Florida SIRS compliance now has a hard deadline: condos bundling a milestone inspection and a Structural Integrity Reserve Study together must finish by December 31st, 2026. Florida condos can no longer put off doing their first SIRS, as you risk both a $5,000 fine and another Surfside tragedy.
This blog will look at how to be compliant with Florida SIRS requirements before the December 31st deadline and how boards ensure they’re managing the documentation and decisions that follow.
What Is a Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS)?
In Chapter 718 of the Florida Statutes, it mandates obligatory structural integrity reserve studies for buildings with three or more habitable stories. This inspection covers:
- Roof
- Structural systems
- Fireproofing and fire protection
- Plumbing
- Electrical systems
- Waterproofing and exterior painting
- Windows and exterior doors
In 2025, after the Surfside Tragedy, House Bill 913 made a massive change to this law. It added that condominiums must have a reserve fund for all items over whose replacement or deferred maintenance cost exceeds $25,000, if this item could affect safety or structural integrity. Associations are also forbidden from waiving or reducing funding for all SIRS components.
These inspections are especially important in Florida due to the continuous humidity, salty air, intense UV, heavy rain, and hurricane-force winds all put pressure on concrete buildings. These conditions increase chloride-induced rebar corrosion, carbonation, and moisture intrusion.
Florida SIRS vs. Milestone Inspection: What’s The Difference?
| SIRS | Milestone Inspection | |
| Focus: | Focuses on reserve funding for structural components | Focuses on the structural condition of the building |
| Aim: | Determines recommended reserve funding | Identifies structural deficiencies |
| Done by: | Prepared by qualified professionals (Licensed engineer or architect with reserve specialist) | Identifies structural deficiencies |
| Output: | Creates a long-term financial planning document | Creates a structural inspection report |
| Recurrence: | Every 10 years (1st done by 12/31/26 if bundled with the milestone inspection) | Every 10 years after the first one. The 1st one must be done 30 years after the condo was built inland and 25 years if you’re within 3 miles of the coast. |
Florida SIRS Deadlines Condo Boards Need to Know
We’ve mentioned the key deadline: condos who had a milestone inspection due were allowed to wait up until December 31st, 2026, and bundle Florida SIRS with it, saving between 15-25%. This is the final date for you to be compliant with the Florida SIRS law, and it’s an extension of the initial deadline of December 31st, 2025 for all condominiums existing before July 1st, 2022.
What Happens After Your SIRS Is Complete?
Now that we’ve examined what Florida SIRS is, let’s pivot to examine what happens after you complete it. As this inspection isn’t the end of the board’s responsibility. In fact, it generates a new set of documents, decisions and communication that the association will now need to manage.
That’s because the board’s must now:
- Sign an affidavit affirming they’ve received their Florida SIRS report,
- Share the full SIRS report with owners,
- Summarize the findings in the annual budget,
- Submit whether a SIRS has been completed, the study date, and reserve funding status to the DBPR.
Store Your SIRS and Inspection Documents
Both your SIRS and milestone inspection reports must be shared with owners. For milestone inspections, the law states that the summary must be shared with owners within 45 days by mail, personal delivery, or email. And if your condominium has 150+ units, your SIRS must be stored on your password-protected website or mobile app.
To help you organize your SIRS, inspections, reserve information, and engineering documents, Vinteum provides document storage for all of our plans (Including our free one!) You can create folders to be shared with all residents, and others with confidential information just for the board.
With an extra click, you also inform residents that a new document has been added, increasing efficiency and transparency.
Keep a Record of Compliance
Vinteum can also help your board maintain the documentation and records that demonstrate how compliance-related information was handled.
By storing your documents on an encrypted, password-protected portal makes your documents more secure rather than on someone’s personal email or linked to someone’s document storage system. Even if you’re not required to by law, keeping documents on a shared system linked to your association boosts security, responsibility, and avoids any issues with individual board members or association managers.
With Vinteum, all of your key documents, including budgets, inspections, board meetings, and other records are stored safely in a centralized location, so that you can easily see document history and document versions.
