit that they received the study. The association then has 45 days to give every owner a copy or a notice that it is available, and 45 days to file a completion statement with the state, whose Division of Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes publishes submissions in a searchable SIRS reporting database. Entries are displayed exactly as submitted, so treat the database as a cross-check, not a substitute for the study.

What HB 913 Changed in 2025

House Bill 913 passed with final votes of 37-0 in the Senate and 112-0 in the House, became Chapter 2025-175, and took effect July 1, 2025. Beyond the new study deadline and the three-habitable-story scope, these provisions matter most to Boca Raton owners:

• Alternative funding. Owner-controlled associations may fund structural reserves through regular assessments, special assessments, lines of credit, or loans. A special assessment, line of credit, or loan requires a majority of the total voting interests, a line of credit or loan must cover any previously waived or unfunded reserves, and the details must appear in the annual financial statement buyers receive.
• Repair-first pause. For budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2028, an association that completed a milestone inspection within the previous two calendar years may, with a majority of all voting interests, pause or reduce reserve contributions for up to two consecutive budgets to pay for the recommended repairs, then must obtain a new study before resuming. Developer-controlled associations and those under owner control for less than a year are excluded.
• Higher threshold. An unlisted item needs its own reserve only above $25,000, indexed to inflation, up from $10,000.
• Conflict disclosure. Engineers, architects, and contractors bidding on an inspection or study must disclose in writing whether they intend to bid on the repair work.
• Insurance. The replacement cost used to set the association’s coverage must be determined at least once every three years.
• Reporting. Associations had to open an online account with the state by October 1, 2025 and report annually, including building age and assessments with their purpose.
• Buyer protection. The resale cancellation window grew from three days to seven.

What It Means in Practice: Assessments, Fees, and Timing

The law did not create the cost of maintaining an aging coastal tower. It made the cost visible and removed the option to defer it.

Higher regular assessments come first. Once structural reserves cannot be waived, the reserve line follows the study’s funding plan, and the study must be updated before a budget that departs from it. Buildings that waived reserves for years see the largest step up.

Special assessments follow when an inspection or study identifies work the reserves cannot cover in time. Any meeting where assessments will be considered must say so in the notice and state the estimated cost and purpose, and the proposed budget must reach owners 14 days before the budget meeting. Those notices and the minutes are where a buyer finds an assessment discussed but not yet approved.

Timing matters because Florida makes a new owner jointly and severally liable with the previous owner for assessments due before the transfer of title. That is why the estoppel certificate is the key number at closing. The association must issue it within 10 business days, itemizing every assessment owed and every one scheduled to come due during its 30-day effective period (35 days if mailed).

The Palm Beach County Condo Market Behind the Law

More than half of county condo buyers paid cash, which blunts the financing issues below. In a balanced market, the building with a clean milestone report, a funded study, and no pending assessment is the one that moves first.

Reading the Resale Package: What a Buyer Receives Under 718.503

A resale buyer is entitled, at the seller’s expense, to current copies of eight documents: the declaration of condominium; the articles of incorporation; the bylaws and rules; the annual financial statement and annual budget; the inspector-prepared milestone summary, if the building has one; the most recent structural integrity reserve study, or a statement that none has been completed; the turnover inspection report for any turnover inspection on or after July 1, 2023; and the state’s Frequently Asked Questions and Answers sheet. The buyer is also entitled to the state’s governance form.

The contract must give the buyer seven days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, after the later of signing and receiving the documents to cancel in writing, and the buyer may extend closing by up to seven such days. Any waiver is void, and the right ends at closing. If the association was required to complete a milestone inspection, turnover report, or reserve study and has not, the contract must say so conspicuously. A nonconforming contract is voidable by the buyer before closing. Here is how we read the package.

The milestone summary

Look first for the phase. Phase one with no substantial structural deterioration is the clean result. Phase two means the engineer found deterioration; find the repair program, whether it is contracted and permitted, and remember that repairs must begin within 365 days. Then read the statement on unsafe or dangerous conditions and the items flagged for further inspection.

The reserve study

Compare the study’s recommended annual contribution with the reserve line in the budget. If the budget is lower, ask why: the association may have used the HB 913 repair-first pause, or it may be out of compliance. Then look at components with short remaining lives, especially roofing, waterproofing, windows, and concrete, and the gap between their replacement cost and the reserve balance. That gap is the future assessment, loan, or fee increase.

What the package leaves out

The statute does not hand you the board minutes, the full milestone report, or the estoppel. Associations with 25 or more units must post official records, including the full milestone report, on a website or app. The last 12 months of minutes are where a proposed assessment appears before it is voted.

Financing: How Lenders Read the Building

A conventional condo loan that a lender intends to sell to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac must meet their project standards, and those standards now decide whether many buildings can be financed at all. The buyer’s credit is half the approval; the building is the other half.

Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide, dated August 5, 2026, treats a project in need of critical repairs as ineligible. Critical repairs include deficiencies that could contribute to a critical system failure within a year; water intrusion or damaging leaks; advanced physical deterioration; failing a mandatory structural inspection; and any unfunded repair over $10,000 per unit due within 12 months. Sea walls, balconies, waterproofing, and parking structures are among the listed examples. Routine, preventive work is not critical. Lenders must review structural inspections from the past three years and, for each special assessment, its purpose, approval date, amount, remaining balance, and payoff date. A special assessment tied to an unremediated critical repair makes the building ineligible.

Under Fannie Mae’s Full Review, the budget must fund replacement reserves of at least 10 percent, and no more than 15 percent of units may be 60 or more days delinquent on dues or on any special assessment. A reserve study can substitute for the 10 percent test only if the project’s funded reserves meet or exceed the study’s recommendations, and the guide says the baseline method cannot be used to waive the requirement. Fannie Mae’s March 2026 lender letter tightens this to the study’s highest recommended allocation. Because baseline funding is exactly the minimum Florida’s study requires, a building can comply with Florida law and still fall short of Fannie Mae.

Fannie Mae’s March 2026 lender letter retired Limited Review, the lighter path for established buildings, for loan applications dated on or after August 3, 2026, and raises the reserve minimum from 10 to 15 percent of budgeted assessment income for applications dated on or after January 4, 2027. Freddie Mac applies a parallel critical-repair rule. FHA is a minor factor here: MIAMI Realtors reported in September 2026 that only 21 of 2,397 condominium buildings in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties are FHA-approved.

Buyers should have the lender review the building at the start. Sellers should know before listing whether the building can be financed, because one that cannot sells only to cash buyers, at a price that reflects it.

Insurance: What the Association Covers and What You Do

The association must carry adequate property insurance, and since HB 913 the replacement cost behind that coverage must be determined at least once every three years. The owner insures interior finishes, fixtures, appliances, cabinets, and window treatments serving only that unit, under a policy that must conform to Florida Statute 627.714. That statute requires at least $2,000 of loss assessment coverage, but only for assessments resulting from a direct loss of a type the owner’s policy covers, such as storm damage to the common elements. In our reading, an assessment to fund milestone repairs or rebuild reserves is not that kind of loss, so do not assume your policy will pay it. And when a named storm threatens Florida, carriers stop binding new policies, which can delay a financed closing.

For Sellers: Preparing and Pricing a Unit With a Pending Assessment

An assessment on the horizon does not make a unit unsellable. An undisclosed or misunderstood one makes it hard to close.

Gather the documents at listing. The buyer’s seven-day clock starts only when the last required document arrives, and buyers read slowly in a building with a phase two report and a loan. Order the estoppel, the full 718.503 package, the governance form, and 12 months of minutes before the first showing.

Decide who pays before offers arrive. The standard Florida Realtors and Florida Bar Condominium Rider is CR-7, revised June 2025. It treats an assessment as levied when it is approved as required for enforcement. For assessments levied by the contract date, and separately for those levied before closing, the parties check whether buyer or seller pays in full at or before closing; if the box is blank, the seller pays. If the association lets a buyer assume installments, the seller pays those due on or before closing, and the parties choose who pays the rest, with the buyer paying if left blank. The seller must also list assessments levied or discussed at a board meeting in the prior 12 months. Leaving boxes blank is a decision.

Price the building, then the unit. A unit in a building with a large approved assessment is not worth the same as an identical unit in a building that already paid for its restoration, and the estoppel and minutes will show the difference. The clean approaches are to credit the assessment, to price net of it and let the buyer assume it, or to pay it at closing and market the unit as paid. Cash buyers will often assume an assessment for a discount; financed buyers may not be able to close until the repair is complete.

New Construction or an Older Building?

Often the strongest value is an established building that has completed its milestone repairs and rebuilt its reserves: prior owners absorbed the cost, and the buyer gets a documented, recently repaired structure at a resale price. The weakest is a building that has its phase one report, owes a phase two, and has not voted on funding. Our guide to new construction in Boca Raton covers the same tradeoff for houses.

The Buyer’s Due-Diligence Checklist

Our home-buying checklist covers the rest of the transaction, and our guide to Boca Raton property taxes and the homestead exemption explains why the unit’s tax bill changes after you buy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Statutory requirements are drawn from the 2026 Florida Statutes, Florida Senate bill records, the City of Boca Raton, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, and Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide, and market figures from the sources cited above, as of September 28, 2026. This article is a plain-English orientation and is not legal advice; confirm questions about a specific contract, association, or building with a Florida attorney, lending questions with your lender, and insurance questions with a licensed agent.