Buying a Condo in Florida After Surfside (2026) The Post-Surfside Laws in Plain English — and How to Vet a Building Before You Buy

Florida condos look like a bargain right now — and sometimes they are. Prices have softened, inventory is high, and sellers are negotiating.

But here's what the low price can hide: a five-figure special assessment waiting around the corner.

After the 2021 Surfside collapse, Florida overhauled its condo safety laws. Buildings now have to be inspected and properly funded — and the ones that spent decades under-saving are catching up fast, often by billing their owners. Buy the wrong unit and that bill becomes yours.

The good news? You can spot a risky building before you buy. I'll explain the post-Surfside laws in plain English, show you exactly which documents to review, warn you about the financing trap most buyers never see coming, and give you a simple way to budget for a Florida condo with confidence. You can keep the Florida Mortgage Calculator open to plug in HOA dues as we go.

Why Florida Condos Suddenly Got Risky (and Cheaper)

In June 2021, the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside collapsed, killing 98 people. Investigations pointed to long-deferred structural maintenance and years of underfunded reserves.

Florida's response was a series of laws — SB 4-D (2022), SB 154 (2024), HB 1021 (2024), and HB 913 (2025) — that force older condo buildings to do two things they'd long avoided: get inspected and fully fund their reserves.

That's good for safety. But it's expensive. Decades of skipped savings and deferred repairs are now coming due all at once — and associations pay for it through higher monthly dues and one-time special assessments.

This is a big reason the condo market softened. Buyers got nervous, sellers in troubled buildings got motivated, and prices came down. So the "deal" you're seeing may be a genuinely fine building priced to move — or a building with a giant repair bill it hasn't sent out yet. Your job is to tell the difference.

The 3 Laws Every Florida Condo Buyer Must Understand

You don't need to be a lawyer. You just need to understand three things.

1. The Milestone Inspection

A Milestone inspection is a structural safety check by a licensed engineer or architect.

• Which buildings: condo and co-op buildings that are three habitable stories or more.
• When: the first inspection is due by the end of the year the building turns 30 years old. Local officials may require it earlier — around 25 years — for buildings close to salt water or where local conditions warrant. After that, every 10 years.
• Why it matters to you: if the inspector finds substantial structural deterioration, the building must make repairs — and those repairs get funded by owners. The oldest buildings were required to complete this by December 31, 2024, and the next tier by December 31, 2025. Both deadlines have passed, so a compliant building should be able to show you its report.

(Note: the older "25 years if within 3 miles of the coast" wording was superseded — earlier timing is now a local-option call based on proximity to salt water and local circumstances, not a flat statewide 3-mile line.)

2. The Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS)

A SIRS is a financial study that inspects the building's major structural components — roof, load-bearing walls, foundation, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, windows, fireproofing — estimates their remaining life and replacement cost, and calculates how much the association must set aside each year.

• Which buildings: the same three-habitable-stories-or-more condos and co-ops.
• Deadline: buildings were required to complete their first SIRS by December 31, 2025 — a deadline that has now passed.
• Why it matters to you: the SIRS tells you what the building should have in reserves. Compare that to what it actually has, and the gap is your special-assessment risk in black and white.

3. The "No More Waiving Reserves" Rule

This is the one that changed the math for every older Florida condo.

For years, condo boards could vote to waive or underfund their reserves to keep monthly dues low. That's exactly what set up the Surfside disaster — and it's now largely banned.

Starting with budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, associations that must have a SIRS can no longer waive or reduce reserves for the mandatory structural components. (Owners can still choose to waive reserves for non-structural items like a pool or clubhouse.)

The result: buildings that kept dues artificially low for decades now have to fund reserves for real — which means higher monthly dues, special assessments, or both.

What This Actually Means for Your Monthly Cost

When you buy a condo, your monthly payment has an extra ingredient a single-family buyer doesn't have: HOA dues — and, potentially, special assessments on top.

Here's the honest picture in 2026:

• Monthly dues have risen at many older buildings to fund newly required reserves. A low HOA fee on an older building can actually be a warning sign that the building still isn't funding reserves properly.
• Special assessments are one-time (sometimes multi-year) charges to cover required repairs. On older, coastal, or previously underfunded buildings, these have run into the tens of thousands of dollars per unit in reported cases.
• The exact dollar amounts vary enormously by building age, size, location, and repair scope. Anyone who quotes you a single "average" assessment is guessing — the only number that matters is your specific building's.

So the real cost of a Florida condo isn't just price + dues. It's price + dues + your share of whatever repairs the building hasn't funded yet. That last part is what you're investigating.

Healthy Building or Money Pit? How to Tell

The difference is in the building's paperwork, not the unit's finishes.

