How to Choose a Structural Engineer for Your Florida Condo Board

Quick Answer: How to choose a structural engineer for your condo board

Choosing a structural engineer for a Florida condominium comes down to confirming the person and firm are legally qualified, have genuine condo experience, and are independent of whoever will do the repairs. Before you sign anything:

1. Verify the license. Confirm the individual signing your report holds an active Florida PE license (Chapter 471) and that the firm is a registered Florida engineering business, both searchable through the Florida Board of Professional Engineers and MyFloridaLicense.com. A license from another state does not satisfy Florida's milestone-inspection requirement.
2. Demand condo-specific experience. Look for documented milestone inspection, Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS), and pre-turnover work, not just general civil or commercial engineering.
3. Confirm independence. Under HB 913, an engineer must disclose in writing any financial or family interest in a firm that would perform the recommended repairs, and non-disclosure makes the contract voidable. Favor an engineer with no stake in the repair contract.
4. Get scope and fees in writing. A clear proposal should spell out the phases, deliverables, timeline, and what is and is not included.
5. Check references and red flags. Ask for recent condo clients and walk away from anyone who cannot produce a Florida license number or who pressures you toward a predetermined repair scope.

Construction Solutions, Inc. (CSI) helps Northeast Florida boards select qualified engineers and complete milestone inspections, SIRS, and pre-turnover evaluations. Call (904) 261-8703 to talk through your association's situation.

Why does the right engineer matter so much for a coastal Florida condo?

Along the Northeast Florida shoreline, from Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island down through Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, and Jacksonville Beach, salt air and humidity are constantly working against your building. The failure modes these inspections target are not abstract: chloride-driven concrete spalling, corroding reinforcing steel, deteriorating balconies and post-tensioned slabs, and water intrusion through windows and exterior doors. The engineer you hire is the person who decides whether those conditions are documented accurately, scoped correctly, and funded properly through your reserves.

That makes engineer selection a fiduciary decision, not a commodity purchase. Your board has a duty to owners to make a reasonable, informed choice. Hiring a properly licensed Florida professional engineer, vetting the firm, and documenting why you selected them is part of meeting that duty. The criteria below apply to any qualified firm, and a board should hold every candidate, including CSI, to the same standard.

How do we verify a structural engineer is actually licensed in Florida?

This is the threshold question, and it has two parts: the individual and the firm.

The individual. Florida law requires that a milestone inspection be performed by an architect licensed under Chapter 481 or an engineer licensed under Chapter 471 who is authorized to practice in this state. A professional engineer licensed only in Georgia, or anywhere else, does not satisfy that requirement. Confirm that the specific person who will sign and seal your report holds an active Florida PE license. You can look up the license number and status, active versus delinquent or null-and-void, through the Florida Board of Professional Engineers (FBPE) Licensee Search and the state portal at MyFloridaLicense.com.

The firm. Florida vets businesses, not just people. Since October 1, 2019, the state replaced the old "Certificate of Authorization" fee system with a firm-registration system: a company offering engineering services to the public must be registered with the Board and qualified by a Florida-licensed PE under Chapter 471.023, and that registration renews every two years. So confirm both that the signing engineer is individually licensed and that the firm itself is a registered Florida engineering business in good standing. Because the exact fields shown in these databases can change, pull the live record rather than taking a logo or a line on a proposal at face value.

What condo-specific experience should we require?

A talented bridge or highway engineer is not automatically the right fit for a thirty-year-old beachfront condominium. The Florida condo-safety framework has its own deliverables, deadlines, and vocabulary, and you want a firm that lives in that world. Ask candidates to show recent, documented experience in three areas:

• Milestone inspections. The Phase 1 visual assessment and, where conditions warrant, the more invasive Phase 2 investigation under the milestone law. For more on the requirement itself, see our guide to Florida's milestone inspection requirements.
• Structural Integrity Reserve Studies (SIRS). The visual inspection plus reserve-funding plan that drives how much your association must set aside for structural components. Our complete SIRS guide walks through what it covers.
• Pre-turnover and transition evaluations. The construction-defect documentation a board commissions when control passes from the developer (more on that below).

For a coastal building specifically, look for demonstrated work in concrete restoration, building-envelope and waterproofing assessment, and balcony evaluation. These are the disciplines that map directly to how salt-exposed Northeast Florida buildings actually deteriorate. A firm that can point to similar nearby projects understands the local failure patterns in a way a generalist may not. If you are weighing whether observed cracking is cosmetic or structural, our article on investigating concrete cracks in Florida buildings shows the kind of diagnostic thinking a qualified engineer brings.

