40-Year Building Recertification — Miami-Dade County Inspection Program & Cost.

P.E. #67462 · Level III CIT® #19397 · Engineering Firm #28738 · Miami · 41 Years.

Updated August 12, 2026 · By Armando Longueira, P.E. #67462, Level III CIT® #19397.

★★★★★ 5.0 on Google · One firm seals complete Building Recertifications — structural, electrical, infrared, illumination, and guardrails.

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What Is a Miami 40-Year Building Recertification Inspection?

A Miami 40-Year Building Recertification is the mandatory life-safety evaluation of aging buildings. A Florida engineer examines the structure and the electrical systems, then signs and seals a report certifying the building structurally and electrically safe for continued occupancy. When it first comes due depends on where the building stands.

What Is the Difference Between the 25-, 30-, and 40-Year Recertification and the Milestone Inspection?

The 25-, 30-, and 40-year building recertification are one requirement per county, not three. Recertifications in Dade and Broward repeat every 10 years. The Dade authority is County Code Section 8-11(f); the Broward authority is Section 110.15 of its FBC amendments. So the historic building recertification runs on a schedule starting earlier than its name.

The milestone inspection is a different law — Florida Statute 553.899, statewide and structural-only. It shares the 30-year default and the 25-year recertification local option — and in Dade and Broward one sealed report satisfies both.

Recertifications pre-date the post-Surfside milestone law and are more restrictive. The former inspection program was amended June 1, 2022.

For the statewide condominium requirement, see the Milestone Inspection page.

What Is the New Program Called: the 40-Year Recertification or the Building Recertification?

Both names mean the same inspection. It now runs as the Building Recertification Program. The historic 40-Year Recertification name survives in everyday use, in bank and insurance checklists, and in other cities’ ordinances.

Search either name. The requirement, the forms, and the sealed report are identical, and we perform it under both. Buildings already certified continue their established 10-year schedule. Buildings built in 1993 or later enter at 30 years, 25 along the coast.

How Do the Requirements Differ by Jurisdiction?

Two things change at the county line: what gets inspected on what cycle, and which buildings are excused.

How Do Miami, Broward, and Other Municipalities Differ?

Each program adds electrical to the milestone’s structural-only review and folds the milestone ages in.

• Miami-Dade County — the dual track: 30 inland, 25 along the coast; adds illumination and the infrared thermography scan.
• Broward County — 25 for every qualifying building; no illumination requirement, and thermography stays at the engineer’s discretion.
• Boca Raton — under Section 19-162 of its City Code, structural and electrical inspection at 30 years, 25 within three miles of the coast.
• Boynton Beach — its Building Milestone Inspection Program reaches every qualifying residential building at 25 years with electrical and thermography in scope.
• Monroe County — its Building Safety Inspection Program, under the Monroe County Code, runs the same 25-year clock — structural and electrical both — for condominium buildings three stories or higher.
• Everywhere else — only the statewide milestone law applies.

Who Is Exempt?

Exempt in Miami-Dade at any year of age.

• Single-family homes and duplexes.
• Fee-simple townhouses — per a 2022 BORA interpretation; townhouse-style buildings titled as condominiums are not exempt.
• Minor structures — occupant load of 10 or fewer and 2,000 square feet or less.

Exempt in Broward under Section 110.15.4.

• Single- to four-family dwellings of three habitable stories or fewer.
• Fee-simple townhouses.
• Minor structures under 3,500 square feet.
• Railroads and government buildings.

The municipal programs differ. Boca Raton exempts detached single-family homes and duplexes. Boynton Beach exempts government, school, and university buildings. Monroe County reaches only the condominium buildings already described. Under the statewide milestone law alone, any building that is not a qualifying condominium or cooperative is exempt by omission. An exempt structure owes no recertification.

Where Did the Program Come From?

A 1974 structure collapse in downtown Miami killed seven people; the Miami-Dade County answered with the recertification ordinance in 1975. Broward County adopted the same model countywide in 2005 — citing structural failures in both counties and hurricane preparedness. Then the 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside killed 98 people — the program was strengthened and folded into the Building Safety framework, and the Legislature answered statewide with the milestone law.

What Is the Engineer’s Duty to Report?

The inspection carries a duty above the client relationship. Ordinance 22-57, codified at Section 8-11(e) of the County Code, sets it, and the County’s inspection guidelines and the BORA report forms carry it. The engineer or architect who finds a dangerous condition during a recertification must report it to the Building Official within 10 days. An immediate dangerous condition goes to the Building and Fire Officials within 24 hours, with the owner notified as well.

Broward’s program, through its Board of Rules and Appeals guidelines, requires immediate report of any life-threatening condition to the owner and the Building Official. Municipal programs and the milestone law carry the same obligation through their report forms and the professional’s license — Chapters 471 and 481, Florida Statutes.

How Do You Know If You Need Recertification?

Look the property up — by address or folio — before any notice arrives; the recertification obligation runs with the structure’s age. Buyers should run the same check before closing.

In unincorporated Miami-Dade County, check your recertification status on the Recertification Portal, or call (786) 315-2373. In Broward County, see the Building Safety Inspection Program. Boca Raton posts its Building Recertification Inspection Program, Boynton Beach its Building Recertification page, and Monroe County its Building Safety Inspection Program. Every other municipality keeps its own list — call them, or send us the address and we run the check.

