After the Surfside collapse in 2021, Florida rewrote its condo-safety laws. Two filings now sit at the center of every older building's paper trail: the milestone inspection and the SIRS. Agents do not need to read the statutes. You need to know what each filing is, who must file it, and how to check a building before you list it, show it, or write on it.
The milestone inspection, in one paragraph
A milestone inspection is a structural inspection of the building itself, done by a licensed engineer or architect. It applies to condo and co-op buildings that are three stories or taller and have reached 30 years of age, with follow-ups every ten years after that. Phase one is a visual inspection. If the engineer finds signs of substantial structural deterioration, a deeper phase two follows. The point is simple: old buildings must be looked at by someone qualified, on a schedule, and the results go on file.
The SIRS, in one paragraph
SIRS stands for Structural Integrity Reserve Study. It is a study of the building's structural components — roof, load-bearing walls, foundation, plumbing, electrical, and the rest — that says what each will cost to repair or replace and when. Most associations for buildings three stories or taller must have one, and the law now expects reserves for those items to be funded, which changed budgets and dues across the state. A building without a SIRS on file is a building where nobody has priced the structure's future in writing.
Why lenders read these filings
Underwriters use these filings as a fast proxy for the two things they fear in a condo file: hidden structural work and underfunded reserves. A missing milestone inspection on a 45-year-old tower, or no SIRS anywhere in the state database, tells a lender the building's biggest costs are unmeasured. Some will price around that. Many will pass. The same filings also drive special assessments, because a study that finds real work to do usually arrives with a bill.
The part agents miss: it is all public
Florida required the inspections, and it also required associations to report them to the state. The state publishes the results. The DBPR keeps the condo register itself, a building-report database for the milestone regime, and a SIRS reporting database. Since October 2025, associations must confirm their SIRS filings through mandatory online accounts, so the dataset gets more complete by law, not by luck.
Three things worth checking on any building, all from public records:
- State filing status. Every condo project has a status on the register. A secondary status of Delinquent means an obligation to the state is past due. It is the cheapest early warning there is.
- Age and height. If the building is three stories or taller and 30 years old or older, the milestone regime applies to it. Recorded date is on the register, so the math takes ten seconds.
- SIRS presence. Is there a study in the state database at all, and when was it filed?
What to do with this as an agent
Before a listing appointment, check the building and bring what you find. Sellers respect an agent who knows the building's paper before walking in, and a problem raised early is a pricing conversation instead of a dead deal later. Before showing or writing an offer, do the same for your buyer. None of this replaces the association's own documents. It tells you which questions to ask, and it tells you early.
One warning about honesty: a building with thin filings is not automatically a bad building, and no public record tells you whether a specific lender will approve a specific loan. Treat the filings as what they are. They are the state's paper trail, dated and sourced, and they move before deals do. The buildings you work are filing new paper all year. The agents who hear about it first are the ones watching.