"Across the board when you talk to people that live in condos, quarterly payments have gone up quite a bit."
That's Longboat Key Mayor Debra Williams, describing what she hears from residents these days, in a report Your Observer ran this spring on how the island's condo buildings fared under Florida's post-Surfside inspection law. The headline of that story was good news: every one of the island's older condo buildings that needed a structural checkup got one, and nearly all of them passed clean. The number buried underneath the good news is the one that actually matters if you're shopping for a condo here in 2026.
Longboat Key's Planning, Zoning and Building Director, Allen Parsons, told the paper that 198 buildings on the island required milestone inspections under the state's rules. All 198 received passing grades on their first round. Only two needed a follow-up Phase 2 review. Structurally, the island is in fine shape.
Financially, that's a separate question, and it's the one buyers keep tripping over.
The bill Florida spent decades not sending
Florida's milestone inspection and Structural Integrity Reserve Study rules trace back to Senate Bill 4-D, passed in May 2022 after the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside killed 98 people. Lawmakers refined it with Senate Bill 154 in 2023 and House Bill 913 in 2025. The rule that matters most for a buyer today isn't the inspection itself. It's the SIRS, the study that comes with the inspection and forces an association to say, in writing, what percentage of its future repair costs it has actually saved for.
Before this law, Florida condo associations could vote to waive or reduce reserve funding, and plenty did, for years, because it kept quarterly dues looking reasonable on paper. That's not a scandal. It's what you'd expect when the people voting on the budget aren't always the people who'll own the unit when the roof or the plumbing stack finally needs replacing. The cost didn't disappear. It moved down the road to whoever owned the unit when the bill came due.
For associations whose budgets were adopted before December 31, 2024, a majority vote can still waive some of that SIRS-required funding, but they had to start funding it according to the study beginning January 1, 2026. For any budget adopted on or after that date, the waiver option is gone entirely. Either way, 2026 is the year the deferred math starts showing up in real dollar figures, which is exactly why a law passed four years ago is only now translating into the special assessments Mayor Williams is hearing about. Statewide reporting on the new rules puts the range of these catch-up assessments anywhere from $10,000 to well over $100,000 per unit, depending on what the building had been deferring.
David Novak, who manages more than 900 residential units on the island through Longboat Private Services, told Your Observer that the cost of condo ownership has climbed noticeably since 2021. That's the same conclusion the mayor reached from the resident side of the conversation, and it's the reason a passing inspection report and a comfortable monthly fee are no longer the same signal.
Same street, same era, wildly different outcome
Public sale records don't publish a building's reserve percentage. What they do show is price, and if you line up recent closings from a single stretch of Longboat Key, the spread tells you something the inspection report alone can't.
Pulling from Your Observer's weekly residential sales log for the island in June and July 2026:
| Address, Unit | Built | 2026 Sale Price | Prior Sale | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2525 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Unit 3-D | 1972 | $1,575,000 (July) | $1,101,000 (2021) | up roughly 43% in 5 years |
| 4960 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Unit 206 | 1975 | $645,000 (July) | $827,000 (2023) | down roughly 22% in 3 years |
| 4835 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Unit 302 | 1970 | $770,000 (June) | $650,000 (2015) | up roughly 18% over 11 years |
| 435 L'Ambiance Drive, Unit J-704 | 1994 | $2,725,000 (June/July) | $755,000 (1994) | more than tripled over 32 years |
(Sales sourced from Your Observer's June 29–July 3 report and July 13–17 report for Longboat, Lido, St. Armands and Bird Key.)
Look at the first three rows. Three buildings, all constructed within five years of each other, all sitting on the same road. One gained 43% in five years. One lost 22% in three. One barely kept pace with inflation over more than a decade. Square footage, floor, and finish explain part of that spread, but not all of it. Buildings this close in age on the same corridor are also at nearly the same point in their milestone and SIRS cycle, and a building that's cleanly funded reads very differently to a buyer's lender and a buyer's insurance underwriter than one that isn't.
The table doesn't prove which of these three had a clean reserve study and which didn't. That's the point. The answer isn't in the tax roll. It's in paperwork the association is required to produce, but only if you ask for it before you're locked into a contract.
What to actually request before you write an offer
If you're comparing two Longboat Key condos with similar dues and similar finishes, ask the listing agent or the association's management company for these five documents before you commit:
- The milestone inspection report, including a Phase 2 report if one was ordered
- The Structural Integrity Reserve Study, with the percent-funded figure for each individual component, not just a single combined total
- The last two years of approved budgets and actual financial statements, so you can see whether contributions have matched what the SIRS recommended
- A written history of special assessments over the past five years, plus disclosure of anything pending or under board discussion
- The master insurance policy's declarations page and the most recent renewal notice, since carriers are increasingly pricing premiums off milestone results
Florida's standard condo purchase contract includes a document review period built for exactly this. Use it before deciding whether the building you're looking at is one where the previous owners already paid for its future, or one where you'd be the one picking up the tab.
If you're weighing a purchase on the island, our Longboat Key neighborhood guide is a starting point, and our buyer resources walk through the broader process alongside it.
The takeaway underneath the good news
Longboat Key's condo stock passed its safety test. That part of the 2026 story is settled and it's genuinely reassuring. What isn't settled, building by building, is who has already paid for the next thirty years of upkeep and who is still catching up. That's not a number you'll find advertised in a listing. It's a number your agent should be pulling for you before you ever get to the closing table.
A few direct answers
Does any of this apply to single-family homes on Longboat Key? No. Milestone inspections and SIRS requirements apply only to condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or taller. Single-family homeowners handle their own maintenance and insurance decisions independently, without an association-wide reserve study governing the timeline.
What if a building hasn't finished its SIRS yet? Associations with a milestone inspection due by December 31, 2026 can complete their SIRS at the same time, but the study can't be completed any later than that date under current state rules. If a building you're considering hasn't finished either document, ask exactly where it stands in that timeline before you write an offer.
Can a seller just not mention a pending assessment? Under longstanding Florida law, sellers are required to disclose known material facts about a property, and a funding shortfall or a pending special assessment tied to a milestone or SIRS finding qualifies. Ask for it in writing rather than relying on it coming up on its own.
Buying or selling a condo on Longboat Key comes with more moving pieces than the listing photos suggest. If you want a second set of eyes on a specific building's paperwork before you make a decision, Anthony LaPorta is glad to help. Let's Connect.
