Florida HB 1021 — what changed and what to do.

Why HB 1021 exists

HB 1021 is part of the legislative response to the June 24, 2021 partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside. The bill that immediately followed Surfside, SB 4-D (2022), created the milestone-inspection and SIRS regimes. HB 1021 (2024) tightened those regimes, sharpened owner-records access, mandated director education, and ended the practice of waiving reserves on structural components. The legislative posture is straightforward. The cost of underfunded structural reserves, in the worst case, is the building. The legislature decided that boards and owners should not be allowed to defer that cost any longer.

What changed: section by section

1. Milestone inspections — Phase 1 and Phase 2

The milestone-inspection regime requires a structural inspection of any condominium or cooperative building three or more stories in height once the building reaches a threshold age. The threshold is 30 years from issuance of the certificate of occupancy, or 25 years if the building is within three miles of the coast.

A Phase 1 inspection is a visual examination by a Florida-licensed structural engineer or architect. If the Phase 1 finds substantial structural deterioration, a Phase 2 inspection is required. Phase 2 may include destructive or non-destructive testing as the engineer determines necessary.

We are not your lawyer. Nothing on this page is legal advice.

What this means in practice.The board must engage a Florida-licensed structural engineer or architect, not a general home inspector or a building contractor. Hiring the wrong professional voids the inspection. The inspection summary must be delivered to owners and posted on the association’s website (where one is required) within a defined window after receipt. Phase 1 reports become an official record under § 718.111(12).

2. Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS)

The SIRS is the financial counterpart to the milestone inspection. It is a reserve study performed by a person qualified under the statute (a licensed engineer, architect, or reserve-study professional meeting the criteria) that catalogs the structural and major-system components of the building — roof, load-bearing walls, plumbing, electrical, fireproofing, waterproofing, windows, and similar — and identifies the cost and timing of expected maintenance and replacement.

What this means in practice. The initial SIRS was due by December 31, 2024 for buildings already at the threshold. Boards that have a SIRS in hand must reconcile their reserve schedule against it. Boards without a SIRS as of this writing are operating in violation and are exposed to both DBPR action and owner-suit risk.

3. The end of reserve waivers on structural items

Pre-HB 1021, an association could vote to waive reserves or fund them at less than 100% by majority vote of the membership. HB 1021 ended that for any structural component identified in the SIRS. Reserves for those components must be fully funded according to the SIRS schedule. There is no super-majority workaround and no opt-out.

What this means in practice. Many associations have had to call special assessments to make up the funding gap. Boards that present a budget without SIRS-compliant reserves are exposing themselves personally — the obligation now runs to the directors who adopted the budget, not just to the association. Counsel will tell you to put the SIRS schedule next to the budget at the adoption meeting and document that the reserves match. Do that.

4. Director education — 90 days, no exceptions

Every director, on every Florida condominium board, must complete a state-approved education course within 90 days of being elected or appointed. The course covers financial literacy, official-records access, common-element maintenance, the SIRS framework, contract bidding, and conflict-of-interest rules.

What this means in practice. The 90-day clock starts on the day of election or appointment. Suspension for failure is automatic by operation of statute, not by board vote. The board must then fill the vacancy under its bylaws. Document the seating date and the certificate completion date in the same record. If a director resigns and is reappointed, the clock starts again.

5. Official records — access, websites, and the 150-unit threshold

Section 718.111(12) is the official-records section of the Condominium Act. HB 1021 sharpened the access regime in three ways. First, it reaffirmed and tightened the statutory window for producing records on inspection. Second, it expanded the list of records that must be posted on an association website. Third, it lowered the unit threshold for the website requirement.

What this means in practice. The official-records workflow is now the single most-litigated surface of Chapter 718, and HB 1021 raised the cost of getting it wrong. Every request needs a timestamp at receipt, a timestamp at production, and a record of what was produced. If your front desk takes a request and forgets to forward it, the clock is running anyway. The window is 10 business days, with up to $50/day in statutory damages and a $500 maximum per request under § 718.111(12)(c)1.a. See the dedicated page on records requests for the full operational treatment.

6. Financial reporting — the SIRS line item

HB 1021 did not change the underlying revenue-based financial-report tiers in § 718.111(13), but it did clarify that any financial report must include a separate accounting of the reserves identified in the SIRS, with a year-over-year comparison. A board that disagrees with the SIRS recommendations must put the disagreement in the record alongside the report. Silent disagreement is no longer a defense.

What this means in practice. When you give the report to the CPA, give them the SIRS too. The report must reconcile to the SIRS schedule. A reconciled report goes in the record book and in the website-of-record posting.