Why does independence from the repair contractor matter, and what does HB 913 require?

This is where a lot of boards get burned, and it is exactly what the 2025 legislation was written to address. When the same party that inspects your building also stands to win the repair contract, there is an obvious incentive to find more problems and recommend a larger scope than the conditions strictly require.

HB 913, effective July 1, 2025, attacks that conflict directly. An architect or engineer performing a milestone inspection or SIRS, and a contractor bidding the work, must disclose in writing if they, or a related party, intend to bid on the recommended repairs or hold a direct or indirect financial interest in a firm that would do the work. If that disclosure is not made, the inspection or study contract becomes voidable by the association, and the professional can face discipline.

One nuance matters for accuracy: HB 913 is a mandatory-written-disclosure regime, not a flat ban on a single firm doing both the inspection and the repair. But the very structure of the law, disclose the conflict or risk a voidable contract, is precisely why most boards prefer an engineer who has no stake in the repair contract at all. When your structural findings and reserve numbers are driven by engineering need rather than by who hopes to win the construction job, you get a cleaner basis for budgeting and far less risk that owners later challenge the scope. For a fuller breakdown of the statute, see what HB 913 means for your condo association in 2026.

What is the difference between a milestone inspection and a SIRS, and do we need both?

These are two separate deliverables, and a milestone inspection does not automatically satisfy a SIRS, even though firms often coordinate the two visits to save the association money.

A milestone inspection is a structural-safety assessment required under the milestone law for condominium and cooperative buildings three habitable stories or more in height, generally by December 31 of the year the building turns 30 (based on its certificate-of-occupancy date), and every 10 years after that. HB 913 refined the trigger to habitable stories, so floors used solely for parking, storage, or mechanical equipment do not count toward the three-story threshold.

A SIRS, governed by the condominium statute, is a visual inspection plus a reserve-funding plan covering a defined list of components: roof; load-bearing walls and primary structural members; floor; foundation; fireproofing and fire-protection systems; plumbing; electrical; waterproofing and exterior painting; windows and exterior doors; and any other item with deferred-maintenance or replacement cost exceeding $25,000. It tells the board how much money must be reserved and over what remaining useful life. The first SIRS baseline deadline was December 31, 2025 for then-existing unit-owner-controlled associations, and it must be updated at least every 10 years.

Because the two serve different purposes, one diagnosing structural safety, the other driving reserve funding, qualifying buildings generally need both. A good firm will tell you candidly how they can be coordinated and where they cannot be combined.

Who can legally perform our SIRS, and why does that affect who we hire?

This is a meaningful differentiator that many boards overlook. The condominium statute allows the SIRS visual inspection to be performed by an engineer licensed under Chapter 471, an architect licensed under Chapter 481, or a credentialed reserve specialist, specifically a Reserve Specialist (RS) or Professional Reserve Analyst (PRA) designated by the Community Associations Institute or the Association of Professional Reserve Analysts.

In other words, not every SIRS is signed by a licensed engineer. For a structurally significant coastal building, many boards prefer that the structural components be assessed by a Florida PE who can evaluate corrosion, spalling, and load-bearing conditions with an engineer's judgment. When you request proposals, ask directly: who will actually perform and sign the structural portion of our SIRS, and what are their credentials? The answer should match the complexity of your building.

Our building is near the ocean. Does that mean we inspect at 25 years instead of 30?

Not automatically, and this is one of the most common errors carried over from older articles. You may have seen the shorthand that any building "within three miles of the coast" must be inspected at 25 years. The current statute no longer fixes a three-mile distance. Instead, it provides that the local enforcement agency may determine that local circumstances, including environmental conditions such as proximity to salt water, warrant a 25-year inspection rather than 30.

That means the 25-year trigger is a local decision, not a statewide mandate. For Northeast Florida boards, the practical takeaway is to confirm what your specific county or municipal building department, for example Nassau County, the City of Jacksonville and Duval County, or St. Johns County, has actually adopted, rather than assuming the older coastal rule applies to you. A knowledgeable local engineer should be able to tell you the threshold your jurisdiction enforces. Our overview of Florida's revised milestone inspection law covers how these triggers have shifted over recent legislative sessions.

We just took over from the developer. What evaluation should we get?