How Does the Recertification Process Work, From Notice to Approval?

Most building owners receive a Notice of Required Recertification and have 90 days to submit; a 60-day extension is possible on a sealed engineer’s letter. The County counts age from the building's original Certificate of Occupancy — and mails courtesy notices two years and one year ahead.

Apartments, condominiums, offices, warehouses, and industrial properties 30 years old or older are typical; in condominiums, the association carries the inspection duty and its costs — and an overdue obligation follows the property into any sale.

Miss the deadline and enforcement escalates quickly.

• A Civil Violation Notice, with fines reaching $10,510.
• Referral to the Unsafe Structures Board.
• Once an unsafe-structures violation issues, the building must be vacated.

The recertification process follows a fixed path.

• We confirm the deadline and the enforcing office.
• One visit covers the sealed structural and electrical reviews, with the energized infrared scan.
• Every deficiency is graded — dangerous conditions require immediate shoring and reporting; repairs are permitted, completed, and re-inspected — the Code allows 150 days from the notice date (180 in Broward) — and an amended sealed report closes the recertification.
• The report is filed electronically — unincorporated Miami-Dade County through the County’s Portal, and all its municipalities through a Citizen Self Service portal — plus each city’s filing fee, $403.13 at the County.
• A passing inspection report earns the Miami-Dade approval letter.

What Does the Recertification Inspection Include?

One submission on the 40-Year recertification forms, prepared to the County’s Minimum Inspection Procedural Guidelines, updated by BORA in 2022.

• The structural inspection reviews foundations, columns, beams, slabs, and envelope for cracks, corrosion, and spalling.
• The electrical inspection grades electrical system safety — service, metering, panels, feeders, and grounding — against the National Electrical Code.
• The thermography scan is BORA-required on services of 400 amperes and up, performed energized.
• Illumination (County Code 8C-3) and, where water abuts, guardrail certification (8C-6) complete the packet — mandatory in unincorporated Miami-Dade, optional for its municipalities.

How Do You Prepare for the Recertification Inspection?

Gather permits, plans, the old inspection reports, and the repair history, then arrange access — electrical rooms, roof, and mechanical and common areas. A prepared building closes in one visit.

What Does a Sealed Recertification Report Look Like?

Sealed Recertification reports and cover letters, details redacted.

Who Can Perform the Recertification Inspection?

The recertification inspection report must be sealed by an active Florida Professional Engineer or architect, and the thermographer needs Level II or III experience under ASNT SNT-TC-1A or ISO 18436-7. The electrical inspector must also show five years inspecting commercial electrical systems; residential-only experience does not qualify. Some cities require a license as an engineer, electrical contractor, or electrical inspector.

On a threshold building, the structural certification must come from a Florida-licensed structural engineer and the electrical certification from an electrical engineer. A threshold building is any building over three stories or 50 feet, or an assembly occupancy over 5,000 square feet and 500 occupants.

How much does a 40-Year Recertification Building Inspection Cost in Miami-Dade County, City of Hialeah, Beach, Homestead, Doral, Coral Gables, Broward?

The 40-Year Recertification Cost in Miami is priced by component — one sealed submission.

• Structural starts at $1,400.
• Electrical inspections at $1,400.
• Illumination at $700.
• The infrared scan at $900.
• Re-inspections from $750 per component — illumination at $700.

Final cost depends on location, size, height, age, service capacity, and any repair and re-inspection across repeat recertifications. Provide the property address or folio number and your email address for a same-day estimate.

How Do Owners Pay for It?

For condominiums, findings land alongside Florida’s Structural Integrity Reserve Study rules — 2025 legislation (HB 913, Chapter 718, Florida Statutes) raised the reserve-item threshold to $25,000 — and deferred maintenance returns as a special assessment.

Service Area.

Our building recertification cover every municipality and county listed below

• Hialeah
• Unincorporated Miami-Dade County
• Miami Beach.
• Bal Harbour.
• Bay Harbor Islands.
• Biscayne Park.
• Coral Gables.
• Cutler Bay.
• Doral.
• El Portal.
• Florida City.
• Golden Beach.
• Aventura.
• Hialeah Gardens.
• Homestead.
• Indian Creek.
• Key Biscayne.
• Medley.
• Miami.
• Miami Gardens.
• Miami Lakes.
• Miami Shores.
• Miami Springs.
• North Bay Village.
• North Miami.
• North Miami Beach.
• Opa-locka.
• Palmetto Bay.
• Pinecrest.
• South Miami.
• Sunny Isles Beach.
• Surfside.
• Sweetwater.
• Virginia Gardens.
• West Miami.

• Broward County.
• Boca Raton.
• Boynton Beach.

Why Do Property Owners Choose All Home Meters?

All Home Meters delivers complete recertification package — electrical and structural, with infrared thermography, illumination, and guardrails — under one accountable engineering firm. Armando Longueira, P.E., carries the electrical license and the Level III thermography certification in one person. He seals the electrical, infrared, and illumination work himself with a NIST-calibrated FLIR E96, and the structural inspection on buildings of three stories or fewer.

A structural engineer on staff covers the threshold buildings. Home services cover the exempt properties. Call (786) 318-7203 to schedule an inspection.

Ready to Schedule Your Recertification in Miami?

Related: Thermography · Electrical · Structural · Parking-Lot Illumination · Milestone · Español.