Miami-Dade dominates first post-Surfside safety report, raising questions
Miami-Dade accounted for 23 of 24 buildings flagged unsafe or uninhabitable in Florida’s first milestone report, with 19 in Aventura. Officials say the numbers need context.
24 buildings statewide were flagged as unsafe or uninhabitable in Florida’s first milestone report under the post-Surfside law, and 23 of them were in Miami-Dade County. A footnote in the report put 19 of those buildings in Aventura.
Under Florida’s milestone-inspection law, residential condominiums and cooperatives that are three or more habitable stories must be inspected at 30 years of age and every 10 years after that, with some coastal jurisdictions facing a 25-year trigger. Miami-Dade’s older recertification system is stricter in several places, requiring many buildings to be inspected at 30 years inland and 25 years coastal, then every 10 years afterward. If an owner misses the recertification deadline, Miami-Dade can refer the case to the Unsafe Structures Section, which can post the building unsafe, issue violations and send the matter to the Unsafe Structures Board.
Aventura building official Keven Klopp said the numbers do not tell the full story and every inspected building in the city is safe to occupy. He said buildings that needed repairs, renovations or maintenance had already submitted plans and timelines to address the issues. County and city officials said the report’s wording and format could mislead the public because it does not spell out what problems led to each classification, what repairs are already underway or whether jurisdictions that did not file data face any consequences. About one in five city building departments did not submit inspection information.
In a July 2026 analysis, the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability found milestone inspections identified 30 buildings in 2024 and 24 buildings in 2025 as unsafe or uninhabitable, but most of those buildings were not vacated. The analysis also found 8,736 completed phase-one inspections, 1,575 completed phase-two inspections, 1,587 deadline extensions and 903 permit applications for repairs. The estimated cost of those repairs ranged from under $1,000 to $30 million, with concrete, electrical and structural work among the most common fixes. About 94% of the extensions were granted in coastal counties and municipalities.
On June 24, 2021, Champlain Towers South partially collapsed in Surfside at about 1:30 a.m. EDT and killed 98 people. That disaster drove the Legislature’s 2022 overhaul of condo-safety rules and its 2025 changes, including a one-year extension of the deadline for structural-integrity reserve studies, as owners and boards faced mounting special assessments and repair bills.
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