HB 913, Explained: Florida Boards Can Now Fund SIRS Reserves With a Loan or Line of Credit

HB 913 did two things a Florida condo board needs to understand precisely: it bought associations one more year to complete their Structural Integrity Reserve Study, and it put loans and lines of credit on equal statutory footing with special assessments as ways to fund what that study finds. Signed June 23, 2025, effective July 1, 2025 (Ch. 2025-175, Laws of Florida), it's why a board no longer has to choose between "levy a special assessment" and "do nothing" when a SIRS finds a funding gap.

What HB 913 actually changed

Four changes matter for boards funding SIRS reserves:

• SIRS deadline extended. The original completion deadline of December 31, 2024 moved to December 31, 2025 for unit-owner-controlled associations required to have a SIRS (§718.112(2)(g)7, Fla. Stat.).
• Loans and lines of credit formally authorized. SIRS reserves may now be funded by "regular assessments, special assessments, lines of credit, or loans" — not special assessments alone (§718.112(2)(f)2.c, Fla. Stat.).
• The $25,000 threshold. The dollar amount that pulls a maintenance or replacement item into the mandatory SIRS component list rose from $10,000 to $25,000, now indexed to inflation annually (§718.112(2)(f)6, Fla. Stat.).
• A narrow reserve-pause option. An association that completed a milestone inspection within the preceding two years may, by majority vote of the total voting interests, pause or reduce SIRS reserve contributions for up to two consecutive budget years to prioritize milestone-identified repairs, for budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2028.

It also added a "habitable stories" qualifier to the milestone inspection statute (§553.899(3)(a), Fla. Stat.) and expanded inspector conflict-of-interest disclosure requirements. Those matter for compliance timing but aren't the financing story — this piece focuses on the reserve-funding mechanics.

Why HB 913 exists — the compliance backdrop

The SIRS and milestone-inspection regime traces to SB 4-D, passed unanimously in a May 2022 special session after the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside. Before that bill, Florida had no statewide structural inspection mandate — only Miami-Dade and Broward's older 40-year recertification programs — and owner-controlled associations could vote to waive reserves indefinitely.

By the original December 31, 2024 SIRS deadline, compliance was far behind schedule: roughly a third of eligible structures statewide had a completed study, with Miami-Dade at about 44%, Broward at about 41%, and Palm Beach at about 28%. That shortfall — not a change in policy direction — is the direct reason HB 913 extended the deadline rather than relaxing the underlying requirement. Separately, John Burns Research and the Florida Policy Project estimated in January 2025 that roughly 1.1 million Florida condo units are now 30 years or older, which gives a sense of scale for how many buildings this regime eventually reaches.

Who this applies to — condos and co-ops only

SIRS and the financing rules HB 913 amended live in §718.112 of the Condominium Act. They apply to residential condominium associations, for each building three habitable stories or higher, and — under a near-identical parallel regime in §719.106, Fla. Stat. — to cooperatives. There's no age or unit-count exemption; the trigger is purely three-plus habitable stories (§718.112(2)(g)1, Fla. Stat.). Buildings under three stories, and single/two/three/four-family dwellings with three or fewer habitable stories above ground, are exempt (§718.112(2)(g)5, Fla. Stat.).

Chapter 720 HOAs — ordinary single-family and townhome communities — have no SIRS mandate at all. HOA reserves remain voluntary and waivable under separate rules. If your association isn't a condominium or cooperative, none of what follows applies to your reserve-funding obligations, though the general mechanics of how associations borrow still do — see How Does a Condo or HOA Association Loan Work?

The deadline, straightened out

This is where most secondhand coverage gets it wrong. The SIRS completion deadline, as extended by HB 913, is December 31, 2025. Separately, an association whose milestone inspection is also due on or before December 31, 2026 may complete its SIRS at the same time as that inspection — but even then, the SIRS "may [not] be completed after December 31, 2026" (§718.112(2)(g)7, Fla. Stat.). The 12/31/2026 date is an outer bound tied to a specific pairing scenario, not a general SIRS deadline, and it isn't a milestone-inspection deadline either — §553.899 (the milestone statute) sets its own separate 30-year/25-year evergreen schedule.

