Do you even need a SIRS?
In 2025 the legislature changed the test from three stories to three habitable stories. Some associations are now paying for studies they are not required to have. Four questions.
Four questions
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This tool applies the statutory test to what you tell it. It is not a determination — the number of habitable stories in a specific building is an engineering and legal question, and a borderline ground floor can go either way. Use it to find out whether the question is worth asking. Send us the building and we will tell you →
One word did it: habitable.
When the post-Surfside reforms first landed, the Structural Integrity Reserve Study requirement applied to condominium and cooperative buildings three or more stories in height. That is a simple test, and it swept in a lot of small buildings that nobody had in mind when the law was written.
HB 913, effective 1 July 2025, changed the test to three or more habitable stories. Habitable space, under the Florida Building Code, means space used for living, sleeping, eating or cooking. A garage is not habitable space. Neither is a parking deck, a storage room, a mechanical room or a corridor.
The building this changes
A building consisting of two residential floors sitting on top of ground-level parking. Three stories of structure, two stories of people. Under the old test it was in. Under the new test it has two habitable stories — and may fall outside the requirement altogether.
There are associations in Broward, Miami-Dade and other parts of Florida that are budgeting for reserve studies, and for the reserve contributions those studies demand, on buildings the law may no longer apply to.
Where it gets genuinely arguable
A ground floor that is purely parking is straightforward. A ground floor with a leasing office, a gym, a club room or a ground-floor retail bay is not — those spaces may be regularly occupied, and whether they render the story habitable is a question that turns on the building and on how the Building Code is applied to it. This is precisely the kind of question a licensed engineer is supposed to answer, and it is not a question a web form can settle.
The other two exemptions
- Four-family dwellings with three or fewer habitable stories above ground are exempt from the milestone inspection and the SIRS requirement.
- Homeowners' associations under Chapter 720 are not subject to SIRS at all. The requirement lives in Chapter 718 (condominiums) and Chapter 719 (cooperatives).
Not sure? Send us the building.
Address, floor count and what is on the ground floor is usually enough. We will tell you whether the statute reaches your building — and we will tell you if it does not.
General information, not legal advice. Statutory references are to FS 718.112(2)(g) and FS 553.899 as amended by HB 913 (2025). Whether a specific building is exempt is a determination for a licensed engineer and your association’s attorney.