Structural / Electrical Certification

Building recertification is a county-level requirement that an aging building be certified as structurally and electrically safe for continued occupancy by a licensed engineer or architect, on a recurring schedule. It is administered locally, not by the state. Miami-Dade County runs its own program, restructured in June 2022 from the legacy 40-year program. Broward County operates the Building Safety Inspection Program under Board of Rules and Appeals Policy 05-05, administered by individual municipalities. Palm Beach County has no unified county program; municipalities such as Boca Raton adopted their own ordinances.

The term persists but the schedule changed. Since June 2022, Miami-Dade recertifies coastal condominium and cooperative buildings within three miles of the coast that are three stories or taller at 25 years if built in 1998 or later, and buildings generally outside that coastal band at 30 years if built in 1993 or later, with recertification every 10 years after. Buildings built on or before 1982 that already went through the 40-year program continue on their existing 10-year schedule. If someone tells you your Miami-Dade building is on a 40-year clock, check the current schedule against your certificate of occupancy date.

Yes. County recertification requires certification that the building is both structurally and electrically safe, and the two are separate professional attestations. Many associations engage two firms for this and end up coordinating between them — separate site visits, separate schedules, separate reports arriving at different times, and each firm pointing at the other when the building department has a question. Advanced Structural Solutions performs both under one contract, which removes the coordination burden and usually removes a duplicate mobilisation cost as well.

Infrared thermography is a non-contact inspection that images heat distribution across energised electrical equipment. Loose connections, overloaded conductors and failing components run hot before they fail, so thermography identifies problems that a visual inspection cannot see and that would otherwise progress to an arc fault or fire. Miami-Dade requires it on electrical systems operating at 400 amperes or greater, using approved equipment operated by a certified technician. The scan must be performed with the system energised and under load, which requires coordination with building operations.

The Broward Building Safety Inspection Program is a county program administered by each municipality, and it differs from the state milestone inspection in two ways that matter. First, it covers residential and commercial buildings alike and is not limited to condominium or cooperative ownership or to buildings of three or more habitable stories. Second, it runs on its own clock, so a Broward building can owe both a BSIP recertification and a state milestone inspection with different deadlines. Because each municipality administers the program itself, the operative trigger age varies — confirm yours with your city building department.

Recertification is not pass or fail in the way an exam is. The engineer certifies the building as safe, or documents the deficiencies that prevent certification. Where deficiencies exist, the association corrects them and the building is re-inspected. In Broward, repairs are generally due within 180 days of the report date, with extension letters valid for up to a further 180 days. Timelines and penalties are set locally, so they vary by jurisdiction. A building with serious unresolved deficiencies can face an unsafe structure determination, which is a materially different and more serious situation.

Not in Miami-Dade. The county provides mandatory photo and report templates and rejects submissions on proprietary forms. This is a common and avoidable source of delay: a technically sound report filed on the wrong template gets returned, and the association loses weeks against a statutory clock. Confirm before engaging any firm that they prepare Miami-Dade submissions on current county templates. Other jurisdictions have their own submission requirements, which is a further reason to establish which program applies before field work begins.

In Broward, notices are typically mailed between June 1 and August 31, and the owner generally has 180 days from notice to submit the certification report. Miami-Dade notifies property owners on its own recertification schedule. In both cases the notice period is shorter than it feels, because the association usually has to solicit proposals, select a firm, schedule field work around occupied units, allow time for report preparation, and absorb any building department review comments — all inside the same window. Associations that wait for the notice before starting the procurement process routinely need an extension.

Possibly, and they are separate obligations on separate clocks. The milestone inspection is a state requirement under Statute 553.899 for condominium and cooperative buildings of three habitable stories or more. County recertification is local, and in Broward it reaches commercial buildings and buildings below three stories that the state requirement does not touch. A Broward condominium building can therefore owe a BSIP recertification, a state milestone inspection, and a structural integrity reserve study, with three different deadlines. Mapping all three at once is the first thing we do on any engagement.