The 2026 legislative session, which ended March 13, 2026, passed nothing that changed either statute — two bills that would have altered SIRS obligations (SB 722 and SB 1498) both died in committee. As of this writing, the deadlines above are current, but both statutes have been amended in four of the last five years. Re-verify against flsenate.gov before treating any date here as fixed for future planning.

What a SIRS must cover

Based on a visual inspection of the property, a SIRS must at minimum address roof; structure, including load-bearing walls and primary structural members; fireproofing and fire protection systems; plumbing; electrical systems; waterproofing and exterior painting; windows and exterior doors; and any other item with deferred maintenance expense or replacement cost exceeding $25,000 (§718.112(2)(g)1.a–h, Fla. Stat.). For each item, the study must state estimated remaining useful life, estimated replacement or deferred-maintenance cost, and a recommended annual reserve funding amount (§718.112(2)(g)4.a, Fla. Stat.). It must be performed or verified by an engineer licensed under Chapter 471, an architect licensed under Chapter 481, or a certified reserve specialist (§718.112(2)(g)3.a, Fla. Stat.). See SIRS in Florida for the full breakdown of what a SIRS covers, what it typically costs, and how the deadlines work.

A new conflict-of-interest rule, and how long records must be kept

HB 913 also expanded disclosure requirements for the professionals who perform SIRS work: an engineer, architect, or reserve specialist who intends to bid on repair work identified by the study they authored must disclose that in writing, and a violation can render the related repair contract voidable (§718.112(2)(g)3.b, Fla. Stat.). It's a narrow provision, but it matters to a board evaluating bids after a SIRS comes back — if the study's author is also bidding on the repair, that relationship has to be on the table before the contract is signed.

Separately, HB 913 extended the record-retention period for both SIRS and milestone inspection reports to at least 15 years — relevant for any board that later needs to document funding history to a lender, an insurer, or a prospective buyer's attorney.

The reserve-waiver rule HB 913 didn't touch

Boards sometimes conflate two different December 31 dates, and the confusion has real financial consequences. For budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024 — a date HB 913 left unchanged — members of a unit-owner-controlled association required to have a SIRS can no longer vote to provide no reserves, or less than the required reserves, for the SIRS components listed above (§718.112(2)(f)2.b, Fla. Stat.). Members also can't vote to redirect SIRS reserve funds to any other purpose (§718.112(2)(f)3, Fla. Stat.).

That waiver bar took effect before the extended SIRS completion deadline — meaning an association can be legally barred from waiving SIRS reserves for a budget cycle that precedes its own completed SIRS. Non-SIRS reserve items (paving, pool resurfacing, clubhouse components) remain waivable, but only by a majority vote of the total voting interests, a threshold tightened from "majority of those voting" by a 2023 amendment (§718.112(2)(f)2.b, Fla. Stat.).

The financing mechanics — how a board actually uses this

This is the part HB 913 added, and it's a two-step statutory mechanism:

Step one — the vote. A special assessment, line of credit, or loan used to fund SIRS reserves requires a majority vote of the total voting interests — not a supermajority, and not merely a vote of those present at a meeting (§718.112(2)(f)2.c, Fla. Stat.).

Step two — the draw. A unit-owner-controlled association required to have a SIRS may secure a line of credit or loan sufficient to cover cumulative previously waived or unfunded reserve amounts and use it to fund capital expenses required by a milestone inspection or SIRS. Once that financing is secured, funds are "immediately available for access by the board... without further approval by the members" (§718.112(2)(f)2.c, Fla. Stat.). This doesn't apply to developer-controlled associations, or to associations that have been unit-owner-controlled for less than one year.

Two disclosure obligations follow any SIRS-related financing decision: it must appear in the annual financial statement required under §718.111(13), Fla. Stat., and be disclosed to prospective purchasers under §718.503, Fla. Stat. If the SIRS was completed before the board picked a funding method, the study itself must be updated to reflect the chosen method and its effect on the funding schedule (§718.112(2)(g)4.c, Fla. Stat.).

