Broward and Miami-Dade Recertification Are Not the Same Program 10, 25, 40- YR
An owner with buildings in both counties applies what they learned in Miami-Dade to their Broward property, or the reverse. It is the most common and most expensive mistake in this area of work, because the two programs share a nickname and very little else.
Start with the nickname. Nobody should still be calling this the 10, 25, 40-year recertification. Neither county uses 40-Years as a trigger, and has not for some time.
The differences, side by side
Point | Miami-Dade | Broward |
First inspection | 30 years for most buildings. 25 years for condominium or cooperative buildings of three or more stories within three miles of the coastline. | 25 years, measured from the certificate of occupancy date. |
Then | Every 10 years. | Every 10 years, and the clock runs off building age regardless of when the previous report was filed. |
Time to respond | 90 days from the Notice. | Two separate 180-day clocks: one from the Notice to inspect and return forms, one from the inspection report date to complete repairs. |
Extensions | Maximum 60 days, discretionary, and requires a signed and sealed statement that the building is safe to occupy. | At the building official discretion under the Broward amendments. |
Infrared thermography | REQUIRED where combined service is 400 amperes or greater, by a Level II or higher thermographer with more than seven years of commercial electrical experience. | NOT required. Left to the inspecting professional judgment. |
Color photographs | Required, along with an aerial view of the property. | REQUIRED by the minimum standards of the Board of Rules and Appeals. |
Forms | Approved county forms are mandatory. Proprietary forms are rejected, and a rejection does not stop the clock. | The BORA Structural and Electrical Safety Inspection Report forms. |
Duty to report | Report as required by the county process. | Within 24 HOURS, in writing, if the professional finds the building unsafe to occupy. |
The three that cost real money
• Thermography. A Miami-Dade building at 400 amperes or more needs a certified thermographer, and that is a specific engagement with a specific credential behind it. An owner who budgets a Broward-style scope for a Miami-Dade building has under-budgeted. An owner who assumes Broward requires it has over-bought.
• The clock. 90 days against a 108 is a genuine planning difference. 90-days is not long once you account for scheduling the inspection, gaining access to units, receiving the report, pricing repairs and assembling the package. Extensions in Miami-Dade cap at 60-days, are discretionary, and require a signed and sealed statement that the building is safe to occupy, which is not a formality.
• Forms. Miami-Dade mandates its own forms. A report submitted on a proprietary template is rejected, and the rejection does not pause the clock. Time spent on a rejected submission is simply lost.
What owners tend not to know about Miami-Dade
• It satisfies the state milestone inspection. The county program combines what the state framework treats as two phases into a single inspection, and meets or exceeds the state requirement. A building completing the county recertification does not need a separate milestone inspection.
• Two extra certificates catch people out. Parking lot illumination and waterway guardrail certifications must be in the package. Both are county code requirements in their own right and both are regularly forgotten until the submission is incomplete.
• Exemptions require both conditions, not either. Single-family homes and duplexes are exempt. Beyond that, a building is exempt only if its occupant load is ten or fewer AND it is 2,000 square feet or less. Meeting one of those two is not enough.
• Structural glazing has its own separate cycle. On threshold buildings, structural glazing is inspected at six-month intervals through the first year and then every five years. It does not align with the ten-year recertification cycle and is easy to lose track of.
• Approved reports can be audited and revoked. A recertification is not permanently settled once accepted. The building official retains the ability to audit, rescind or revoke.
What owners tend not to know about Broward
• A missing Notice does not excuse you. If the building official does not send the Notice, the obligation still stands. Waiting for a letter is not a defense.
• The 24-hour duty to report is absolute. If the licensed professional finds the building unsafe to occupy, they must notify the building official in writing within 24 hours. There is no discretion in it and no opportunity to fix it quietly first. Owners should understand this before the inspection begins, not during it.
• Sample size is professional judgment, not a county percentage. Broward sets no unit sampling percentage. Any figure quoted to you is the firm own practice, and should be described that way. Ask what the number is and why.
• Color photographs are a minimum standard. A report without them can be rejected, and the 180-day clock keeps running while it is corrected.
The single biggest cause of delay, in both counties
Unpermitted work. It stalls more recertifications than structural findings do.
Unpermitted additions and alterations have to be reported even when they were competently built, and legalizing them is a prerequisite to completing the recertification. Enclosed balconies are the classic example and appear constantly. Work already under an active permit is treated differently and generally buys time, which is one reason to start a permit rather than wait.
If a building has had work done over the decades that nobody can produce a permit for, that is the item to begin resolving on the day the Notice arrives, not after the structural report comes back.
What happens if you miss it
In Miami-Dade, a citation can be issued without further notice, beginning at 510 dollars and rising to as much as 10,000 dollars per violation, after which the matter moves to the Lien Collection Unit. Review, late, re-review and quality control inspection fees apply separately.
County fees and penalties are revised annually, typically each October, so treat any figure published here as indicative and confirm the current schedule with the county before relying on it.
If you sit on a board or manage the property.
Four things, in this order. Find the certificate of occupancy date, because everything is calculated from it and a surprising number of associations do not have it to hand. Confirm which county program applies and do not assume it matches a sister property. Start the permit search for any historical work now rather than later. And when you take quotes, ask each firm directly whether thermography is included and why, because that single line explains most of the price difference between two proposals on a Miami-Dade building.
Neither program is unreasonable. Both are administered by people applying published rules. What makes them expensive is starting late, and almost everything above is easier to handle in month one than in month three.
About the author.
Raymond Ward is a Florida-licensed Mold Assessor (MRSA-2391), Mold Remediator (MRSR-3879) and Home Inspector (HI1164), and the principal of All Inspections 4U Environmental in Miami, Florida. He is a NORMI member, a CCPIA instructor teaching primarily in Spanish, and a DBPR-approved continuing education provider, developing and delivering courses in mold assessment, home inspection, wind mitigation, radon measurement and commercial building inspection. He has worked in the inspection industry since 2002 and has been licensed since 2012.
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