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 Bu
siness 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 bu
Watch More Image Part 2 >>>
ildings were deemed unsafe or uninhabitable after inspections—but only a few were vacated. The report offered no explanation about why some of the prop
erties 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 u
nlivable 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.