In June 2024, a couple named Eugene and Debbie Friedlander closed on a unit at Toscana, the three-tower oceanfront community on the south end of Highland Beach. Not long after, they found themselves in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, suing the seller over a special assessment they say should have been disclosed before closing. The case, Friedlander v. Kaplan, is still working its way through the docket, and it has become required reading for anyone quietly shopping the A1A corridor.
That lawsuit is the tell. In a town where roughly 3,700 of about 4,200 taxable parcels are condominiums, the single most important document in a Highland Beach transaction in 2026 is no longer the survey or the appraisal. It is the association's binder: the milestone inspection report, the Structural Integrity Reserve Study, and the last twelve months of board minutes. Buildings that can hand those over cleanly are trading at a premium. Buildings that cannot are where negotiation leverage lives.
Why Highland Beach Sits at the Sharp End of This
Almost every barrier-island community in South Florida is working through Florida's post-Surfside condo overhaul. Highland Beach is working through it more intensely than almost anywhere else, for three reasons.
The first is geometry. The Town's own parcel records show a condo-to-single-family ratio of roughly ten to one, with a small residual of townhouses. The second is age. Most of the ocean-side towers went up between 1970 and the early 2000s, which puts the majority of the inventory squarely inside the 25-to-30-year window that triggers the state's milestone inspection requirement. The third is location. Because Highland Beach sits on the Atlantic, its buildings fall under the coastal 25-year threshold rather than the inland 30-year threshold, pulling the compliance clock forward by half a decade.
The result is a market where buildings like Toscana, Villa Magna, Villa Nova, the Highland Beach Club, Braemar Isle, Aberdeen Arms, Clarendon, Regency Highland Club, Seagate, Dalton Place, and the Ambassadors are all working through some version of the same paperwork at the same time. And buyers know it.
The Two Documents That Now Anchor the Deal
Florida's framework rests on two separate but coordinated obligations that owners frequently conflate. Understanding the distinction is the first move in any condo transaction here.
| Requirement | What It Is | When It's Due | Governs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milestone Inspection | Structural safety assessment (Phase 1 visual; Phase 2 if deterioration is found) by a licensed engineer or architect | Building age 25 (coastal) or 30, then every 10 years | FS 553.899 |
| Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS) | Financial plan and reserve funding schedule for eight structural components | Every 10 years; simultaneous SIRS/milestone completions permitted through Dec 31, 2026 | DBPR Condo Rules |
The state framework was created by SB 4-D in 2022 after the Champlain Towers collapse, then refined by SB 154 in 2023, HB 1021 in 2024, and HB 913 effective July 1, 2025. HB 913 was the one that most Highland Beach boards actually felt. It clarified that the SIRS applies to buildings of three habitable stories or more, allowed a two-budget-year pause in reserve contributions when a milestone inspection identifies urgent repairs, and confirmed that reserves for the eight mandatory SIRS components can no longer be waived by a unit-owner vote once a budget is adopted after December 31, 2024. Full funding of those reserves was scheduled to begin January 1, 2026.
Those eight components are the ones a buyer's attorney will look for first: roof, load-bearing walls and primary structural members, floors, foundation, fireproofing and fire protection systems, plumbing, electrical, and waterproofing and exterior painting. Any of them can generate a seven-figure repair project across a mid-rise oceanfront tower.
The Town's Own Layer
Highland Beach does not stop at state law. The Town Commission adopted Ordinance 2022-008, which established a local Building Recertification program that runs in parallel with the state milestone regime, and issued a 2023 Milestone Inspection Summary that has been revised more than once since. The Town's Milestone Recertification page is the authoritative source for the current local requirements.
Two features of the local program matter for a transaction. Threshold buildings, meaning those over three stories or fifty feet or containing large assembly areas, and association buildings with three or more stories and four or more dwelling units, both fall inside the scope. Reports filed under the Town's program must include specific identifiers, including property control number and inspector license number, along with detailed descriptions of inspection methods and findings. Photographic evidence is strongly encouraged. That last point is quietly useful during due diligence, because a well-photographed report often reveals conditions that a summary letter tries to smooth over.
What Changed for Sellers
For most of the last two decades, Florida condo buyers assumed the risk of any special assessment levied after closing, even one that had been quietly voted on before the contract was signed. That default has shifted.
