Pompano Beach has 3 to 3.5 miles of beach, a line of condo towers along Ocean Boulevard east of the Intracoastal, and inland condo communities like Palm Aire, where a recent month showed 273 condos and 8 townhouses for sale at a median asking price of about $260,000. The median year built for the city’s houses and condos is 1974. That age puts a large share of the condo stock inside Florida’s structural inspection rules for older buildings. If you own a unit here and want to sell, those rules shape who can buy it and at what price. This post explains the inspection, the reserve study, the 2025 relief law, the estoppel certificate, and the choices a seller has.
Milestone inspections: 30 years, or 25 near salt water
A milestone inspection is a structural inspection required by Fla. Stat. 553.899. It applies to condominium and cooperative buildings three or more habitable stories tall. The first one is due when the building turns 30, and it repeats every 10 years after that. The threshold drops to 25 years only where the local enforcement agency requires it for buildings near the coast, which the statute ties to salt-water proximity. Whether a particular Pompano Beach building sits on the 25-year or 30-year schedule is a question for the association and the city, so ask. Once written notice arrives, phase one is due within 180 days. Phase two is required only if phase one finds substantial structural deterioration. A building finished in 1973 passed 30 years long ago, which is why the repeat cycles and the large repair bills are landing now.
SIRS, reserves and the HB 913 relief
A Structural Integrity Reserve Study, or SIRS, is a study of the building’s structural components and the money the association must set aside to repair or replace them. It is required for the same buildings of three or more habitable stories, and it limits the association’s ability to waive reserves. When reserves are short, the board has two tools: raise the regular dues, or levy a special assessment. A special assessment is a one-time charge on every unit, on top of dues, to pay for a specific project. HB 913, passed in 2025, added relief. Under conditions the statute sets, an association may pause SIRS reserve funding for up to two years to fund milestone repairs, and it may use loans or lines of credit. For a seller that means the building may be carrying a loan, and an assessment may be spread over time rather than billed at once. The SIRS, the current budget and any loan terms are the documents that show which.
A published example: $70,000 per unit on Ocean Boulevard
Public listing records show the scale. A 2026 listing for a unit in the 1973 oceanfront building at 1000 S Ocean Blvd advertised that the seller would pay the full $70,000 special assessment at closing. The work was tied to the building’s recertification under Broward County’s Building Safety Inspection Program, which the city applies to buildings 25 years and older, with repeat inspections every 10 years. This was not our transaction. It is cited because it is public and because the number is instructive. Against the asking prices in Palm Aire, $70,000 is more than a quarter of a unit’s value. A special assessment that has already been levied is a debt of the unit. It does not disappear when you sell. Someone pays it, and the contract says who. In the Ocean Boulevard listing the seller offered to pay it from the proceeds at closing.
The estoppel certificate and association approval
An estoppel certificate is the association’s written statement of what the unit owes: dues, special assessments, fees and interest. Under Fla. Stat. 718.116 the association must deliver it within 10 business days of the request, and it states the amounts due for its effective period only. The seller is liable for assessments that came due during ownership. The buyer is jointly liable for anything unpaid at transfer. The title company orders the certificate and uses it to settle the account at closing, so the seller’s net is the price minus any mortgage payoff minus what the estoppel shows. Two more points. If the declaration gives the association approval rights or a right of first refusal, the sale is contingent on that step. And a dispute between you and the association does not transfer to the buyer unless an assignment is documented separately.
Why financed buyers walk away
Lenders follow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rules on which buildings they will lend in. A building that failed a milestone inspection or lacks reserves is often labeled non-warrantable, which means it does not meet those rules. Financed buyers are declined, and the pool shrinks to buyers paying cash. That matters in a Pompano Beach market with 7.2 months of supply, more than 1,000 homes for sale, and sale prices running about 95.5% of list. A unit in a non-warrantable building is competing in that inventory with most of its buyers removed.
A seller’s options
- Pay the assessment and list. The widest buyer pool, but listings here take roughly two to three months, and the assessment is owed either way.
- List and negotiate who pays. The contract can allocate the assessment to the buyer or the price. Financed buyers may still be blocked by the building’s status.
- Sell to a cash buyer as-is. Pompano Beach Cash Buyers buys condo units in buildings with open milestone work or levied assessments. We read the milestone report, the SIRS, the budget and the estoppel before writing the offer, give a written offer within 24 hours of the visit, pay the customary closing costs, and can close in about a week once title is clear and any association approval step is complete. The levied assessment is handled in the contract, either paid from proceeds at closing or reflected in the price.
Whichever route you choose, gather the same packet first: the latest milestone report, the SIRS, the current budget, recent board minutes, any loan terms, and the estoppel certificate. Those six documents decide the price in every kind of sale.