Existing buildings
A clear path from the Miami-Dade notice to a closed recertification — inspection, the structural report on the county’s form, repair scope, reinspection.
- Applies to
- Existing buildings
- Coverage
- Miami-Dade County, Florida
When you need it
A notice arrives with a deadline.
The Notice of Required Inspection comes with forms and very little explanation of what actually has to happen. Boards and owners need someone who knows the county’s sequence and can carry the structural side of it from the first site visit to the report that closes the recertification.
- 01A Notice of Required Inspection has arrived from your city or from Miami-Dade County — or a courtesy notice says one is on its way.
- 02A previous report listed repairs and the recertification is still open.
- 03You are buying or managing a Miami-Dade building and want to know where it stands in the recertification cycle.
Condominium, cooperative and homeowner associations · Property managers · Building owners and asset managers
Scope & deliverables
What's included
- Review of the notice, the building’s records and prior reports
- Structural inspection on site — frame, slabs, balconies, facade, roof and foundations
- Classification of observed conditions by structural significance
- Repair scope defined so contractors bid the same work
- Reinspection of completed repairs
- Answers to the reviewing office’s questions on the structural report
What you receive
- Structural recertification report on the county’s own form, signed and sealed
- Photographic record of observed conditions
- Written repair scope where repairs are needed
- Letter on whether the building can remain occupied during repairs, where required
- Amended report after repairs
Next step
Send the notice — a phone photo is enough — or the address and the year built. We confirm what your Building Official is asking for and reply with a proposal for the inspection and the structural report.
When it applies
Miami-Dade County
- Applies to
- Almost every building type — condominiums, co-ops, apartments, offices, retail and industrial. Outside the program: single-family homes, duplexes, and buildings with both an occupant load of 10 or less under the Florida Building Code and a gross area of 2,000 sq ft or less.
- First due
- At 30 years — 25 for condominium and cooperative buildings of three or more stories within 3 miles of the coast. Age is counted from the year built on the Property Appraiser’s record.
- Then
- Every 10 years, for the life of the structure.
- Time to file
- 90 days from the Notice of Required Inspection. Courtesy notices should arrive two years and one year ahead; not receiving them does not move the deadline.
- If repairs are needed
- 150 days from the Notice to finish repairs that need no permit and to obtain permits for the rest. Permitted work then follows its permit, and an amended report closes the recertification.
- Condominiums & co-ops
- The recertification serves as compliance with the state milestone inspection — no separate milestone report is filed.
Code of Miami-Dade County, Section 8-11(f)
The notice comes from the Building Official of your city, or from the county in unincorporated areas, and the report is filed with that same office. For condominium and cooperative buildings of three habitable stories or more, the recertification report serves as the state milestone inspection, and the board’s duties to unit owners under state law (Florida Statute 553.899) remain: within 14 days of receiving the notice, tell them about the required inspection and the date it must be completed; within 45 days of receiving the report, send every owner the engineer’s summary, post it in a conspicuous place on the property, and publish the report and the summary on the association’s website where the association is required to have one.
Last verified: October 4, 2026
Building in Broward?See the BSIP→
How the work runs
Notice review
We read the notice and the building’s history, and confirm what the Building Official is asking for and by when.
Inspection
Structural inspection on site — frame, slabs, balconies, facade, roof and exposed foundations — documented with photographs tied to their locations.
Report filed
The structural report goes on the county’s own form, signed and sealed, and is filed even when it lists repairs. The county asks for the report first, not after the work.
Repairs under permit
Where repairs are needed, we define what has to be corrected so contractors bid the same work. Repairs that need a permit wait for it, then follow its schedule.
Reinspection
Completed repairs are reinspected and documented against the original findings.
Close-out
An amended report states that the repairs are complete. That is what closes the recertification, until the next cycle.
Good to know
What changes the scope — and what no engineer can promise.
- Still widely called the “40-year recertification” — the first one now falls due earlier, at the ages listed above.
- Miami-Dade’s program asks for a structural report and an electrical report. We prepare the structural report; the electrical report is signed by a professional qualified in electrical design.
- Buildings over three stories or 50 feet are “threshold buildings”, and their structural report must come from an engineer with the additional qualifications Miami-Dade County requires. We confirm this for your building before we propose.
- The structural and electrical reports go on the county’s own forms; a firm’s own form is not accepted. The county’s packet also includes certificates for parking-lot illumination and, where a lot is next to water, guardrails.
- The building is judged against the code in force when it was built. Recertification does not require bringing it up to today’s code.
- The Building Official may grant an extension of up to 60 days to file the report or to obtain permits, on a signed and sealed request from the engineer stating that the building can remain occupied.
- The amended report that closes a recertification comes from the engineer or architect who filed the original report. If another firm filed yours, say so when you write — we confirm what closing it will take before we propose.
- A condition that puts life or property in danger is reported to the owner and to the Building Official; the engineer has a duty to do so.
- Each city runs its own notices and filing, and may have its own forms. Questions about a notice go to the office that sent it, and we read your city’s letter first.
- A report documents observed conditions; concealed ones may need further investigation, and no engineer can guarantee how a reviewing office will act on it.
Next step
A county notice in your hand, a building that worries you or a new project — describe it and attach what you have. A phone photo of the letter is enough. You hear back from the engineer, with questions or with a written proposal.