Florida Milestone Inspections: Phase 1 and Phase 2 Structural Inspections

Quick Answer: Florida Milestone Inspection Requirements

If your board is trying to confirm whether and when a milestone inspection applies to your building, here is the short version of Florida Statute 553.899 (enacted as SB 4-D in 2022 and refined by SB 154 in 2023 and HB 913 in 2025):

1. Who needs one: condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or taller anywhere in Florida.
2. First deadline: Phase 1 is due by December 31 of the year the building turns 30 under the statewide schedule. A local enforcement agency may instead require 25 years when local circumstances, including environmental conditions such as proximity to salt water, justify it. The statute does not use an automatic statewide distance-from-coast trigger.
3. Re-inspection: every 10 years after the first milestone inspection, for the life of the building.
4. Who may perform it: only a Florida-licensed professional engineer or architect. A home inspector, general contractor, or out-of-state engineer cannot sign and seal a milestone inspection.
5. Phase 2: required only if Phase 1 identifies substantial structural deterioration. Most buildings that have been reasonably maintained complete the process at Phase 1. In CSI's own field data from 46 Phase 1 inspections between 2022 and 2025, roughly one in five buildings required a Phase 2.

Deadlines are administered by the local building department, so the safest move is to confirm your building's specific date with the local enforcement agency, or call CSI at (904) 261-8703 and we will check it with you. Our guide to Florida's milestone inspection requirements walks boards through the statute in more detail.

When a Phase 2 Milestone Inspection Is Required

Phase 2 is triggered only when the Phase 1 inspection identifies substantial structural deterioration -- structural distress that negatively affects the building's general structural condition and integrity, as opposed to ordinary surface wear and cosmetic cracking. If Phase 1 comes back clean, there is no Phase 2, and the building simply returns to its normal maintenance cycle until the next 10-year inspection.

When Phase 2 is required, the statute puts the scope in the inspector's hands: the engineer directs testing and closer examination, destructive or nondestructive, as needed to fully assess the areas of concern. Depending on what Phase 1 found, that program may include:

• Concrete sounding and selective removal to expose reinforcing steel in distressed areas.
• Nondestructive testing such as ground-penetrating radar, cover-meter surveys, or corrosion-potential mapping.
• Material sampling, including chloride-content and carbonation testing of concrete cores.
• Load-path evaluation and structural analysis of the affected members.
• Moisture mapping and envelope evaluation where water intrusion is contributing to the deterioration.

A well-run Phase 2 is deliberately proportionate. The purpose is to define the actual extent of deterioration and the repairs needed, not to open up the entire building. CSI scopes Phase 2 programs to the specific conditions found in Phase 1, and the Phase 2 report includes the repair recommendations and timeline the board needs for planning.

What Milestone Inspections Cost in Florida

Boards deserve straight answers on cost, so here are honest market ranges rather than a request to call for pricing.

Phase 1: across Florida, a Phase 1 milestone inspection typically runs from around $2,500 for a smaller three-story building to $15,000 or more for a large high-rise. Four factors drive where a given building lands in that range:

• Building size -- total square footage, number of stories, and the count of balconies, walkways, and stairs to examine.
• Number of buildings -- multi-building communities require more field time, though shared mobilization keeps the per-building cost down.
• Access -- how readily the engineer can reach the structural elements, including roofs, mechanical areas, and unit interiors where needed.
• Documentation quality -- complete drawings and maintenance records shorten the evaluation; missing records lengthen it.

Phase 2: pricing varies with the testing scope, which cannot be known until Phase 1 defines the areas of concern. For that reason, Phase 2 is quoted after Phase 1 findings are in hand, scoped to the specific conditions rather than a worst-case allowance.

Treat the inspection as part of the association's stewardship budget rather than an emergency expense: on a per-unit basis, even a high-rise Phase 1 usually costs less than a single month of a unit's assessment.

Why Florida Boards Choose CSI

Construction Solutions, Inc. has practiced building evaluation and structural engineering in Florida since 1995, with more than 1,000 projects completed for condominium associations, cooperative associations, and property managers. Milestone inspections are not a sideline added after SB 4-D; evaluating aging Florida buildings has been the core of our practice for three decades.

• Licensed Florida professional engineers perform and seal every milestone inspection.
• Florida Certified General Contractor license CGC1517261 on staff, which grounds our repair specifications and cost projections in real construction knowledge -- while CSI itself remains the evaluator and overseer, not the builder.
• Two Florida offices, in Fernandina Beach and Ponte Vedra Beach, with statewide service across Florida and primary coverage in Northeast Florida.
• Plain-language reporting written for the people who must act on it: board members, owners, and building officials, not just other engineers.
• One accountability chain from inspection through SIRS, repair specifications, and construction-phase oversight.

If your building is in Northeast Florida, you may also want the local pages for Nassau County and Ponte Vedra Beach. For everything else in the state, this page and a phone call are the right starting point.