The State Counted 19 Unsafe Buildings in Aventura. The City Says Zero. What Should a Condo Buyer Read?

"Aventura has zero unsafe structures," city spokesman Evan Ross told the Miami Herald in late July. He was answering a state report that had put 19 of the city's condominium and cooperative buildings on Florida's list of buildings deemed unsafe or uninhabitable after milestone inspections.

Both statements can be read straight from official records, and neither one tells you anything about the tower you're thinking of making an offer on. The 19 says a lot about how inspection data gets reported to Tallahassee and very little about any particular building. The documents that can speak to one building become yours by right only once you sign a contract. In Aventura this fall, it matters more when you read those documents than what the headline said.

A statewide count that is mostly one city

The figure comes from OPPAGA Report 26-04, Milestone Inspection Reporting Data 2024 and 2025. The Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, the Florida Legislature's research office, published it in July 2026. It analyzed what local building officials had submitted to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation through March 31, 2026.

Run the arithmetic on that table. Aventura accounts for 19 of the 24 buildings reported anywhere in Florida in 2025, roughly four out of five. The other four in Miami-Dade were reported by North Miami, according to the Miami Herald. To take the table at face value, you would have to believe that one city of high-rises in northeast Miami-Dade holds almost all of the state's unsafe or uninhabitable buildings. That pattern points first to how the numbers were reported.

The city has said so directly. The Herald reported that Aventura's building official sent an email saying the buildings were "reported by mistake in the wrong category." Ross said the city had 20-something open permits covering work in 19 buildings, all part of the recertification the law requires. The city asked OPPAGA to amend the report.

"From our standpoint, based on the information we have from OPPAGA, the report is not wrong. The report cites … the data that they used. It explains the data that they didn't have."

That was Florida Senate spokeswoman Katie Betta, speaking to the Miami Herald. She said the Legislature had not asked for a revised report and had no plans to issue one.

Why reporting can make a city look worse than staying silent

The report itself explains how one city could produce most of a statewide total. Section 553.899 of the Florida Statutes requires building officials to list buildings deemed unsafe or uninhabitable, but it doesn't define either word. Officials told OPPAGA they used the Florida Building Code's definition of unsafe, their own local ordinances, or the judgment of the engineer who did the inspection. So the same building could be counted in one city and left off the list in the next.

OPPAGA also flagged problems with how the data was collected. DBPR didn't verify that the people submitting reports were actually serving as local building officials. The form had no instructions about jurisdiction, allowed reports on buildings that aren't condos or co-ops, and was reused from one reporting year to the next.

Then there are the cities that reported nothing. In 2025, 7 of Miami-Dade's 34 municipal building officials didn't report. The figures were 7 of 31 in Broward and 17 of 39 in Palm Beach. A city that filed nothing adds zero to the unsafe column. A city that filed in the wrong category adds 19. A buyer comparing Aventura with Sunny Isles Beach, Bal Harbour or Fort Lauderdale on the strength of this table would really be comparing filing habits.

On the question that matters most, the report has a gap. OPPAGA asked Aventura whether any of the 19 buildings had been vacated and got no answer. The three officials who did respond for five other 2025 buildings said none had been vacated. Ross told the Herald that evacuation had "never been any consideration" because the buildings are "perfectly safe for people to live in." The report names no buildings and gives no addresses.

The system may tighten. WUSF reported on July 31 that DBPR's building-code board planned rulemaking on enforcement for late reporting. For now, the statewide tally can't be used to screen individual buildings, in Aventura or anywhere else.

The building-level evidence sits behind the contract

To learn about one tower, you need that building's own paperwork. Under DBPR guidance, condo and co-op buildings at least three habitable stories tall need a milestone inspection at 30 years and every 10 years after that, or at 25 years where local circumstances warrant it. Associations also have to commission a structural integrity reserve study, or SIRS, which sets out how much money the association needs to set aside for major structural components.

Most buyers first hit friction here, and it comes from the order things happen in. Associations with 25 or more units must post inspection reports and their most recent SIRS on a website or app, but that is a protected area for unit owners and association employees. A buyer still shopping can't log in. The documents become yours to request once you are under contract.