A financially healthy building generally has:

• A completed, recent Milestone inspection with no major unresolved structural findings.
• A completed SIRS, with reserves funded at or near the recommended level.
• Adequate reserves relative to the building's age and the SIRS.
• No large special assessment pending or recently discussed in meeting minutes.
• Current insurance with reasonable premiums.

A money pit often shows:

• A missing or overdue Milestone inspection or SIRS (the deadlines have passed — "we haven't done it yet" is a red flag).
• Reserves far below the SIRS-recommended amount.
• Unusually low dues for an old building (someone's still not funding reserves).
• Special assessments recently levied, discussed, or hinted at in the minutes.
• Pending litigation or insurance problems.

You find all of this in the documents — which, by law, you're entitled to see.

The Documents You're Legally Entitled to Review

Florida law requires a resale seller to give you the building's key records before you're committed. Ask for all of these, and actually read them:

• The declaration, bylaws, articles, and rules.
• The governance / FAQ document and the most recent annual budget and financial report (this shows reserve balances).
• The Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS) — or a written statement that the association hasn't completed one.
• The Milestone inspection report (Phase 1, and Phase 2 if repairs were flagged).
• Disclosure of pending litigation, deferred maintenance, and any special assessments levied or contemplated.

Then request a few things smart buyers always pull:

• The estoppel certificate (it itemizes what's owed on the unit).
• Board and membership meeting minutes for the last 12 months — this is where assessment and repair discussions show up before they become official.
• Insurance certificates, so you can gauge premiums and adequacy.

The Financing Trap: The Condo "Blacklist"

Here's the risk almost no one warns first-time condo buyers about.

Even if you love a building, your lender might refuse to finance it.

After Surfside, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which back most U.S. mortgages) tightened their condo project rules. A building can become ineligible for a conventional loan if it has:

• Failed a required structural inspection, or has needed repairs it hasn't made.
• Significant unfunded repairs or unresolved special assessments tied to safety.
• Inadequate reserves.

Fannie Mae tracks project status in an internal database, and buildings flagged as "Unavailable" can't be financed with a Fannie-backed loan. Widely reported as a condo "blacklist," it has caught many Florida buildings — which makes those units hard to finance and hard to resell later.

(The exact number of affected Florida buildings isn't officially published, so treat any specific count as an estimate. What's certain: it's a real risk, and it's worth checking before you fall in love with a unit.)

What to do: ask your lender early whether the specific building is warrantable / financeable. If a building can only be bought with cash, that's a giant clue about both its condition and your future resale pool.

Green Flags vs. Red Flags

Green flags (lean in):

• Milestone inspection and SIRS completed and clean.
• Reserves fully or nearly fully funded.
• Dues that make sense for the building's age (not suspiciously low).
• Boring, well-run meeting minutes.
• Your lender confirms the building is financeable.

Red flags (slow down or walk away):

• "We haven't done the inspection/SIRS yet."
• Reserves far below the SIRS recommendation.
• A special assessment recently passed or being discussed.
• Suspiciously low dues on an old building.
• The building is cash-only / not financeable.
• Active structural litigation.

How to Budget for a Florida Condo (Step-by-Step)

1. Get your baseline with the Florida Mortgage Calculator, entering the condo's price.
2. Add the HOA dues as a monthly cost — and confirm the current figure, since dues have been rising.
3. Add insurance — you need an HO-6 (unit owner) policy on top of the association's master policy. In Florida, don't assume this is cheap; see our homeowners insurance guide.
4. Stress-test for an assessment. Ask what a realistic special assessment could be based on the SIRS gap, and set aside a reserve of your own.
5. Add property taxes (remember the Save Our Homes reset — your taxes reset to your purchase price).
6. Confirm financing on the specific building before you write an offer.

Run the full number in the Florida Mortgage Calculator with dues and taxes included, so the payment you see is realistic. Buying near the water? Pair this with our flood insurance guide — coastal condos interact with the building's master flood policy.

Common Condo-Buying Mistakes

• Judging the unit, not the building. Granite counters don't matter if the roof is unfunded.
• Skipping the document review. The SIRS and meeting minutes are where the risk lives.
• Trusting suspiciously low dues. On an old building, cheap dues can mean underfunded reserves.
• Ignoring the financing check. A non-warrantable building limits your loan and your future buyers.
• Waiving your review window. The 7-day cancellation right exists for a reason.
• Forgetting the HO-6 policy and taxes reset in your budget.

Your Next Steps

1. Budget with everything included using the Florida Mortgage Calculator — dues, insurance, taxes, and an assessment cushion.
2. Request the full document set (SIRS, Milestone report, budget, reserves, 12 months of minutes) and read it during your 7-day window.
3. Ask your lender whether the building is financeable before you make an offer.
4. Compare with a single-family option — our rent vs. buy calculator and city guides can help.
5. Read the related guides: Florida Homeowners Insurance, Florida Property Tax, and city guides for Miami and Tampa (the most condo-heavy metros).

Frequently Asked Questions