One framing point worth being precise about: HB 913 added loans and lines of credit as co-equal authorized funding options next to special assessments. It did not create a legal duty to consider financing before levying a special assessment — the choice between the two remains the board's, subject to the vote threshold above.

Pooled vs. straight-line — what you can and can't combine

Reserves can generally be pooled — funded collectively through aggregate cash-flow analysis rather than tracked item by item. But reserve funding for SIRS components "may only be pooled with other components listed" in the SIRS section itself (§718.112(2)(f)4, Fla. Stat.). In practice: SIRS items can be pooled with each other, but SIRS money can't be commingled into a general reserve pool with non-SIRS items like paving or furniture. The industry has taken to calling this the "one-way door" — money can't cross from the SIRS side to the general side.

The compliance-to-insurability connection

HB 913's financing tools don't exist in a vacuum — they're arriving alongside a hard insurance market that increasingly prices compliance directly. Carriers underwriting Florida condo master policies now routinely ask "detailed questions about building age, deferred maintenance, structural reports, and reserve funding practices," and associations that can answer well "are generally rewarded with stronger underwriting outcomes," per CBIZ EVP Matt Mercier in June 2026 commentary. Separately, Fannie Mae's list of condo buildings ineligible for standard mortgage financing had grown to 1,438 Florida buildings by April 2025 — more than double the count two years earlier — with inadequate insurance and deferred maintenance as the top two cited reasons.

No regulator or carrier has published a case of a specific building denied coverage explicitly for a missing SIRS or milestone inspection, so it's fair to describe this as documented underwriting scrutiny rather than automatic denial. But the direction is consistent: a funded, on-schedule SIRS is increasingly treated as evidence of a well-run building, both by lenders and by carriers, independent of whether the association pays for it with a special assessment or financing.

Illustrative math: spreading a SIRS gap instead of billing it as one lump sum

Say a hypothetical, composite 400-unit association (not an actual community) has a SIRS that finds a $2,000,000 funding gap across the roof, waterproofing, and electrical components. Billed as a single special assessment split evenly, that's $5,000 per unit, due on the timeline the board sets — often 30 to 90 days for a lump sum, or spread across a short installment schedule if the board offers one.

Financed instead and repaid over a longer period through regular assessments, that same $2,000,000 principal obligation — before financing costs, which vary by lender and aren't quoted here — spreads the $5,000-per-unit obligation across the loan term rather than concentrating it in one bill. This is illustrative math only, meant to show the shape of the tradeoff (lump sum vs. spread), not a quote; actual affordability depends on the loan's rate, term, and fees, which a lender sets during underwriting. See Special Assessment vs. Association Loan for a fuller comparison framework.

Key dates at a glance

Date	What happens
December 31, 2024	Reserve-waiver prohibition takes effect for SIRS components (unchanged by HB 913)
December 31, 2025	SIRS completion deadline, as extended by HB 913
December 31, 2026	Outer bound only when SIRS is paired with a milestone inspection also due by that date
December 31, 2028	Last budget year eligible for the 2-year milestone-repair reserve pause

What HB 913 did not do

A few myths circulating in secondary coverage are worth killing directly:

• It did not bar Citizens Property Insurance from writing policies for non-compliant associations. That language was in a filed draft and was stripped before the bill passed. The enacted penalty for non-compliance is ineligibility for the My Safe Florida Condominium grant program — a materially different, and smaller, consequence.
• It did not touch Chapter 720 HOA law in any way. HOA reserves remain governed entirely by separate, voluntary rules.
• It did not create a new statewide milestone-inspection deadline. The milestone statute's evergreen 30-year (or locally-optioned 25-year) schedule was untouched.

Why this matters when a board is weighing a special assessment

Before HB 913, a board facing a SIRS-driven funding gap effectively had one lever: a special assessment, billed to owners as a lump sum or short installment schedule. Now the same reserve gap can be financed through a loan or line of credit, repaid over a longer period through regular assessments — spreading the cost instead of concentrating it in a single bill. Whether that's the right call for a given association depends on cash flow, project timing, and the vote the board can realistically secure; see Special Assessment vs. Association Loan for the cost tradeoffs, and How to Get an Association Loan in Florida for what a lender will actually want to see before financing SIRS-driven capital work.