The current Florida Realtors/Florida Bar Condominium Rider requires sellers to disclose any special assessments that have been levied, are pending, or have appeared in board meeting agendas or minutes within the previous twelve months. Layered on top of that is a 1985 Florida Supreme Court decision, Johnson v. Davis, which held that sellers must disclose facts materially affecting a property's value that are unknown to the buyer and not readily observable. Attorneys at Siegfried Rivera have written about how these two duties intersect in the Friedlander v. Kaplan matter at Toscana.
The practical consequence for a Highland Beach seller in 2026 is straightforward. Silence on a looming assessment is not a strategy. It is a liability. Full disclosure, and in many cases an explicit seller credit or payoff at closing, has become the standard move for sellers who want to avoid post-closing litigation and, frankly, actually close.
How This Shows Up in the Numbers
The market data confirms what the paperwork implies. As of April 2026, the median list price across all Highland Beach condominiums sat near $1.149 million, with roughly 146 condos active and average time on market around 107 days. A separate 2026 look at the top-tier segment put inventory up 21.8 percent year over year and pegged the sale-to-list ratio at 90 percent. Cumulative days on market climbed from 102 to 114 in the most recent local quarterly update.
Read those numbers as one number. In a town where the buyer pool is dominated by second-home purchasers from the Northeast and Midwest who are paying cash or something close to it, a 90 percent sale-to-list ratio is not softness in demand. It is a discount buyers are extracting for association risk. That discount tends to concentrate in buildings where the milestone status is unclear, the SIRS is still being finalized, or a special assessment has been floated in minutes but not yet levied. Buildings that have already completed the work and closed out the assessment, and can prove it in writing, are commanding closer to list.
The listings themselves have started to read this way. A recent oceanfront two-bedroom at the Highland Beach Club led with the language "Milestone and structural integrity inspections completed and all assessments paid." That sentence is now doing more work in a listing than any renovation callout.
The Document Set
Whether you are the buyer or the seller, the packet is the same. If you are selling, assemble it before you list. If you are buying, request it before you write the offer and read it before you remove the condominium contingency.
- The most recent milestone inspection report, including any Phase 2 findings and the local building official's acknowledgment
- The current SIRS, with the baseline funding plan and the reserve schedule for the eight mandatory components
- The current-year operating budget and reserve budget
- The last twelve months of board meeting minutes, plus any special meeting minutes
- The declaration, articles, bylaws, and any recent rule amendments
- Insurance certificates for the master policy, wind, and flood, with current premiums
- A written statement from the association regarding any levied, pending, or discussed special assessments
- Confirmation of the building's status on the Fannie Mae Condo Project Manager list, which controls conventional financing eligibility for many buyers
For sellers of ground-level Intracoastal-side homes in Bel Lido, Byrd Beach, or Ocean Place Estates, the analog is different but the principle holds: seawall and dock permits, elevation certificates, and recent contractor bids for near-term marine work belong in the packet before the first showing.
FAQ
Does the December 31, 2026 date mean my building has until then to complete its milestone inspection?
No. That date is the outer limit for completing a SIRS when it is being done simultaneously with a milestone inspection. Milestone inspection deadlines themselves are tied to the year a building reaches 25 or 30 years of age and are typically triggered by written notice from the local building official.
If the seller agrees to pay a pending special assessment, does that solve the disclosure problem?
It handles the money. It does not necessarily handle the contract language. The obligation should be spelled out in the purchase agreement, ideally with the amount, the payment mechanism, and the treatment of any subsequent increases if the assessment scope expands.
Can a Highland Beach condo be financed if the building is not on the Fannie Mae list?
Portfolio and jumbo lenders can and do lend on buildings that Fannie Mae has flagged, but pricing is worse and the underwriting is slower. For buyers relying on conventional financing, the building's status is a threshold question, not a footnote.
Is any of this a reason to avoid Highland Beach?
The opposite, in most cases. The regulatory work is largely one-time, the buildings that have completed it are structurally sounder than they were a decade ago, and the resulting price discipline has created some of the more rational entry points the market has offered in years.
If you are weighing a purchase, preparing a listing, or simply want a clear-eyed read on where your building stands in the current cycle, Jennifer Kilpatrick FL can review your association's documents alongside recent comparable closings and outline a strategy tailored to your position. Request a Private Home Valuation to begin the conversation.
