40-Year Building Inspections: What Property Owners & HOA's Need to Know

If you own, manage, or sit on the board of a condominium or commercial building in Florida, you already know that the rules changed. What you may not fully understand yet is exactly what those changes require of you, what happens if you get it wrong, and what the process actually looks like when it is done right. That is what this article is for.

We have been on enough job sites in the aftermath of failed inspections, deferred maintenance, and waterproofing systems that should have been replaced a decade ago to know that most boards and property owners are not dealing with a knowledge problem. They are dealing with a complexity problem. The milestone inspection process is not simple, the repair scopes it generates are not small, and the contractors who are qualified to execute them properly are not as common as the market would have you believe. So let us break it down clearly, honestly, and from the perspective of a team that has lived through this process on some of the most consequential projects in South Florida.

What Changed — Florida's Building Safety Act

In May 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Building Safety Act into law, establishing mandatory structural inspections and reserve funding requirements for condominium buildings statewide. The legislation was a direct response to the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside in June 2021 — one of the most devastating structural failures in American history — and it fundamentally changed the obligations of every condominium association, HOA board, and commercial property owner in Florida.

The centerpiece of the law is the milestone inspection program. If your building is three stories or higher and meets the age thresholds, this applies to you. There is no opt-out, no extension for inconvenience, and no grace period for boards that simply did not get around to it.

What is a Milestone Inspection?

A milestone inspection is a mandatory structural integrity assessment performed by a licensed engineer or architect. It is not a general building inspection. It is not a cosmetic review. It is a structural evaluation specifically designed to identify deterioration in load-bearing components and determine whether a building is safe for continued occupancy.

The process runs in two phases. Phase one is a visual inspection of the building's structural components — concrete, masonry, steel, balconies, parking structures, and everything in between. If phase one comes back clean with no signs of substantial structural deterioration, you are done. If it doesn't — and in South Florida's coastal environment, a significant number of buildings over 30 years old will not — phase two begins.

Phase two is where it gets serious. This is the detailed investigation — testing, probing, sometimes invasive assessment of structural members — that determines exactly what is wrong, how wrong it is, and what needs to happen to fix it. The phase two report is what drives the repair scope, the timeline, and the budget conversation that every board eventually has to have with its residents.

When Does Your Building Need an Inspection?

Buildings within three miles of the coastline must complete their first milestone inspection at 25 years of age and every ten years after that. Buildings more than three miles from the coast have until 30 years of age for their first inspection, with the same ten-year cycle thereafter.

If your building was already at or past those thresholds when the law took effect, your initial inspection was due by December 31, 2024. That deadline drove an enormous wave of inspection activity across South Florida — and a corresponding wave of repair projects for the buildings whose inspections came back with findings.

What Happens After the Inspection?

This is the part that catches most boards off guard. The inspection is not the finish line. It is the starting gun.

Once the inspection report is issued, the association has 180 days to submit it to the local building official. Unit owners must receive copies within 45 days of the association receiving it. And the repairs identified in the report must be completed within the timeframe the local building official establishes — a timeline they have full authority to enforce, up to and including restricting occupancy or ordering evacuation if the structural conditions are serious enough.

We have seen boards treat the inspection report as a document to be filed and revisited later. That approach carries real legal exposure and in the most serious cases, real physical risk. The report is an action item. Treat it accordingly.

What Kind of Repairs Are Typically Required?

In South Florida's coastal environment, the structural conditions that milestone inspections most commonly identify are predictable. Salt air, chloride infiltration, decades of thermal cycling, and the relentless humidity of a subtropical climate do the same things to aging concrete and steel over and over again. Knowing what to expect does not make the repairs less serious — but it does mean that a qualified contractor has seen them before and knows exactly how to address them.

Concrete spalling and delamination are among the most common findings. As chloride ions penetrate the concrete cover and reach the reinforcing steel beneath, corrosion begins. Corroding rebar expands as it oxidizes, creating internal pressure that fractures and dislodges the concrete above it. Left unaddressed, what begins as surface spalling becomes a structural concern that compounds over time.

Reinforcing steel corrosion is the underlying driver of most of the concrete deterioration we see on milestone inspection projects. The repair is not simply patching the concrete — it requires removing all deteriorated material, assessing and treating the exposed steel, applying anti-corrosive systems where appropriate, and restoring the concrete to its original profile and structural capacity with the right repair materials in the right sequence.

Post-tension cable deterioration is one of the most critical and least understood findings a milestone inspection can produce. In buildings constructed with post-tensioned concrete systems — a common structural approach in South Florida high-rises — the steel tendons that carry the structural loads of the building are under enormous tension. Corrosion, mechanical damage, or anchor failures in these systems are not cosmetic issues. They require immediate attention from contractors who specialize specifically in post-tension repair and understand the safety protocols and structural implications involved.

Waterproofing failures on balconies, parking structures, roofs, and building envelopes allow water to reach structural concrete continuously, accelerating the corrosion and deterioration cycle that drives most of the structural conditions above. In many cases, a comprehensive waterproofing replacement is as structurally important as the concrete repairs themselves.

Expansion joint failures are another consistent finding — deteriorated joints that no longer accommodate structural movement or prevent water infiltration, allowing both to reach areas of the building they should never reach.

Choosing the Right Contractor

This decision matters more than most boards realize when they make it, and its consequences are felt long after the project is complete.

Milestone inspection repairs are not general construction work. They are technically demanding, safety-critical structural repairs that require specific expertise, specific certifications, and a contractor who has done this work before — on buildings like yours, in a climate like this one, under the scrutiny that this kind of project demands. A contractor who self-performs the full scope of repair work maintains direct quality control over every phase. A contractor who subcontracts pieces of the work to multiple parties introduces coordination gaps and accountability questions that complex structural projects cannot afford.

Ask to see completed milestone inspection projects. Ask about their experience with post-tension repair specifically. Ask how they manage quality control in the field. Ask whether the people managing your project are the same people who have done this work before or whether your project is being used to train someone. These are not unreasonable questions. They are the right ones.

Bay to Bay Resinous Coatings & Waterproofing

We have completed full-scope milestone inspection repair projects across South Florida, self-performing concrete restoration, waterproofing, post-tension cable remediation, anti-corrosive coatings, structural steel repair, and everything in between — under a single contract, with a single point of accountability, from mobilization through final inspection sign-off.

Our work at Sea Air Towers — a four-year recertification project at the condominium complex located directly adjacent to the site of the Surfside collapse — resulted in a complete passing inspection. We understand what that project meant to that community, and we approached every day of it accordingly.

If your building is approaching its inspection deadline, if you have received a report with findings, or if you simply want to understand what the process looks like before you are in the middle of it, we are happy to talk. No pressure, no sales pitch — just a straightforward conversation from people who have been through this more times than most.

Reach us at www.btbsr.com.

The Bottom Line

Florida's milestone inspection requirements exist because buildings age, coastal environments accelerate that aging, and the consequences of ignoring either of those facts are too serious for the state to leave to chance. Your board has legal obligations. Your residents have reasonable expectations. And the building you are responsible for deserves the attention and the expertise that this process demands.

Get the inspection done. Read the report carefully. Choose your contractor the way the stakes require. And if you have questions along the way, Bay to Bay is here.