The December 31, 2025 deadline for Florida’s Structural Integrity Reserve Study has come and gone. For thousands of condominium and cooperative associations across the state, what comes next is not just a question of engineering reports — it’s a question of how those reports translate into financial statements that an independent CPA can audit and sign off on.
The shift this year is significant. For the first time, Florida condo associations with three or more habitable stories are required to fully fund the eight mandatory structural components identified in their SIRS — roof, structural elements, foundations, fireproofing, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, and windows. Owners can no longer vote to waive those reserves. And, crucially, the funding now has to be reflected accurately in the association’s audited financial statements under Florida Statute 718.111(13).
That sounds technical on paper. In practice, it is reshaping how boards across the state are approaching this year’s engagement.
The numbers have changed — quietly, but dramatically
Conversations in Florida community-association forums and real-estate groups tell the story. Boards that previously operated on $80,000 annual audits and modest reserve schedules are now looking at financial statements with reserve line items in the hundreds of thousands — sometimes millions — of dollars. Special assessments at communities like The Cricket Club in North Miami and Mediterranean Village in Aventura have run into the six figures per unit. Those numbers don’t just affect homeowners; they reshape every line of the audited balance sheet.
What used to be a comparatively routine audit — confirming bank balances, sampling expenditures, testing receivables — now demands a far more careful look at how reserve funds are classified, restricted, disclosed, and reconciled to the underlying SIRS. The structural pool cannot be commingled with operating funds or reallocated to non-structural expenses. Auditors are expected to verify those boundaries. Boards are expected to document them.
“For many associations, this will be the first audit cycle where the financial statements have to tell a coherent story about long-deferred structural funding — and the story has to match the engineering report.”
Why the timing is uncomfortable
Compounding the difficulty is the calendar. Under HB 913, boards must also adopt 2026 budgets that fully fund SIRS components, sign affidavits confirming receipt of the study, and distribute the SIRS to unit owners within 45 days of completion. Each of these creates a paper trail that an audit will touch. For directors, the responsibility is now a fiduciary one: failing to complete or fund a SIRS is treated, under current Florida law, as a breach of duty.
The result is an audit environment unlike anything Florida condo boards have navigated before. Associations that took a wait-and-see posture in 2024 and 2025 are finding that the technical demands of a 2026 audit — and the disclosures it requires — have outpaced what their existing reporting setup was built to handle.
