HOA documents, inspections, and permits: the paper that decides the deal.

Florida closings rarely fall apart over the house. They fall apart over paper: association documents nobody read, inspection reports nobody ordered, and permits nobody closed. This is the diligence file I build on every transaction, and the order I build it in.

Association documents: read before you love

In a condominium or HOA community, you are not just buying a home; you are buying into a budget, a rule book, and a board. The documents tell you which. For a condo resale, Florida gives the buyer a short statutory window to review the declaration, bylaws, and financial documents after receiving them, with the right to cancel inside that window; for new construction from a developer the review period is longer. Those windows are real leverage: use them to read, not to file.

What I look for first: the budget and the reserves, recent meeting minutes (the honest diary of any building), the percentage of owners behind on assessments, any pending or discussed special assessments, and the rules that quietly shape daily life: rentals, pets, vehicles, renovations. The estoppel letter, ordered during the transaction, then certifies exactly what is owed on your unit's account so surprises do not travel with the deed.

Older condos: the structural paper

Since the reforms that followed the Surfside collapse, Florida condominium buildings three stories and taller face mandatory milestone structural inspections as they age, and associations must fund structural reserves guided by a structural integrity reserve study. For a buyer this is straightforward: ask for the milestone inspection report and the reserve study, and read what the building knows about itself. A building that has done this work and funded its reserves is a fundamentally different purchase from one that has been deferring both, whatever the two lobbies look like.

Inspections: the four that matter

Beyond the general home inspection, Florida transactions lean on a few specialized reports. The four-point inspection covers roof, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC, and insurers commonly require it on older homes before they will write a policy at all. The wind mitigation inspection documents roof shape, attachment, and opening protection, and is the rare report that usually makes you money, through insurance credits that can repay its cost many times each year. On the water, add the seawall and dock reviews I covered in the waterfront guide; on acreage or older systems, add septic and well.

Sellers: ordering the four-point and wind mitigation before listing is one of the cheapest pieces of deal insurance available. It removes the week-three surprise, and it hands your buyer's insurer what they need while the file is still calm.

Permits: the history that follows the house

Every improvement worth doing left a permit trail, or should have. Before closing, I want the property's permit history pulled from the city or county: open permits that were never finaled, expired permits abandoned mid-project, and work that plainly happened with no permit at all. Open and expired permits are the buyer's problem the day after closing, and unpermitted structural, electrical, or plumbing work can surface at your own future sale, your insurance renewal, or worst of all, your claim.

None of this is a reason to fear a property. It is a reason to price it correctly: permits can be closed, work can be legalized, and sellers can credit what remedying costs. The only bad version is the one you discover after the wire.

The order of operations

1. Under contract: order the general inspection and, for older homes, the four-point and wind mitigation immediately.
2. Same week: request association documents (for a condo resale, the statutory review clock starts when you receive them); order the estoppel.
3. For condos three stories and up: request the milestone report and reserve study.
4. Before the inspection period ends: permit history pulled and reviewed.
5. Negotiate from the file, not from feelings: credits, repairs, or a clean walk-away while the contract still allows it.

Read the minutes. Buildings confess in their minutes.