Records requests, in detail

The records-request workflow is where most boards now get into trouble, so it deserves its own section. The full operational guide lives at /florida/records-requests. The summary below is what every board officer and CAM should know cold.

The 10-business-day rule.A written records request triggers a 10-business-day clock to make the records available for inspection at a location within the county where the association is located. “Available for inspection” means the records are physically or electronically present and the requesting owner has a defined time and place to inspect them. It does not mean a vague promise to “send them when we get to it.”

What counts as a written request.Any written communication identifying the records sought and signed (or sent from a known email address of) a unit owner or the owner’s authorized representative. There is no required form. A two-line email counts. A note left at the front desk counts if the desk staff routes it.

What you can charge.Actual cost of reproduction (paper copies, electronic media). Actual labor cost above the first 30 minutes, capped at the statutory rate. You cannot charge for the inspection itself, only for copies. You cannot charge a “convenience” or “administrative” fee.

The 150-unit website threshold. Associations with 150 or more units (excluding timeshare-managed units) must post digital copies of the official records on a website or mobile application accessible to owners through a private login. The list of postable records is enumerated in the statute and includes the declaration, articles, bylaws, rules, current financial reports, the SIRS, the milestone-inspection reports, and current contracts. Personnel records, attorney-client privileged communications, and certain owner personal information are excluded.

What constitutes refusal.This is the legal trap. Refusal is not just saying “no.” It includes silence past the deadline, conditioning production on the owner stating a purpose (which the statute does not require), partial production without a written reason for the omission, and producing records in a format designed to be inconvenient (handing over a stack of unsorted paper when the owner asked for digital copies you already have). Each of these has been treated as refusal in litigation.

Penalties and enforcement

Three enforcement tracks run in parallel.

Civil penalties for records violations. A unit owner who is denied access can recover statutory minimum damages of $50 per day for the first 10 calendar days the records are not made available, up to a $500 statutory capper owner per request, under § 718.111(12)(c)1.a. The owner may also recover attorney’s fees and costs in many cases.

DBPR action against the association and the CAM. The Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes (within the Department of Business and Professional Regulation) has authority to investigate complaints, issue cease-and-desist orders, levy administrative fines, and refer matters for further action. CAMs are licensed by DBPR and can be sanctioned, suspended, or have their license revoked under § 468 for the same conduct that exposes the board.

Criminal liability for willful refusal.Willful and knowing failure to comply with the official-records access requirements is, by statute, a basis for criminal liability under § 718.111(12). This provision is rarely charged but is on the books, and a state attorney’s office will pursue it where the facts are egregious.

State this factually. The audience is anxious enough; the brand’s job is to name the consequence calmly and move on.

What you should do this quarter

A reasonable action plan, in order of urgency.

1. Audit your records inventory. Pull the full list under § 718.111(12)(b). For each item, note where it physically and digitally lives, who has access, and the last time the inventory was checked. Anything not located is the first thing to find.
2. Confirm milestone-inspection status. If your building is at the threshold age and Phase 1 is not complete, contact a Florida-licensed structural engineer this week. If Phase 2 was triggered, confirm the engineer is engaged and the report timeline is on the calendar.
3. Confirm SIRS status and reserve schedule.If you have a SIRS, your reserve schedule must match the SIRS’s identified components and timing. If the schedule does not match, the board needs to adopt a corrected schedule before the next budget cycle.
4. Audit director education. Pull the elected or appointed date for every current director. Anyone past 90 days without a certificate is suspended by operation of statute. The board needs to act to fill the seat under the bylaws.
5. Confirm website-of-record compliance if you are 150 units or more. Owner-only login, current postings of the enumerated records, recent meeting minutes, the SIRS, and the milestone reports. Test it from a unit-owner login, not from an admin account.
6. Train the front desk on records-request intake. A single intake email or form, a timestamp at receipt, and a routing rule to the board secretary or CAM within the same business day. The training should include what counts as a written request and what does not.
7. Document the workflow. Write down the records-request workflow, the website-update workflow, the budget-with-SIRS workflow, and the director-onboarding workflow. Keep them in the record book. Counsel will ask for them when something goes wrong.

How HOA Rocket helps

Product surface → /features/compliance · /features/documents

If you want HB 1021 obligations audit-ready by default, this is what we automate. The obligation calendar (milestone, SIRS, director education, financial reports, website postings) loads with the right deadlines for your building. Records requests come in through the unit portal, get timestamped at receipt, and surface on the dashboard with a 10-business-day countdown. Per-document access logs satisfy the § 718.111(12) audit-trail need. Director education completion is tracked per seat with the certificate uploaded to the association record book.

We are not your lawyer. We built the platform to give your lawyer something to work with when an owner files a records demand or the association is challenged on a structural deadline.

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