Worked example
What a Florida condo’s reserve numbers actually look like
Board members keep asking the same question — “are we going to get hit with a special assessment?” — and get answered with adjectives. This page answers it with arithmetic you can check by hand, on an illustrative 48-unit, 8-storey building built in 1984.
The formulas below are free and complete — copy them. The $24 toolkit is the working file: your seven components in a sheet where the funded ratio, annual need and per-unit monthly figure recompute as you type, plus the 21-line annual budget model, the 26-deadline compliance calendar and the special-assessment payment-plan calculator. Nothing on this page is held back to sell it.
The seven SIRS categories
Florida requires a Structural Integrity Reserve Study for buildings three storeys and taller, covering these seven named structural components — plus, under the same statute, any other item with a deferred maintenance expense or replacement cost above $10,000 whose failure would negatively affect one of them. That eighth, catch-all line is why the seven-row table below is the minimum shape of the calculation and not necessarily the whole of it: an elevator, seawall or garage slab can belong in your study even though it is not one of the seven names. Since 1 January 2025, an association subject to SIRS can no longer simply vote to waive or underfund them — which is why the funded ratio below stopped being a talking point and became a budget line.
| Component | Replacement | Life | Remaining | Fully funded | On hand | Annual need |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roof | $840,000 | 25y | 6y | $638,400 | $210,000 | $105,000 |
| Structure | $1,250,000 | 50y | 21y | $725,000 | $305,000 | $45,000 |
| Fireproofing & fire protection | $260,000 | 25y | 9y | $166,400 | $61,000 | $22,111 |
| Plumbing | $690,000 | 40y | 14y | $448,500 | $148,000 | $38,714 |
| Electrical | $410,000 | 40y | 17y | $235,750 | $92,000 | $18,706 |
| Waterproofing & exterior paint | $520,000 | 10y | 3y | $364,000 | $118,000 | $134,000 |
| Windows & doors | $760,000 | 30y | 12y | $456,000 | $141,000 | $51,583 |
| Total | $4,730,000 | $3,034,050 | $1,075,000 | $415,115 |
Free on this page
- All four formulas, written out
- The full seven-row worked table above
- The funded ratio, annual need and per-unit figures for this example
- The statutory framing, including the HB 913 exceptions
In the $24 toolkit
- The same seven categories as a spreadsheet that recomputes on your costs, balances and remaining lives as you type
- A 21-line annual budget model
- A 26-deadline compliance calendar
- A special-assessment calculator with 12- and 24-month payment plans
How each number is derived
- Effective age = useful life − remaining life. The roof: 25 − 6 = 19 years.
- Fully funded balance = replacement cost × (effective age ÷ useful life). Roof: $840,000 × (19 ÷ 25) = $638,400. That is what should be sitting in reserves today.
- Annual need = (replacement cost − on hand) ÷ remaining life — the straight-line contribution to reach full funding by replacement.
- Funded ratio = on hand ÷ fully funded balance. Below ~70% is where lenders and buyers start asking questions.
- Contribution after a catch-up assessment = (replacement cost − fully funded balance) ÷ remaining life. Roof: ($840,000 − $638,400) ÷ 6 = $33,600/yr. Across all seven that is $173,833/yr, or $302 per unit per month — the figure the ongoing contribution falls to after the $1,959,050 gap is assessed, not instead of it.
Funded ratio
35.4%
$1,075,000 of $3,034,050
Per unit / month
$721
total required contribution, not an increase — deduct what you already collect
If assessed today
$40,814
per unit, to close the $1,959,050 fully-funded gap — contributions of about $302/unit/month continue afterwards
What this building should actually do
At a 35% funded ratio the association is not in crisis, but it is behind — and two components (waterproofing at 3 years remaining, roof at 6) arrive before the reserves for them do. Before choosing between the options, be precise about the two headline numbers, because they are routinely compared as if they were alternatives for the same amount of money. They are not the same quantity.
- $721 per unit per month is the total reserve contribution this building needs — not an increase, and not an amount on top of what you collect today. Whatever your current reserve line already collects comes off it. Over the components’ remaining lives it funds $3,655,000 — replacement cost $4,730,000 minus the $1,075,000 already on hand.
- $40,814 per unit is a different quantity: a one-off catch-up to the $3,034,050 fully funded balance, i.e. the $1,959,050 that should already be in the account today. Paying it does not end contributions — it lowers the ongoing requirement to about $302 per unit per month, which funds the $1,695,950 of life the components have left to use.
Neither route is cheaper. Both pay $3,655,000 — $76,146 per unit — because the building needs the same seven components replaced either way. ($1,959,050 assessed now plus $1,695,950 contributed later is the same total as $3,655,000 contributed throughout.) Any page telling you that spreading a reserve shortfall over remaining life makes it smaller is selling you something: on these figures $721 a month for five years is $43,260 per unit, already more than the $40,814 lump sum.
What running the numbers early actually buys is not a discount. It is a schedule the board chooses rather than a letter owners receive; contributions collected from the owners who are present while the wear happens instead of from whoever holds title on assessment day; and enough lead time to competitively bid the work rather than accept an emergency quote. Those are real savings and they are worth arguing for — but they are interest, timing and procurement savings, not reserve arithmetic. Do not tell owners the arithmetic gets smaller. It does not.
Run this on your building
The $24 Florida Condo & HOA Board Toolkit is the same seven-category model as an Excel workbook — you enter your components, costs and balances, and the funded ratio, annual need and per-unit figures calculate themselves. It also carries the budget model, the special-assessment calculator with payment plans, and a 26-deadline compliance calendar.
Get the toolkit — $24 →Secure checkout via Gumroad · Planning guidance, not legal or engineering advice
Or have it done and signed: Board Reserve Review — $2,000
The same arithmetic, run independently on your building and written up for the meeting packet: every component rebuilt, funded ratio and annual need recomputed with the inputs shown, catch-up options priced per unit per month, and every figure we could not compute named along with the document that would fix it. Delivered within 10 business days of your complete document set, on a calendar date confirmed in writing before you pay anything. Addressed to the association and circulatable in full — board, owners, manager, auditor and association counsel. It is not a SIRS and does not replace your reserve provider.
Order the Board Reserve Review — $2,000 →See a specimen of the deliverable — this same building, written up in the format you would receive.
Flat price per building · no card on this site · invoiced to the association after the board approves the scope · contracting with Sam Arora, sole proprietor, trading as CondoRiskFL
Statutory references reflect the 2025 Florida Statutes including HB 913 updates. Florida has amended its condominium statutes repeatedly since Surfside — re-verify each session. See the SIRS guide · estoppel certificates · the document-review window · pricing · about.