Miami-Dade Recertification
Surfside’s Building Department sends the notice by certified mail and takes applications through its CSS portal only. One team delivers your Surfside building’s complete recertification, on the approved report forms.
- Engineer
- Juan Tercero, PE., M.Sc. · Florida PE 105256
Your city
How building recertification is handled in Surfside
In Surfside the recertification runs through the Town of Surfside Building Department, which receives the reports for review and approval. Its program page explains how owners are notified and what a late report leads to; a separate sheet of instructions covers the filing, which goes only through the Town’s Customer Self Service portal, CSS. Where the Town Code adds something of its own, the rows below say so.
- The notice
- Surfside’s program page says the Building Department sends a notice by certified mail to the owner or the owner’s representative when a building is due. Keep that certified letter: the Town’s page counts the owner’s time from it. The Town Code provides for courtesy notices ahead of the recertification’s anniversary date, and says a failure to provide them does not release the owner from recertifying.
- Filing the report
- Surfside’s instructions say recertification applications are accepted through the Town’s CSS portal only, and hard copies are not. The application type those instructions name still carries the program’s former 40-year name. The same sheet asks applicants not to e-mail the Building Official or the Town Manager: the package may not be received or processed.
- The city’s forms
- The Building Recertification Package on the Town’s site opens with Miami-Dade County’s General Considerations and Guidelines, which say the approved report forms must be used and proprietary forms are not accepted. Surfside’s instructions begin with a permit application, printed and filled out, and the Building Department’s forms page says its forms are fillable online and electronic notarization is accepted.
- The files
- Surfside’s instructions ask for the recertification package in a separate PDF file, divided by discipline. Encrypted files and files with third-party signatures are not processed: plan reviewers must be able to mark them up. The program page asks for an impressed seal and signature; the Town’s site does not say how an uploaded PDF meets that, so we confirm it with the Building Department.
- After filing
- Once the application is processed, the Town’s permit technician e-mails a receipt that carries the application number. The report goes to the Building Department for review and approval, and after the package is reviewed the clerk contacts the applicant about the recertification letter, whose issuance is the last step in Surfside’s instructions. The Town’s site gives no review time.
- Repairs
- Surfside’s program page says repairs or modifications the inspection finds necessary are to comply with the Florida Building Code, and it counts the owner’s time for them from the notice of required inspection. What that time is for a Surfside building today is in the rows further down. That page is silent on permits for those repairs and on an amended report afterwards.
- Extensions
- Surfside’s program page and its filing instructions say nothing about extensions. The Town Code does: the Building Official may grant an extension of a set length for building recertification, and may renew it at the Building Official’s discretion. The Town’s site does not describe how to ask for one, so that is a question for the Building Department.
- If it is late
- Surfside’s program page says a late report brings a building violation. The Notice of Violation is posted on the building and mailed to the owner by certified mail; if the owner does not respond, it goes to the Town’s Special Master for a hearing. If the Building Official finds the structure unsafe, the matter goes to the Miami-Dade County Unsafe Structures Board.
Building office Town of Surfside Building Department 9293 Harding Avenue Surfside, FL 33154 Phone: (305) 861-4863
Read on the website of the Town of Surfside Building Department:
When it applies
The deadlines that apply in Surfside
The schedule is Miami-Dade County’s, printed here for a building in Surfside; the date on your own notice is the one that counts.
- First due in Surfside: At 30 years — 25 for condominium and cooperative buildings of three or more stories within 3 miles of the coast.
- Then in Surfside: Every 10 years, for the life of the structure.
- Time to file in Surfside: 90 days from the Notice of Required Inspection.
- If repairs are needed in Surfside: 150 days from the Notice to finish repairs that need no permit and to obtain permits for the rest.
- Condominiums & co-ops in Surfside: The recertification serves as compliance with the state milestone inspection — no separate milestone report is filed.
Miami-Dade County’s rows, for Surfside. Source: Code of Miami-Dade County, Section 8-11(f) · Last verified:
Questions & answers
Questions boards in Surfside ask
How do we file a recertification report in Surfside?
Through the Town’s CSS portal, and only there: Surfside’s instructions say hard copies are not accepted, and ask applicants not to e-mail the Building Official or the Town Manager. The first step on the portal is registering an account; the application then goes under the building recertification type, with the package in a separate PDF file. The complete recertification we deliver for a Surfside building goes on the report forms the Town’s site calls for.
How long do we have to file the recertification report in Surfside?
For a Surfside building the days are the county’s, and they are in the rows above. The Town’s program page counts the owner’s time from the notice the Building Department sends by certified mail, so keep that letter and its date. The Town Code also lets the Building Official grant an extension and renew it at the Building Official’s discretion; the Town’s site does not say how to ask for one.
What happens in Surfside if the recertification report is late?
The Town’s program page says a building violation is issued: the Notice of Violation is posted on the building and mailed to the owner. If the owner does not respond, it goes to the Town of Surfside Special Master for a hearing; if the Building Official finds the structure unsafe, the matter goes to the county’s Unsafe Structures Board. If the date on your Surfside notice has passed, send it to us all the same.
Is Surfside’s recertification the same as the 40-year recertification?
Yes. The Town’s page is still titled the 40-Year Recertification Program, and its text keeps the earlier age for the first recertification. At its top, the same page links to the new condominium recertification rules adopted by Miami-Dade County. For a Surfside building today the ages in force are the county’s, in the rows above — not the one printed on the Town’s page.
Does a condominium board in Surfside have to share the recertification report with residents?
The Town Code says so. The owner of a multifamily building, or the condominium association, is to pass any report received from the engineer to all owners and residents of the building. The same section has the engineer’s reports and comments go to the Building Official and to all owners and residents when they are issued to the owner. That provision is in Surfside’s own Code, not on its program page.
One team
The complete recertification for a building in Surfside
Next step
Send us the certified letter from Surfside’s Building Department — a phone photo is enough — or, with no letter yet, the building’s address and the year built. We read what the Town of Surfside is asking for and by when, and reply with a proposal for the complete recertification.
Next step
A county notice in your hand, a building that worries you or a new project — describe it and attach what you have. A phone photo of the letter is enough. You hear back from the engineer, with questions or with a written proposal.
The proposal is free. We usually reply within two hours.