Buying a building: the structural check before you close

Before buying: what to ask the seller for

Start with the papers the seller and the building office already hold. In Miami-Dade, a building past the county’s inspection age should have a recertification file; in Broward, a file under the county’s Building Safety Inspection Program, or BSIP. The local building office keeps it, and the seller should be able to hand over a copy.

That office can also tell you whether a recertification file, or a permit on the property, is still open.

• The last recertification or BSIP report, and the notice that called for it.
• Proof the file was closed: where the report listed repairs, the amended report and, in Broward, the completion letter.
• Permits that are open or expired, and repairs under way or only planned.
• Where the building is a condo or co-op with at least three habitable stories: the milestone inspection, which in Miami-Dade and Broward is the county report, and the latest structural integrity reserve study, the SIRS.

What the documents tell you, and what they do not

A recertification or BSIP report records one inspection: what was seen that day, where access allowed, and whether the building could stay in use or needed repairs first. A leak, a storm or a repair put off since then is not in it, and what hides behind finishes shows only where something was opened.

The reserve study is not an inspection but the association’s plan for the money: what the roof, the structure, the waterproofing, the windows and the other items the law lists will need over their remaining life, and what should be set aside each year for them. Read next to the inspection, it lets a buyer see whether what the inspection found is budgeted for.

A lender may read these papers too. Under Fannie Mae’s selling rules, a condominium project that needs critical repairs is not eligible for the loans Fannie Mae buys, and the items it names include balconies, the foundation, parking structures, sea walls and other load-bearing structures. The lender must review any structural inspection done within the last three years and, where repairs were made, an engineer’s report on whether they resolved the concerns.

The structural check before you close

A pre-purchase structural assessment answers what the papers cannot: the condition of the structure today. It starts from the original drawings, the permits and the last reports, and compares the building as designed with the building as it stands; where drawings are missing, more is checked on site.

Book it early in the inspection or due-diligence period your contract allows, while there is still time to act on the findings. In a condominium, the roof, the garage and the other common areas are opened through the association or its manager.

• The structure walked and photographed: roof, beams and columns, slabs, balconies, garage, visible foundations.
• Every condition sorted: cosmetic or structural, urgent or one to watch.
• Alterations evaluated: an opening cut in a slab or wall, an added floor, a change of use or a heavier load.
• The repairs it points to, in order of priority, as a basis for the talk with the seller.
• Anything left in doubt, marked as open, with the test or exploratory opening that would answer it.

When the building is due soon

A building near its next recertification or BSIP inspection brings that inspection with it, along with whatever repairs the report then lists. After closing they are the new owner’s to answer, or the association’s in a condominium.

The age each county counts from is on public record: in Miami-Dade, it is the year built as the Property Appraiser records it; in Broward, the date its certificate of occupancy was issued. Send us the address during the inspection period, and we say which inspection the building owes next, and by when.

Questions buyers ask before closing