Four years after Florida lawmakers ordered condominium buildings to be inspected regularly in the wake of the deadly Surfside collapse, a state report shows that more than 8,700 buildings have now been inspected.
About 900 of those properties sought building permits to make needed repairs in 2024 and 2025, some of which cost as much as $30 million. The average repair permit was for $337,230 in 2024 and almost $500,000 in 2025, the analysis shows.
But the report, published by the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (known as OPPAGA) has raised as many questions as it answered, leaving property insurance stakeholders hoping for more information:
- Some 25% of the 11,650 milestone inspections required by the 2022 condominium reform law were never completed, the report notes.
- More than a quarter of all local jurisdictions failed to report their inspection data at all. Only 277 of 389 local enforcement agencies reported 2024 data to the state Department of Business and Professional Services, as required by law. In Palm Beach County, only about half of local officials reported the data in 2025.
- And more than two dozen condo buildings were deemed unsafe or uninhabitable after inspections—but only a few were vacated. The report offered no explanation about why some of the properties were not cleared of residents, or if they were shored up or evacuated later.
“The part of this report that confuses me is the 54 buildings that were deemed unsafe and uninhabitable in 2024 and 2025 yet are still occupied,” said Phil Masi, of Lake Mary, agency president for Gallagher and one of the top condo insurance brokers in the state. “There has to be more to the story there, but the report doesn’t really go into any detail.”
The names and locations of the unlivable buildings were not included in the 24-page report. OPPAGA Staff Director Alex Regalado could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The report did explain that statutes do not define “unsafe” or “uninhabitable,” resulting in different approaches by local officials.
Despite the questions, though, the analysis does provide some valuable insight, stakeholders said.
“It’s a good start,” said Dawn Bauman, CEO of the Community Associations Institute, which supported the 2022 Florida inspection law and has tracked the market for years. “It demonstrates that condo buildings in Florida are working towards their inspections and making sure maintenance and repairs are being done.”
The report explained that the law requires two phases of inspections: Phase One involves visual inspections by architects or engineers. If they see red flags, Phase Two inspections will be ordered, involving digging into support structures and testing of materials.
The report indicates that after 8,736 Phase One inspections were completed in 2024 and 2025, some 2,500 Phase Two inspections were required (but only 1,575 were completed). The inspections resulted in more than 900 repair plans.
Most importantly, Bauman said, the study, despite its lack of complete information, shows that only a tiny fraction of inspected buildings were found to be unsafe enough to be considered uninhabitable.
Bauman said she hopes property insurance carriers will not use the report to non-renew condo association policies in a market that already went through a turbulent period after the Champlain Towers South collapsed in 2021, killing 98 people.
Florida insurance brokers said there’s little chance of that, at least for now. The condo insurance market has softened considerably in the last 12 months, thanks largely to the other big 2022 legislative reform package, which relieved insurers of the burden of excessive claims litigation and cost, brokers said.
Condo association policy premiums doubled from 2022 to 2024, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation data show, according to news reports. But in the last 12 months, premiums have fallen by as much as 40% in some cases, said Matt Mercier, head of the community association division at CBIZ Insurance services.
Brokers and agents have been able to leverage the drop in prices to find remarkably low rates for condo associations around the state, he noted. And carriers in this soft market are less aggressive in underwriting, pushing back a little less on condo associations, Masi noted.
Still, the inspection report is likely to garner some scrutiny from carriers and others in Florida.
“There is some concern that there seems to be low compliance with the law on this, and there may not be a lot of enforcement,” said Travis Moore, a Florida consultant and lobbyist who represents condominium associations. “A lot of communities are complying, but not all are.”
Property insurance carriers will still want to see that the inspection reports have been completed, said Masi, the Gallagher broker.
“They are not looking to insure buildings with major structural issues, especially if there is no detail/plan on improvements,” he said in an email. “If the buildings that are granted extensions can provide good information proving they are taking the proper steps and the building is safe, then in this market the property carriers will work with them, which was not as much the case a few years back.”
That could change a bit if more inspections are completed and more buildings are tagged as unsafe. Insurers may tighten underwriting requirements and seek to raise premiums or reduce coverage, brokers said.
Masi noted that part of the reason for missing data is that some local building officials may not have mastered the process for reporting, and state authorities may not be enforcing the 2022 statutory reporting mandates.
The authors of the OPPAGA report agreed that local officials may need some help. The state Department of Business and Professional Services should consider providing local agencies with guidance for submitting data, through webinars or training tutorials, the report reads.
The full report can be seen here.
Related: Trouble at Surfside Began Weeks Before Deadly Condo Collapse, Final Report Finds
Top photo: News crews at the Surfside condominium collapse, June 24, 2021. (DepositPhotos)
Topics Florida
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