6 Costs Florida Condo Owners Get Hit With After a Milestone Inspection

One Ormond Beach condo association mailed its owners a bill in 2024 with a number attached: More than $100,000 apiece, according to News 6 in Orlando.

A milestone inspection started the chain that got them there.

The inspection itself was the cheap part.

These are the costs Florida condo owners get hit with after a milestone inspection.

Note: This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Florida’s milestone inspection and reserve requirements are subject to change, so confirm the current details with your county building department or Florida’s Division of Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes.

1. Phase 1 Bill

Florida’s milestone inspection law puts the first invoice on a condo association’s desk before anyone talks about repairs.

Any condominium or cooperative building with three or more habitable stories has to hire a licensed engineer or architect once it turns 30 years old.

Buildings near the coast can face that same inspection at 25, when the local government requires it.

That’s the coastal exception.

That first phase is a visual, walk-the-building assessment, and the association pays for it, not the state.

Engineering firms that perform Phase 1 work often price it from several thousand dollars to the low tens of thousands, depending on the building’s size and age.

2. Phase 2 Testing Costs

Phase 2 testing under Florida’s milestone inspection law often costs as much as Phase 1 or more.

The association owes it once a Phase 1 report finds substantial structural deterioration.

Florida then gives the association 180 days to drill, core, or otherwise test the structure to measure the damage.

Vendors who perform both phases routinely quote a combined bill in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Nobody wants Phase 2.

3. SIRS Bill

A milestone inspection isn’t the only structural bill Florida sends a condo association.

The same buildings also have to pay for a Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS).

SIRS evaluates the roof, structural systems, plumbing, electrical systems, waterproofing, windows, and other big-ticket components.

Reserve-study firms report SIRS costs commonly run from a few thousand dollars for a small building to well over $20,000 for a large one.

4. Special Assessment

Condo owners feel a milestone inspection hardest once the special assessment notice arrives.

A special assessment is a one-time bill a board levies outside the regular budget, usually because the reserve fund can’t cover what a milestone inspection or SIRS turned up.

State law gives the association 365 days to start repairs once it receives the milestone inspection’s Phase 2 report, which often isn’t enough time to save up through regular dues.

Residents of one Ormond Beach association, SurfSide Club South, saw a bill that topped $100,000 a unit after its 2024 milestone inspection, according to a local Orlando TV station.

That’s an extreme case, but boards across the state are billing owners anywhere from a few thousand dollars to well past six figures once the repair bill arrives.

Few reserve funds were ready.

5. Higher Insurance Premiums

A milestone inspection report follows a Florida condo association straight into its next insurance renewal.

Insurers underwrite a condo master policy on the same structural condition and reserve funding that a milestone inspection and SIRS expose.

A building with unresolved deterioration can face a steep premium, or no coverage at all.

A Florida International University analysis found statewide condo insurance premiums rose more than 50% over four years, reaching nearly $2,000 on average by the end of 2024.

Both storm risk and the state’s newer structural rules feed into that increase.

A clean inspection report doesn’t erase that trend, but a bad one can push a single building’s premium well above its neighbors’.

6. Financing Freeze

A milestone inspection can cost a Florida condo owner money even when they aren’t the one paying a contractor.

Fannie Mae keeps a confidential list of condo buildings it considers too risky to back with a conventional loan.

Buildings with deferred structural repairs or thin reserves are common entries.

As of April 2025, 696 buildings in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties were on that list, part of 1,438 statewide.

A seller in a flagged building can’t offer conventional financing to a buyer at all.

That leaves cash offers or a portfolio loan, and mortgage lenders typically price those loans 0.5 to 1.5 percentage points above a conventional rate.

Cash buyers know it, too.

The Shifting SIRS Deadlines

The milestone inspection and SIRS deadlines haven't stayed still since lawmakers first wrote them.

The original SIRS cutoff was Dec. 31, 2024, then the Legislature pushed it to Dec. 31, 2025 under House Bill 913 in 2025.

The deadlines moved twice.

An association whose milestone inspection comes due by Dec. 31, 2026 can now complete both requirements on that single date instead of juggling two.