Florida guide
Florida condo buying checklist
Buying a Florida condo means buying into a building and an association governed by the most prescriptive condo law in the country. The post-Surfside regime gives you strong required disclosures — but the items that decide the deal often sit in documents you have to request proactively.
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This checklist separates what the seller must give you under §718.503 from what you should demand on your own, and centers the three questions that matter most in Florida: milestone-inspection status, SIRS funding, and master-policy exposure.
Documents the seller must provide
Under §718.503(2), a resale seller must provide the declaration, articles, bylaws, and rules; the FAQ sheet (§718.504); the governance form; the most recent year-end financial statement and the annual budget; and, per HB 913, any available milestone inspection report and SIRS. You also have a 7-day cancellation window on resale contracts executed on or after July 1, 2025. Treat the required package as the floor, not the finish line.
Documents you should request proactively
Request the full reserve study (not just the SIRS summary), the master insurance declarations page with the deductible and any flood coverage, recent board minutes, a litigation summary, and — in South Florida — the Miami-Dade or Broward recertification status. In newer buildings, request the developer-turnover accounting. These are where the real risk usually lives, and they are not always volunteered.
The three Florida questions that decide the deal
For every Florida condo, answer three questions before you commit: Is the milestone inspection complete and clean? Is the SIRS funded, or is catch-up funding (and a likely assessment) coming? And what does the master policy cost, what is its hurricane deductible, and is there a flood gap? A weak answer to any one of these can outweigh an attractive price.
Read everything together
No single document tells the story. Read the estoppel against the budget, the SIRS against the reserve balance, the milestone findings against the funding plan, and the insurance premium trend against the fee. The buyers who get surprised by a six-figure Florida assessment almost always had the documents — they just did not read them together.
Florida legal references
- Fla. Stat. §718.503 — Resale disclosure and buyer cancellation rights
- Fla. Stat. §718.112 — Budgets, reserves, and SIRS
- Fla. Stat. §718.116(8) — Estoppel certificate
Informational only. Not legal advice. Always confirm against current statute and counsel.
Need help applying these Florida statutes to your specific situation? We can connect you with state-licensed counsel and specialists familiar with this exact regulatory environment.
Find a Florida specialist →Reviewer's checklist
- Confirm you received the full §718.503(2) resale package and the FAQ sheet
- Calendar the 7-day cancellation window from the date you received the documents
- Confirm the milestone inspection is complete with no unresolved substantial deterioration
- Read the SIRS funding plan against the reserve balance
- Request the full reserve study, not just the SIRS summary
- Read the master-insurance declarations page: carrier, deductible, exclusions, flood
- Get the estoppel certificate and read the levied and pending special-assessment fields
- In South Florida, confirm Miami-Dade/Broward recertification status
- In newer buildings, request the developer-turnover accounting
- Request a direct litigation summary
Want this same review on your actual documents? We do it free, with page citations you can verify.
Get My Free Risk Report →Source documents
- Declaration & bylawsthe rules
- Budget & financialsthe money
- Reserve studythe big repairs
- Meeting minuteswhat the board fears
Cross-reference
The risk lives in the contradiction between documents.
An assessment in the minutes but not the estoppel; a reserve the budget never funds.
Risk report
Severity-graded across 8 categories.
Every finding cites the document, page number, and quoted text.
How CondoSignal reviews this
We read the reserve study, operating budget, and 24 months of meeting minutes together — florida condo buying checklist risk usually lives in the contradiction between documents, not in any single one of them. Every finding cites the source document, the page number, and the quoted text behind it.
See our 8-category framework →Risk Intelligence
Review the documents before your contingency ends
Most buyers get 7–14 days to review condo documents. Upload the packet — we read the reserve study, budget, minutes, and insurance summary and flag the risks, every finding linked to the exact page. Free.
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Related risk areas
Read these next to round out your due diligence
Condo document review
A condo document review is the structured analysis of every disclosure document your seller or association has provided — declaration, bylaws, rules, reserve study, budgets, financials, meeting minutes, insurance summary, estoppel or resale certificate, and any pending special assessment notices.
Reserve studies
A reserve study tells you what the association expects to spend on long-term capital repairs and replacements, and whether it is funding those obligations adequately.
Condo Resale Certificate Review
In Texas, a resale certificate is the statutory document that gives a prospective condo or HOA unit buyer a snapshot of the association's financial and legal standing at the moment of sale.
Related reading
Guides for Florida buyers and owners
The Complete Condo Buying Checklist (2026)
A four-phase due diligence framework — pre-offer through post-closing — covering documents, fees, reserves, insurance, lender requirements, and governance risk.
Florida SIRS Explained: What Boards Must Fund and Disclose
The Structural Integrity Reserve Study is now mandatory for most Florida condo buildings. Understand what a SIRS must include, how it affects reserve funding requirements, and what boards must disclose to owners.
Milestone Inspection Buyer Guide: Reading the Report Before You Close
Understand what a Florida Milestone Inspection report discloses, what follow-up questions to ask the engineer, and how to evaluate the special assessment risk the findings imply.
What to Look for in Condo Documents: A Buyer's Complete Guide
A resale package contains roughly a dozen documents. Learn what each one discloses, what most buyers overlook, and which sections to read closely before you close.
Already own in Florida?
Owner guides for the notice you just got
Already dealing with a specific Florida situation? Start here instead of the buyer flow:
Reviewed by Kirk Hasley, Founder. Every claim here is checked against current Florida statute and primary sources, using the same documented review framework we run on every file. Last reviewed June 13, 2026.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Risk Intelligence
Review the documents before your contingency ends
Most buyers get 7–14 days to review condo documents. Upload the packet — we read the reserve study, budget, minutes, and insurance summary and flag the risks, every finding linked to the exact page. Free.
Expert Matching
Need a real estate lawyer or mortgage specialist?
We can connect you with vetted real estate lawyers, mortgage brokers, and insurance brokers familiar with the specifics of condo and HOA transactions.
- HOA lawyer
- Mortgage broker
- Insurance broker