Short answer
Within 45 days of receiving the study, give every owner a copy or a notice that it is available, and file a completion statement with the state division. An officer or director also signs an affidavit acknowledging receipt. Then the numbers go into the next budget, and SIRS reserves cannot be waived.
Commissioning a SIRS reserve study is the part boards plan for. The weeks after the report lands get less attention, yet that is where the statute puts its paperwork, and where a director’s own signature comes in. This note walks through what Florida law asks of a condominium board once the structural integrity reserve study is in hand, in the order it tends to happen.
The clock starts on receipt
Every deadline in this stretch runs from the day the association receives the completed study, not the day the site visit happened or the day the board meets to discuss it. Write the receipt date down. If the provider sends a draft for comment first, agree in writing which version counts as the completed study, because a long review of a draft can quietly eat the 45 days.
Task one: tell the owners
Paragraph (g)11 of s. 718.112(2) gives the association 45 days to do one of two things for every unit owner:
- deliver a copy of the study, or
- send a notice that the study is available and that a copy will be provided on written request.
Either route complies. The choice is practical. Delivering the whole report answers questions before they are asked, but SIRS reports can run long and include cost estimates the board may want to explain in person. A notice is lighter, but the board then has to handle each written request promptly. Many associations send the notice with a short cover letter summarizing the funding plan and the date of the budget meeting where it will be discussed.
Whichever route the board picks, keep proof: the mailing or email log, the date sent and a copy of what went out. If the association uses electronic notice, make sure each owner has consented to it under the association’s documents.
Task two: tell the state
Paragraph (g)12 adds a second 45-day task: a statement to the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes confirming that the study was completed and that the association has given owners the copy or notice. The division posts the form for this statement on its website. Download it fresh each time rather than reusing an old copy.
This statement is separate from the study form itself. Under (g)13 the division adopts the SIRS form by rule, working with the Florida Building Commission, and the provider prepares the study on it. The board’s job is the completion statement, not the study form.
Task three: the affidavit
Paragraph (g)10 requires an officer or director to sign an affidavit acknowledging receipt of the completed study. It is short, but it matters: it fixes in the record that the board had the report. The same paragraph makes it a breach of an officer’s or director’s fiduciary duty to willfully and knowingly fail to complete a SIRS.
Two practical points. First, decide at a board meeting who will sign, and minute it, so the signature is not left to whoever happens to be available. Second, keep the signed affidavit with the official records alongside the study itself. Directors change; the record should not depend on anyone’s memory.
Task four: carry the numbers into the budget
The paperwork is the easy part. The study exists to set reserves, and for an owner-controlled association that must have a SIRS, budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024 may not provide no reserves, or less than required, for the SIRS items. Owners cannot vote that away.
So the next proposed budget needs a reserve line for each SIRS item, or a pooled account for two or more of them, which HB 913 now allows. The statute asks the study for a reserve funding schedule that reaches each item’s replacement cost or deferred maintenance expense by the end of its remaining useful life, and a baseline plan that keeps the reserve cash balance above zero every year. The board’s budget should follow one of those, and the minutes should say which.
If the numbers are hard to carry, the options are about how to fund, not whether: regular assessments, special assessments, a loan or a line of credit approved under the statute’s voting rules, or the temporary post-milestone pause for budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2028. The funding page sets them out.
Task five: plan the next one
A SIRS is due at least every 10 years. Put the next date in the association’s calendar now, along with the next milestone inspection date if one applies. If the two fall close together, the statute allows a milestone inspection from the past five years to replace the SIRS visual inspection, which is worth planning around.
A simple timeline
| Day | Task |
|---|---|
| 0 | Study received. Record the date and the version. |
| By 14 | Board meeting: accept the report, name who signs the affidavit, choose copy or notice. |
| By 30 | Owner copies or notices sent; affidavit signed and filed with the records. |
| By 45 | Completion statement filed with the division; proof of mailing kept. |
| Next budget | SIRS reserve lines adopted, unwaived. |
The timeline is our suggestion; only the 45-day limits come from the statute. Leaving slack before day 45 covers a returned mailing or a board meeting that slips.
Where boards go wrong
The common slips are small ones. Counting from the board meeting instead of from receipt. Sending a notice that does not say how to request a copy. Filing nothing with the division because the provider “handled the form”. Letting the affidavit sit unsigned because nobody was named. Each is easy to avoid with one agenda item and one calendar entry.
None of this needs a lawyer for routine compliance, but anything unusual does: a disputed report, a provider conflict, or a budget the owners have rejected. In those cases, take the question to the association’s attorney before day 45, not after.