A condo on Anna Maria Island charging $650 a month in fees and a condo on Longboat Key charging $1,050 look like an easy comparison. The Anna Maria unit looks like the deal. But that comparison skips the one detail that actually determines your risk in 2026: whether Florida law requires that building to show you its books at all.
Since July 2025, a Florida law called HB 913 has been forcing older condo buildings to stop hiding reserve shortfalls behind low monthly dues. It only applies to buildings three stories or taller. Anna Maria Island's zoning bans high-rise condos outright, which means a meaningful share of its low-rise, cottage-style buildings sit outside the law's reach entirely. Longboat Key's resort towers and much of Siesta Key's denser inventory do not get that exemption. They were required to complete a formal reserve study by the end of 2025, and starting January 1, 2026, they can no longer vote to underfund it. That single height threshold is quietly splitting the barrier island condo market into two groups: buildings the law now forces to be transparent, and buildings it never touches.
Why This Is Landing on Buyers Right Now
The current wave of activity traces back to the 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside. The legislature's response, SB 4-D in 2022 and SB 154 in 2023, created two requirements for condo and co-op buildings three stories or higher: a milestone structural inspection and a Structural Integrity Reserve Study, known as a SIRS. HB 913, which took effect July 1, 2025, sharpened both.
The milestone inspection is a physical safety check. Phase 1 is visual; if it flags concerns, Phase 2 can involve destructive testing that uncovers hidden damage. It's generally due once a building turns 30 years old, or 25 years if it sits near the coast. The SIRS is a separate financial document. It defines how much the association must save for eight structural categories, including roof, load-bearing walls, fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, and windows or exterior doors, plus a catch-all category that Florida's regulator set at $25,675 for 2026.
The deadline to complete that first SIRS was December 31, 2025, for most existing associations, with a narrow allowance letting buildings whose milestone inspection falls due by the end of 2026 complete both studies together, but never later than that date. Once the SIRS exists, the law is blunt: as of January 1, 2026, an association cannot vote to waive or underfund reserves for those eight components, no matter what the membership prefers.
Same Fee, Three Different Risk Profiles
That difference shows up unevenly across the three islands.
| Island | Typical building stock | Typical monthly condo fee | Where the risk actually sits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anna Maria Island | Mostly low-rise, cottage-style, pre-2000; high-rises barred by zoning | Roughly $500 to $850 | Many buildings fall under three stories, so they may not be legally required to have a SIRS at all. Less mandated disclosure, not less risk. |
| Longboat Key | High-rise resort towers with pools, security, and concierge services | Roughly $900 to $1,400 | Fees already run high because flood insurance is bundled into every unit's dues on an island fully surrounded by water. Assessments tend to hit structural and seawall items. |
| Siesta Key | Mixed-age stock, denser, closer to the commercial village core | Wide range, but assessments on underfunded buildings have run $25,000 to $60,000 or more per unit | Older buildings, especially pre-1980 construction, carry the largest gap between what owners have been paying and what the SIRS now says they owe. |
The Longboat Key and taller Siesta Key buildings are the ones the law was built for. They had to produce a SIRS, and that document is now the most useful thing a buyer can request, because it tells you in plain numbers whether the association is catching up or already caught up. The Anna Maria Island cottage buildings are a different problem. If a building doesn't reach three stories, there's no legal mandate forcing a SIRS to exist, which means a buyer there can't lean on the law to do the homework. The reserve study still needs to be requested voluntarily, and its absence isn't a green flag. It's just silence.
The Paperwork That Matters More Than the View
Four documents do more to protect a barrier island condo buyer than any listing photo:
- The SIRS report, if the building has one, showing the funding level for each of the eight structural categories.
- The milestone inspection report, showing whether Phase 1 or Phase 2 findings flagged structural deterioration that requires immediate repair.
- The current reserve study and annual budget, showing whether contributions match what the SIRS recommends.
- The estoppel certificate, the document that discloses any assessment that has already been approved or is pending a vote, and confirms who is contractually responsible for it.
Florida's condo statute requires at least 14 days' notice before an association can approve a special assessment, and owners are legally obligated to pay based on their unit's ownership share. Whether a seller or buyer covers an assessment approved before closing comes down to what the purchase contract says. If nothing is written in, the owner of record at the time the assessment is levied typically owns the bill, which is exactly why buyers who wait until the final week to request the estoppel certificate sometimes discover a seawall or concrete restoration assessment days before they're set to close.
Florida's condo buyer protections also give purchasers seven days to review financial and inspection information before they're bound to the purchase agreement. That window exists specifically so a buyer can look at the SIRS, the milestone report, and the reserve study before committing, not after.
What Happens If You Skip This
The consequences aren't limited to a surprise bill. Citizens Property Insurance is barred by statute from issuing or renewing policies for associations that haven't completed both the milestone inspection and the SIRS, and private carriers have adopted the same underwriting logic, often requiring a SIRS summary or a state compliance affidavit before they'll even generate a quote. Buildings flagged for significant deferred maintenance or insufficient reserves can also land on a lender's non-warrantable list, which cuts off conventional financing regardless of how much the buyer wants the unit.
Since associations must now submit SIRS data electronically to the state within 45 days of completion, that information is visible to lenders and insurers doing their own underwriting. A building that's behind isn't hiding it anymore. The question is whether the buyer checked before or after signing.
What This Means If You're Shopping This Fall
If you're looking at a Longboat Key high-rise or a taller Siesta Key building, start by asking for the SIRS and the milestone inspection report before you write an offer, not after. If both exist and reserves are funded near the recommended level, you're looking at a building that's already absorbed the hard part. If they show a gap, ask directly whether the board expects to close it through a special assessment, a loan, or the temporary funding pause HB 913 allows for boards that just completed repairs.
If you're looking at a low-rise Anna Maria Island building that may fall outside the mandate, treat the absence of a SIRS as a reason to ask more questions, not fewer. Request the reserve study voluntarily, review board minutes from the past two to three years, and don't assume a lower monthly fee reflects efficient management rather than deferred maintenance that hasn't come due yet.
Either way, the estoppel certificate is not optional paperwork to glance at during the final week. It's the one document that tells you, in writing, what's already been voted on and who is going to pay for it.
A Few Questions We Hear Often
If a special assessment gets approved after I close, am I responsible for it? Generally yes, unless the purchase contract specifically states otherwise. Florida law places the obligation on the unit's owner of record at the time the assessment is levied, which is why the estoppel certificate and contract language both matter before closing, not after.
What's the real difference between a milestone inspection and a SIRS? The milestone inspection is a physical safety assessment of the building's current condition. The SIRS is the financial plan that determines how much the association needs to save, and by when, to maintain that safety over time. A building can pass one and still be behind on the other.
Can financing fall through because of a building's reserve status? It can. Buildings without a completed SIRS or milestone inspection, or those flagged for deferred maintenance, risk being classified as non-warrantable by lenders, which limits conventional financing options regardless of the buyer's own credit profile.
Barrier island condos still make sense for a lot of buyers looking at Anna Maria Island, Longboat Key, or Siesta Key this fall. The building's fee just isn't the number that tells you the whole story anymore. If you want a second set of eyes on a SIRS report, a milestone inspection summary, or an estoppel certificate before you write an offer, S&J Hill Realtors works these documents with buyers across the Gulf Coast barrier islands every week. Start with our buyer's guide or browse current listings on our Gulf Coast Barrier Islands page, and reach out through our contact page when you're ready to look at a specific building's paperwork together.