December 15, 2025

Florida enacted new condominium inspection requirements after the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside that tragically killed 98 people and prompted statewide structural-safety reforms. The post-Surfside statutes now require milestone structural inspections for residential condominium and cooperative buildings that are three stories or higher. If a building reached 30 years of age before July 1, 2022, its initial milestone inspection must be performed before December 31, 2024, and if it reaches 30 years of age on or after July 1, 2022, but before December 31, 2024, its initial milestone inspection must be performed before December 31, 2025.

Local amendments show that certain Florida jurisdictions apply stricter milestone-inspection timelines in coastal areas. For example, a Palm Beach County building-code amendment that requires condominium and cooperative buildings within three (3) miles of the coastline to undergo their first milestone inspection at twenty-five (25) years of age rather than thirty (30). A January 14, 2025 staff report to the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners stated that 553 buildings in unincorporated Palm Beach County were required to provide a Phase 1 milestone inspection by December 31, 2024 and that approximately 124 of those buildings had not yet complied as of January 2, 2025. A 2025 analysis of Duval County’s public records reported that only 29 milestone inspection reports had been filed for an estimated 167 qualifying properties. Taken together, these county-level data points indicate that many older condominium buildings in Florida are still progressing toward full compliance with the current inspection requirements.

As associations complete milestone inspections and initiate required structural work, borrowers in affected condominium buildings may encounter increased association dues or special assessments tied to repair financing, which are reflected in public association budgets and lien filings rather than statewide reporting. Servicers with collateral concentration in Florida’s older coastal condominiums may therefore see a rise in borrower hardship submissions related to association-imposed charges, along with increased requests for verification of condominium financials during loss-mitigation reviews. These developing operational indicators show how the structural-safety deadlines, though directed at associations, may also affect individual borrowers as project-level repair costs are incorporated into monthly assessments and building budgets.