Committee hears engineers, county officials on condo milestone inspections, SIRS and funding strains

TALLAHASSEE — The Regulated Industries Committee heard a panel of engineers, accountants, attorneys and county officials on milestone building inspections and structural integrity reserve study (SIRS) requirements for condominium associations, a package of reforms lawmakers adopted after the Surfside collapse.

Sen. Kathleen Bradley, chair of the Regulated Industries Committee, opened the panel by saying the inspections and SIRS were intended to improve building safety and the financial health of associations statewide after Surfside exposed long‑standing deferred maintenance issues. "We hear the concerns of condo owners across the state. We recognize the need to smooth the transition to building safety and financial health," Bradley said.

Panelists described recurring structural problems discovered during milestone inspections, practical timelines for completing required work and gaps in how SIRS are prepared and used in budgets. Tara Stone, founder of Stone Building Solutions, told the committee that inspectors are finding significant deterioration on low‑rise buildings as well as on taller towers, and that multi‑building communities complicate which structures must be included in a study. "We're finding the same damage on 2 story buildings that we are in 4," Stone said, describing brick veneer failures, corroded columns and balcony deterioration discovered statewide.

Dr. Anna Barbosa, administrative director for the Broward County Board of Rules and Appeals, described long experience with local recertification programs: Miami‑Dade has had building recertification since the 1970s and Broward adopted a program in 2005. She told senators that Miami‑Dade and Broward moved to 25‑year initial inspections with subsequent 10‑year cycles and that local officials give owners time to complete work but must enforce safety. She summarized the statewide implementation steps she uses: building departments have 90 days to notify owners after an appraisal, owners have 90 days to complete the first visual milestone report and 180 days to start substantial repairs after the second report, with permitting time added as needed.

Engineers and reserve professionals pressed that the state law's timing and financial language have created confusion for associations and owners. Matt Queasly, a professional engineer and reserve specialist with Reserve Advisors, said the statute uses the term "fully funded" without defining it and that industry standards offer multiple funding goals (full funding, threshold funding, baseline funding). "The cash inflows have to be sufficient for the cash outflows," Queasly said, and he urged the Legislature to clarify that the minimum statutory requirement is baseline funding (keeping reserves from going negative) or to adopt clear language such as "adequate funding as determined by the reserve professional." He added that different funding goals can produce very different reserve recommendations.

Several senators and panelists raised conflicts of interest and market behavior since the new requirements took effect. Senator Fine described a constituent whose association received a SIRS that led to a large assessment and where the consultant who prepared the study then recommended a contractor he owned. Queasly acknowledged a rapid expansion in firms offering SIRS since 2021 and warned of "bad actors" who might seek follow‑on work. Chair Bradley said the law deliberately excluded contractors from performing milestone inspections to limit incentives but called the example problematic: "I don't like that relationship," she said of a single firm doing both the inspection and offering to serve as general contractor.

Panelists also described enforcement and access problems. Dr. Barbosa said many associations were historically underfunded even where local recertification programs existed and that owners sometimes fail to provide milestone and SIRS reports to buyers. The committee noted recent statutory changes expanding Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) authority, requiring websites for associations with 25 or more units, and adding criminal penalties for some forms of election fraud and kickbacks.

Market impacts and lender behavior were discussed. Jonathan Alfonso, Florida Realtors state director, said condominium transactions and inventory in some markets remained near 2019 levels but that headlines and large assessments have chilled buyer confidence in older product. He recommended clearer, easy‑to‑read disclosures for prospective buyers and suggested standardized executive summaries or a four‑corner form so purchasers and lenders can quickly see safety and near‑term costs.

Committee members and panelists suggested policy options to ease the transition while preserving safety: clarify the funding standard (baseline/adequate funding), require SIRS to separate mandatory structural items from discretionary or cosmetic items, promulgate a concise statewide template or executive summary for disclosures, tighten professional controls to prevent conflicts of interest, and give associations more flexibility and documented "good faith" relief when qualified inspectors are scarce.

The panel repeatedly stressed that milestone inspections are intended to identify imminent safety issues but not to require buildings be upgraded to current code. "A milestone inspection is ... a physical assessment of the building, and making sure that it's repaired to be safe," Chair Bradley said.

Senators closed the session saying they would continue the topic in future panels and pursue statutory and rule changes to address the technical, capacity and market issues raised.