Under Florida law, a condo resale contract in Boca Raton has to state in conspicuous type where the building stands on its inspections. If the association has completed its milestone inspection or reserve study, the contract gives the buyer seven days, not counting Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, to cancel after signing and receiving those documents. If a required inspection or study isn't finished, or isn't required, the contract has to say so instead. Boca Raton, though, asks engineers to examine more than the state does, and it scheduled those inspections by geography, beach first. The documents a buyer is guaranteed and the documents the city holds overlap without being the same file.
The Packet Florida Guarantees
Under Section 718.503 of the Florida Statutes, a buyer under contract for a resale condo is entitled to current copies of these documents, at the seller's expense:
- The declaration of condominium, articles of incorporation, and the association's bylaws and rules
- The annual financial statement and annual budget
- The inspector-prepared summary of the milestone inspection report under Section 553.899, if applicable
- The association's most recent structural integrity reserve study, or a statement that one has not been completed
- A turnover inspection report, for turnovers inspected on or after July 1, 2023
- The state's "Frequently Asked Questions and Answers" document
For contracts signed after December 31, 2024, the contract must also say in conspicuous type whether the association has completed a required milestone inspection or reserve study, hasn't completed one, or isn't required to have one. This disclosure covers the inspection summary described in Section 553.899, the state milestone inspection law. That law covers residential condominium and cooperative buildings with three or more habitable stories and calls for a structural inspection by a licensed architect or engineer.
Boca Raton built a broader program before the state wrote its own.
What Boca Asks the Engineer That Florida Doesn't
Boca Raton adopted its Building Recertification Inspection Program through Ordinance No. 5589 on August 24, 2021. According to the city's Development Services director, that made it the first jurisdiction in Florida to adopt a recertification program after the Surfside collapse. On September 8, 2026, the City Council voted 4-0 to adopt Ordinance No. 5794, which aligns the program with state law while keeping the city's stricter standards. Boca Post reported the adoption the next day.
| Requirement | Florida milestone inspection | Boca Raton recertification |
|---|---|---|
| Stories that count toward coverage | Habitable stories only | Uninhabitable stories count too, including underground and lower-level parking |
| Who inspects | Licensed architect or engineer | Engineer only |
| Scope | Structural | Structural and electrical, with infrared thermography for electrical systems at 400 amperes or greater |
| Specific elements added in 2026 | Not specified | Facade, structural glazing, underground or lower-level parking garages |
| Building types | Residential condos and co-ops | Threshold buildings other than detached one- and two-family homes, plus condos and co-ops three or more stories |
| First inspection | 30 years; the local agency may set 25 based on conditions such as salt water | 30 years, or 25 years for condos and co-ops within three miles of a coastline |
The 25-year coastal trigger was a choice the city could have dropped. A 2023 state law, Senate Bill 154, let local enforcement agencies base that decision on local conditions. Staff recommended keeping it, and their memo cited the "increased threat of metal and material breakdown via salt air exposure," according to Boca Post's preview of the ordinance.
The Parking Garage Rule
In 2025, Florida's House Bill 913 clarified that only habitable stories count when deciding whether a building needs a milestone inspection. Boca Raton had already been counting uninhabitable areas such as underground and lower-level parking, and Ordinance 5794 puts that practice into the city code. According to Boca Post's account of the staff memo, this makes the city more stringent than the state on that point.
Take a building with residences above a ground-level or below-grade garage. Its story count can come out differently under the two definitions, and that affects how the resale contract describes it. The state disclosure clause is built around the Section 553.899 milestone inspection, and the contract has to say whether the association is required to have one. The city's recertification requirement is a separate obligation under Boca's own code, Section 19-162. The same goes for the electrical evaluation. Boca requires it for covered buildings, along with infrared thermography reports for electrical systems at 400 amperes or greater, while the state requires only the structural review. The statutory list doesn't name those city reports. A buyer who wants to see them asks the association for the city recertification report along with the documents the statute lists.
The Calendar Runs From the Beach Inland
When Ordinance 5589 took effect, many buildings already qualified for recertification. The building official cleared that backlog under a December 27, 2021 memo that split the city into four zones and set deadlines from east to west. Each zone was divided into four groups, with deadlines three months apart. Former Mayor Scott Singer explained the order to WLRN: "we thought, as a city, it made more sense to start with the buildings that were closest to the ocean where you're getting more of the salt air."