Under the 2026 version of section 718.503, a resale buyer who has signed a contract is entitled, at the seller's expense, to current copies of:

1. The declaration of condominium, articles of incorporation, and the association's bylaws and rules
2. The annual financial statement and annual budget
3. The inspector-prepared summary of the milestone inspection report, where one applies
4. The association's most recent SIRS, or a statement that none has been completed
5. The turnover inspection report, for turnover inspections performed on or after July 1, 2023
6. The "Frequently Asked Questions and Answers" document

The buyer is also entitled to receive a governance form from the seller, which summarizes how condominium associations are governed.

For resale contracts signed after December 31, 2024, in an association that has completed these items, the statute requires two clauses in conspicuous type. One acknowledges that the buyer received the milestone summary and the SIRS more than 7 days before signing, not counting Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. The other makes the contract voidable by the buyer within 7 such days after the buyer has both signed the contract and received them. If the association was required to complete an inspection or study and hasn't, the contract has to say that instead. A contract missing the required language is voidable at the purchaser's option before closing.

In practice, the documents that can actually tell you about a building come with a short clock that starts once you have signed and the documents are in your hands. If you open the SIRS on day six, you have very little time to have it reviewed.

DBPR does keep a public SIRS reporting database. It is split into submissions made before July 2025 and those made in July 2025 or later, and it shows only complete submissions, exactly as the associations entered them. The reporting form asks whether the association needs a special assessment, loan or line of credit, and how much.

Where the cost of repairs shows up

Once you have the documents, the next question is who pays. HB 913, enacted as Chapter 2025-175 and generally effective July 1, 2025, governs that question this year. Associations may fund SIRS reserves through regular assessments, special assessments, lines of credit or loans. A special assessment, credit line or loan needs approval from a majority of the total voting interests. For associations covered by that provision, the law requires the financing to be disclosed in the annual financial statement and to prospective buyers. That makes the annual financial statement in your contract package a good first place to look for a loan or credit line behind a building's reserves.

Timing matters too. Most existing associations had to finish their SIRS by December 31, 2025. One whose milestone inspection is due by December 31, 2026 may complete the SIRS together with that inspection, but no later than that date. Associations that waived or underfunded SIRS reserves in budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2024 had to start funding on January 1, 2026. Budgets adopted on or after January 1, 2025 can't waive those reserves. An association with a milestone inspection in the prior two calendar years may, with a majority vote, pause or reduce reserve contributions for repairs for up to two consecutive annual budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2028. Any of these can change a building's monthly fees from one year to the next, and the budget and SIRS show which one applies.

This is general information about Florida's condominium statutes, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm how these rules apply to your own contract with a Florida real estate attorney or another qualified professional.

The market gives buyers time to read

Market conditions give buyers room to do that reading. In August 2026, Miami-Dade had 12.1 months of condo supply, which MIAMI REALTORS® classifies as a buyer's market, with 11,495 active listings at month-end. The countywide median condo sale price that month was $408,000, down 0.49% from a year earlier. Condos took a median 66 days to go under contract and 108 days to sell. These are countywide figures, not Aventura-only numbers. Still, a seller with that much competing inventory has good reason to hand over the milestone summary, the SIRS and the latest financial statement early, well before the 7-day window starts running.

Quick answers

Does the OPPAGA report name the 19 Aventura buildings? No. It reports counts by jurisdiction and doesn't list names or addresses.

Has the report been revised? The City of Aventura asked for an amendment. The Florida Senate's spokeswoman told the Miami Herald that no revision was planned.

How many milestone inspections are behind these numbers? Officials reported 8,736 completed phase-one inspections and 1,575 completed phase-two inspections statewide across 2024 and 2025. Phase-two inspections are the more detailed follow-up stage, and the unsafe-or-uninhabitable counts come from them.

Can I see a building's SIRS before making an offer? The full study sits in the association's owner-only records. As a buyer, you are entitled to it once you are under contract, at the seller's expense. Before that, a seller may share it voluntarily if you ask, but the statute doesn't require it.

If you're looking at an Aventura tower, the team at Wolsen Real Estate can request the milestone summary, SIRS and financial statement up front, so you have read them before any deadline starts. Book an appointment and bring us the building you have in mind.