Developer turnover is one of the clearest reasons to bring in an independent engineer, separate from any consultant the developer used. Under the condominium statute, majority control of the board shifts from the developer to the unit owners at the earliest of several triggers: three years after 50% of the planned units are sold, three months after 90% are sold, or when the developer stops offering the remaining units in the ordinary course of business, among others. Non-developer owners are entitled to at least one-third board representation once they own 15% or more of the units.

At or around turnover, boards commonly commission an independent pre-turnover or transition structural evaluation to document construction defects before warranty periods and the statute-of-repose window close. This is a distinct use case from the developer's own consultants, and the engineer's independence is the entire point. The findings can preserve the association's rights and inform what gets fixed while it is still someone else's financial responsibility. This is a place where waiting can quietly forfeit valuable claims.

What should a clear engineering proposal include?

A good proposal protects both sides by removing ambiguity. Before you sign, make sure the document spells out:

• Scope and phases. Exactly what is being inspected, and whether the engagement is a Phase 1 visual assessment, a Phase 2 invasive investigation, or both, and what would trigger moving from one to the next.
• Deliverables. A written, sealed report, and what it will contain, including remaining-useful-life estimates and cost ranges where applicable.
• Fees. A clear fee basis, what is included, and how any additional testing, lab work, or Phase 2 effort would be priced.
• Timeline. When fieldwork happens and when the report is due, which matters when you are racing a statutory deadline.
• Conflict disclosure. The HB 913 written disclosure regarding any interest in the repair work.

If a proposal is vague about scope or silent on phases and fees, treat that as a warning sign rather than a detail to sort out later.

What references and proof should we ask for before hiring?

Ask every serious candidate for recent condominium clients, ideally associations with buildings of similar age, height, and coastal exposure, and actually call them. Useful questions for a reference: Did the report arrive on time? Was the engineer responsive when the board had questions? Did the scope and costs hold up, or did surprises appear later? Was the firm independent of the eventual repair contractor?

Beyond references, ask to see the Florida PE license number, confirmation of the firm's Florida registration, proof of professional liability insurance, and one or two sample reports (with confidential details redacted) so you can judge the quality and clarity of the writing your board will have to act on. You can learn more about CSI's qualifications and the scope of our work on our services page.

What are the red flags that should make us walk away?

Some signals warrant ending the conversation:

• No verifiable Florida PE license, or reliance on an out-of-state license for a Florida milestone inspection.
• An unregistered firm, or one that cannot confirm its Florida engineering-business registration.
• Pressure toward a predetermined repair scope, especially when the same party or a related firm hopes to win that repair contract.
• Refusal to provide the HB 913 conflict disclosure in writing.
• Vague proposals, no clear deliverables, no timeline, or fees that shift after you sign.
• No relevant condo references, or an inability to point to comparable local work.
• Poor communication during the proposal stage. If a firm is slow and unclear before you are a client, it rarely improves afterward.

How do communication and responsiveness factor in?

Your board will rely on this engineer's report to make six- and seven-figure decisions and to explain those decisions to owners. That only works if the engineer communicates well. During the engagement, expect clear updates on scheduling and findings; afterward, expect a report written in language a board can actually use, plus a willingness to answer follow-up questions and, when needed, present findings to owners. The remaining-useful-life and cost estimates an engineer produces feed directly into your reserve obligations, so clarity is not a courtesy, it is the deliverable. For how those numbers connect to long-term planning on the exterior of your building, see our piece on building envelope maintenance and reserve planning.

One practical note on funding: reserve dollars for the mandatory SIRS structural components are largely protected. HB 913 added limited flexibility, allowing unit-owner-controlled associations to fund capital projects through regular or special assessments, lines of credit, or loans, and to waive the SIRS-recommended funding only in narrow, specific circumstances. Boards asking "can we just defer this?" should understand that the default rule heavily restricts skipping reserves for required structural items, and that your association's attorney should confirm the specifics before relying on any waiver. A well-written engineering report is what makes those funding conversations defensible.

The bottom line for your board

The right structural engineer is licensed in Florida, registered as a firm, experienced with condominium milestone inspections and SIRS, independent of the repair work, clear in scope and fees, and easy to communicate with. Verify the license, ask for the condo references, get the conflict disclosure in writing, and confirm your local 25-year trigger rather than assuming it. Apply those criteria evenly to every candidate, and you will protect your owners, your property values, and your board's own liability.