A SIRS is a Structural Integrity Reserve Study: a required study of your Florida condo building's major structural components and the money needed to maintain and replace them. If your building is three habitable stories or taller, your association must have one, and for budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, owners can no longer vote to waive the reserves it identifies. The short answer to "can my condo waive it": no, not anymore, not for the structural components.
The SIRS is in Florida Statute 718.112(2)(g).
What a SIRS studies
A SIRS applies to condominium buildings three habitable stories or more in height and must be completed at least every 10 years. A licensed professional studies these components at a minimum:
- Roof
- Load-bearing walls and other primary structural members
- Floor
- Foundation
- Fireproofing and fire protection systems
- Plumbing
- Electrical systems
- Waterproofing and exterior painting
- Windows and exterior doors
- Any other item with a deferred maintenance or replacement cost over $25,000 (raised from $10,000 by HB 913 in 2025) whose failure would negatively affect the components above
For each, the study estimates remaining useful life and the reserve funding needed. It is the financial companion to the milestone inspection: the milestone tells you the building's structural condition, the SIRS tells you how to fund keeping it sound.
Can it be waived? Mostly no, with new 2025 flexibility
Under the old rules, owners could vote each year to waive or reduce reserves, and many buildings did, for decades, which is part of what left some structures dangerously underfunded. The law changed. For budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, an association may not determine to provide no reserves or less reserves than required for the components covered by the SIRS. The old annual waiver vote is gone for structural reserves.
What the 2025 update (HB 913) added is breathing room, not a return to waivers. After a milestone inspection, an association may pause or reduce its reserve contributions for up to two budget years (through budgets adopted by the end of 2028) to put that money toward the repairs the inspection identified. It may also fund the required reserves through a special assessment, a line of credit, or a loan if a majority of owners approve. The reserves still have to be funded; HB 913 just gave boards a few more ways, and a little more time, to do it. HB 913 also extended the deadline to complete the first SIRS to December 31, 2025.
The practical result: many associations that historically waived reserves now face higher regular assessments, and sometimes special assessments, to catch up. That is lawful. It is the cost of the safety framework the Legislature adopted after Surfside.
How to tell if your board is out of compliance
- Your building is three or more habitable stories and has no completed SIRS.
- The board will not give you the SIRS.
- A budget adopted on or after December 31, 2024, waives or underfunds the structural reserves the SIRS requires.
Step by step
- Request the SIRS and the reserve budget as official records (/documents/records-inspection-request).
- Compare the SIRS components against the current budget's reserve lines.
- Object in writing if a post-2024 budget waives or underfunds structural reserves, and cite 718.112(2)(g).
- Escalate to DBPR on form 33-032 (/documents/dbpr-complaint-guide). Reserve funding is a financial issue within DBPR's post-turnover jurisdiction.
- Get an attorney if the underfunding points to a serious safety gap or a very large special assessment.
What you can do next
Pull the SIRS and the reserve budget with a records request (/documents/records-inspection-request), and check that structural reserves in any post-2024 budget are funded, not waived. If they are not, file DBPR form 33-032 (/documents/dbpr-complaint-guide).