Here is the original published schedule, with example addresses from the city's list:
| Zone | Area | Report deadlines | Examples from the city schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barrier island, east of the Intracoastal | February 1 to November 1, 2023 | 700 S Ocean Blvd, built 1965; 4545 N Ocean Blvd, built 1974 |
| 2 | Intracoastal west to Dixie Highway | February 1 to November 1, 2024 | 501 E Camino Real, built 1927; 150 E Palmetto Park Rd, built 1969 |
| 3 | Dixie Highway to west of I-95 | 2025, ending November 1, 2025 | 620 W Glades Rd, built 1980; 5050 Town Center Cir, built 1986 |
| 4 | West of I-95 | February 1 to November 1, 2026 | 1675 N Military Trl, built 1988; 1 Town Center Road, built 1990 |
The final group on that schedule was due Sunday, November 1. The memo says the schedule may be amended, and Ordinance 5794 now requires the city's completion schedule to comply with the state's milestone deadlines. Any one building's actual dates may therefore differ from the table.
The pattern still matters for a buyer comparing buildings. The city sets each later recertification deadline 10 years after the building's most recent deadline. On the original schedule, an oceanfront building in Zone 1 filed in 2023, and its current report is now about three years old. A Zone 4 building west of I-95 filed this year. Two condos listed in the same week can come with reports of very different ages, and the gap follows the map. When a backlog building's next cycle comes due is set by the date it was originally due, not by when it was built.
The last public progress count is from WLRN's January 27, 2025 report. City data then listed 242 buildings in the program. Singer said 54% of the zoned buildings had complied, and 52 reports had been submitted in Zone 1 and 78 in Zone 2. That is a snapshot from nearly two years ago, before the inland zones came due.
What Happens After the Report Is Filed
Ordinance 5794 also changed the repair timeline. The old code gave owners 30 days to submit a repair plan once the city accepted a report. Under the new rule, owners must start the work within 365 days of the city's acceptance, subject to permits, unless the building official or the engineer of record sets a shorter deadline. The repair permit has to stay active and in good standing for the building to remain in compliance.
For a buyer, this means a building whose report the city accepted recently may still be inside that 365-day window and may not have started repairs yet. The report summary shows the engineer's findings. The permit history shows whether work has started.
Two other provisions affect what a buyer may find in the file:
- Extensions. An owner can request up to 60 more days to submit a report or obtain permits. The request must come in writing from a licensed engineer with a signed and sealed statement that the building can be safely occupied during the inspection.
- Duty to report. An engineer who finds conditions that would endanger life or property if left unaddressed must report them to the owner or association, the fire marshal and the building official within 10 days. Conditions that meet the code's definition of "dangerous" must be reported within 24 hours, along with the engineer's opinion on whether any part of the building needs to be vacated and when.
Before a deadline arrives, the city notifies the building owner at least 365 days ahead, so an association will know about an upcoming recertification before it is due.
Where the Documents Live
Associations that manage condominiums with 25 or more units, and have no timeshare units, must post certain documents on a website or app. These include milestone inspection reports and the latest structural integrity reserve study, generally within 30 days of receiving or creating them, under Section 718.111(12)(g). State law also requires associations to send report summaries to owners.
Some questions follow from the city's rules:
- Which zone and deadline group was the building in, and what was its original deadline?
- Did the building submit the city's electrical evaluation alongside the structural report?
- If the building has a parking garage, did the garage count toward its coverage, and did the report address the garage, facade and glazing?
- Has the city accepted the report, and if so, when does the 365-day repair-start window close?
- Is there an active repair permit, and is it in good standing?
Everything here is general information about the city's rules and the state statutes linked above, not legal or financial advice. Confirm how they apply to a particular building and contract with a Florida real estate attorney or another qualified professional.
If you're weighing a Boca Raton condo and want help collecting the building's recertification history, inspection summaries and reserve study before your review period runs out, Laura Gallagher and Terri Berman can coordinate the requests with the association and keep track of each deadline for you. Contact Us.
