Academy/Inspections & Building Safety
Reserve-study inspections
The site visit behind your reserve study, and why it is not the same thing as a safety code inspection.
A reserve-study inspection is a site visit where the preparer looks at your association's major common-area components, roof, paving, painting, structure, and estimates how many years each has left. The resulting study identifies what the association must maintain, checks reserve fund health, and builds a funding plan. It's a funding tool, not a safety code inspection.
What the inspection is for
A reserve-study preparer walks the property and looks at the same kind of components in every building: the roof, paving, painting, and other big shared items your reserve fund is supposed to cover. They record what condition each one is in and estimate how many years it has left before it needs replacing. That is the raw material for the study itself.
"identify the components a community association is responsible for maintaining or replacing, indicate the status of the reserve fund, and provide a stable and equitable funding plan to offset anticipated future major common area expenditures."
Source: CAI Releases New Reserve Study Standards for Community Associations, Community Associations Institute
Nothing here is about code compliance. A reserve study can flag that your roof has three years of life left without saying anything about whether it currently meets any building code.
Florida's SIRS is a narrower, mandatory version
A general reserve study, described above, is not the same document as Florida's Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS). SIRS covers a fixed, structural-only list.
"Roof. Structure, including load-bearing walls and other primary structural members and primary structural systems...Fireproofing and fire protection systems. Plumbing. Electrical systems. Waterproofing and exterior painting. Windows and exterior doors."
Source: Florida Statute 718.112(2)(g), Structural Integrity Reserve Study, The Florida Senate
For budgets adopted after December 31, 2024, a Florida board may not vote to fund these SIRS components below the amount the study calculates, closing the practice of waiving or reducing structural reserves. Associations that existed before July 1, 2022 had to complete their initial SIRS by December 31, 2025.
Whether your state requires anything like a SIRS, and what it must cover, varies. Confirm with your own state statute and your reserve-study preparer.
Why you need this even without a mandate
Most states have no reserve-study statute at all. That does not mean the inspection is optional. The board's underlying duty to maintain and repair the common area is itself a matter of state law in states that follow this approach.
"[T]he association has the duty to provide for the maintenance, repair and replacement of the common elements, and each unit's owner has the duty to provide for the maintenance, repair and replacement of his or her unit."
Source: Nevada Revised Statutes 116.3107, Upkeep of common-interest community, Nevada Legislature
California Civil Code 4775 assigns the same basic split: the association handles the common area, each owner handles their own separate interest. A reserve-study inspection is how a board finds out what it is on the hook for and plans to pay for it, whether or not any statute names a schedule. The exact scope of your association's maintenance duty is set by your state's common-interest ownership statute and your governing documents; check both.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
Your reserve-study preparer's report lists the roof, paving, and painting alongside their estimated remaining years. A director says this list also satisfies Florida's SIRS requirement. What should the board check first?
Your Florida board's 2026 budget proposes funding the SIRS roof line at half its calculated reserve amount to keep dues flat. Is this allowed?
Your state has no reserve-study statute at all. A new director argues the board therefore has no legal duty to inspect or budget for common-area components. Is that right?
Sources
- Florida Statute 718.112(2)(g), Structural Integrity Reserve Study, The Florida Senate
- California Civil Code 4775, California Legislative Information
- Nevada Revised Statutes 116.3107, Upkeep of common-interest community, Nevada Legislature
- CAI Releases New Reserve Study Standards for Community Associations, Community Associations Institute
Related elsewhere in the Academy
Inspections & Building Safety
Next, see how this inspection fits into the rest of your board's inspection calendar.
Whether your state requires a reserve study at all, what it must cover, and how the funding rule works vary by state and by your governing documents.