Most Miami-Dade boards now hold two kinds of engineering paper about their building: a recertification or milestone report that says what is wrong today, and a structural integrity reserve study that says how to pay for what wears out next. They are written for different readers. The building official reads the first; the budget committee reads the second. The boards that get the best SIRS are the ones that make the two talk to each other.
What does a recertification report actually tell you?
A county or city recertification report, and a milestone inspection report under Fla. Stat. 553.899, is about safety and condition now. The engineer or architect walks the structure and, for recertification, the electrical system, and records what needs repair before the building can be certified as safe to occupy. It does not estimate remaining life for the roof, plan a painting cycle or say what the association should collect each year.
For the reserve study, three parts of that report are worth more than the rest:
- The repair list. Every item on it is a component the SIRS provider must treat as already at, or past, the end of its life.
- Photos and locations. Spalled balcony edges on the east elevation, corroded garage columns at one level, cracked parapets: this tells the provider where to spend site time.
- Anything flagged for monitoring. Items that pass today but are watched are often the ones with the shortest remaining life in the SIRS.
Should the repairs come out of reserves or a special assessment?
Repairs that a recertification report or a second-stage milestone report calls for are usually needed now, not over the next decade. Reserves already in the bank can sometimes pay for them, but in many Miami towers the gap is too large and the board turns to a special assessment or a loan. That is a decision for the board, owners and the association’s attorney.
What matters for the SIRS is the order. If the provider sets the reserve schedule before the repairs are priced, owners can be shown one number in the budget and a second, much larger one in a special assessment a few months later. Pricing the repairs first and giving the provider that figure lets the SIRS start from the building’s real condition after the work, and gives owners a single plan.
What should the manager send the SIRS provider?
Before the site visit, send:
- The most recent recertification report and any milestone inspection report, both stages if there were two.
- The building department’s letters, so the provider knows which repairs are required and by when.
- Contracts and invoices for concrete restoration, roofing, waterproofing and window work in the last 10 to 15 years.
- The current reserve balances by component or pooled, and the adopted budget.
With those in hand, a provider spends less time reconstructing the building’s history, and the board usually gets a faster and cheaper study.
Can one visit cover both?
The SIRS law allows the visual inspection to be done with a milestone inspection, which avoids paying for two walk-throughs (Fla. Stat. 718.112(2)(g)). Whether the county’s recertification inspection can be combined in the same way for your building is not something the statute settles; ask the building department and the association’s attorney. One more point, as we read the 2025 law: whoever prepares the SIRS should not also be handed the repair contract. Confirm that with the association’s attorney too.
If your board is lining up a SIRS now, our page on Miami reserve studies shows which rules your building’s height triggers, and the SIRS and recertification guide sets out each rule in full. When the papers are together, the next step is a proposal from a provider who works in Miami-Dade.