Communicate Florida SIRS Changes to Homeowners
Florida SIRS has provoked some difficult conversations around funding, condominium fees, and budget changes. Vinteum supports associations to make communication smoother and more transparent. Our system sends emails, text messages, and even automated calls to ensure that you both keep residents informed and maintain a record of these communications. This is especially useful when you have a lot of snowbirds or residents that may travel or work long hours and can’t join board meetings regularly.
It’s up to the board to ensure that residents are made aware of the new changes to the law, how it impacts them, and what the board is doing. Vinteum makes that simpler.
SIRS Changes How Condo Boards Approach Reserve Funding
As we mentioned above, for components that could affect safety or structural integrity and cost over $25,000, boards are not allowed to waive or reduce funding. This also places strain on the association to increase fees to ensure that everything is covered. Residents often find these increases stressful, increasing the need for transparent communication and record-keeping.
Your budget vote needs a clear record
These records need to include board meeting records. That means that the agenda needs to be shared in advance, quorum must be met, and afterwards the minutes must be shared.
If residents were unable to attend, they still need to know what was presented and discussed, the votes that took place and the results of those votes. These records are also important in case there’s any challenge or audit in the future.
Vinteum offers encrypted virtual meetings that help you increase quorum by simplifying joining. And it automatically records and provides a transcript of the meeting to simplify record keeping. These are saved to Vinteum’s document feature, so you keep everything in one place without extra works.
We also provide a survey feature that can be used in online meetings or independently, to gauge how residents are feeling and get their opinions on issues affecting your association, such as SIRS.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who has to complete a Florida SIRS?
Any condominium or cooperative building of three or more habitable stories falls under Florida’s SIRS requirement, regardless of when it was built. Two exceptions worth knowing: a building with two habitable stories sitting over a non-habitable parking level doesn’t count toward the threshold, and four-family dwellings with three or fewer habitable stories are exempt outright. HOAs governed by Chapter 720, rather than the condo statute, aren’t subject to SIRS at all, though they still owe their members a standard reserve study.
How much does a Florida SIRS cost?
Most Florida SIRS reports run between $5,000 and $15,000, though larger or more complex buildings can push past that range. Pricing depends on building size, age, and how many structural systems the engineer has to evaluate. What tends to catch boards off guard isn’t the engineering fee itself, it’s that the fee is separate from the reserve contributions the study then requires the association to start collecting. Getting bids from more than one qualified firm before committing is worth the extra week it takes.
What happens if a condo misses the Florida SIRS deadline?
Missing the deadline exposes the association to a $5,000 fine, but that’s often the smaller problem. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now flag buildings with failed or missing SIRS reports as “non-warrantable,” which blocks conventional financing for anyone trying to buy or refinance a unit until the study is completed and reserves are funded. That risk tends to move boards faster than the fine ever does.
Who is qualified to prepare a Florida SIRS?
A licensed engineer or architect has to prepare the study, but licensure alone doesn’t guarantee the right fit. The preparer needs actual reserve-study experience, since the job is translating structural findings into funding line items the board can act on, not just flagging deficiencies. Boards do better asking firms directly how many SIRS reports they’ve completed rather than assuming any structural engineer can do the work.
How Vinteum Helps Condo Boards Manage SIRS-Related Compliance
Vinteum helps you manage the records, communication and decisions surrounding SIRS compliance.
We ensure that you:
Keep critical documents organized:
Store SIRS reports, milestone inspection documents and other association records in one centralized location.
Keep residents informed:
Send notices and communicate budget, reserve and inspection-related updates to homeowners.
Document board decisions:
Use voting tools and online meetings to create a clear record of board decisions and approvals.
Keep an accessible compliance trail:
Maintain the records your board may need to reference later instead of relying on scattered emails, files and paper documents.
Don’t Let SIRS Compliance Become a Documentation Problem
Your association may already have completed the hardest part: commissioning the right professionals and completing the required studies. And if you haven’t, make sure that you organize your milestone inspection and Florida SIRS by December 31st! After that, the challenge is managing everything that comes next.
From storing reports to communicating with residents and documenting budget decisions, Vinteum gives Florida condo boards one place to manage the administrative work surrounding Florida SIRS compliance.
Book your free demo to see how Vinteum can help your board organize documents, communicate with residents and keep a clear record of important decisions.
