How do I check whether a West Palm Beach condo association has adequate reserves?

Start with the documents the statute gives you

You do not have to negotiate for the reserve picture. Section 718.503 requires that a resale buyer of an existing unit receive the declaration of condominium, the articles of incorporation, the bylaws and rules, an annual financial statement and annual budget, a copy of the inspector prepared summary of the milestone inspection report where one applies, the association's most recent structural integrity reserve study or a statement that none has been completed, the turnover inspection report for inspections performed after July 1, 2023, and the governance form.

A seller may provide a statement that no structural integrity reserve study has been completed. That is a prompt for further review, not proof of a violation by itself. The general first deadline was December 31, 2025, but the current statute includes coordinated milestone studies due by December 31, 2026 and other timing provisions. Request the building's applicable deadline, the claimed exception and the written completion schedule before concluding that the association is overdue.

• Request the study, the budget, the year end financials, and the milestone summary together, in writing.
• Ask for the 2 most recent annual budgets, not just the current one, so you can see the direction of travel.
• Ask directly whether any special assessment has been proposed, approved, or is being discussed.

Read the structural integrity reserve study first

Section 718.112(2)(g) requires a residential condominium association to have a structural integrity reserve study completed at least every 10 years for each building on the property that is 3 habitable stories or higher. The study must identify and price the roof, the load bearing walls and other primary structural members, fireproofing and fire protection systems, plumbing, electrical systems, waterproofing and exterior painting, and windows and exterior doors. It must also cover any other item with a deferred maintenance expense or replacement cost exceeding the 2026 inflation adjusted threshold of 25,675 dollars, where failure would negatively affect a named component.

For each of those components, the study should give a remaining useful life and an estimated replacement cost. Those 2 numbers are the whole analysis. A roof with 3 years of life left and a 6 figure replacement cost is a known, dated bill, and your share of it is your ownership percentage. If the study is silent, vague, or omits a required component, that is a gap to raise before the cancellation window closes, not after.

Compare the funding schedule with the current budget

Read the study as a schedule of obligations. Identify the components, remaining useful lives, estimated replacement costs and recommended contributions, then compare them with the adopted budget and actual reserve balances. Ask the association to explain any difference in writing. A summary percentage does not show whether an imminent repair is funded, whether the balance includes money reserved for another purpose or whether the estimate has been updated after inspection findings.

Also read the minutes and financing documents behind the budget. Current law permits specified financing and qualified temporary funding pauses, so a lower contribution needs an explanation rather than an automatic conclusion. Identify what authorized it, how repairs will be paid, when regular funding resumes and whether owners face loan repayments or special assessments. Those details connect the study to the cash obligations a buyer may inherit.

Cross-check the study against the budget

The study states the requirement. The budget states the response. Put them side by side and look for 3 things. First, whether reserve line items are itemized by component rather than lumped into a single figure. Second, whether the annual contribution is rising toward what the study calls for or holding flat. Third, whether the association is relying on a loan, a line of credit, or a special assessment to close the gap, which the 2025 legislation permits with majority approval of the voting interests.

That same 2025 legislation, approved June 23, 2025 as chapter 2025-175 and effective July 1, 2025, also lets an association that completed a milestone inspection within the previous 2 years pause or reduce reserve contributions for no more than 2 consecutive annual budgets, for budgets adopted on or before December 31, 2028. If the budget in front of you reflects such a pause, the contribution you are reading is temporary by design and will step back up.

Where an unresolved question goes

If an association will not produce the records, the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes within the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation accepts complaints about condominium associations and publishes a complaint form and filing instructions. Treat it as an enforcement route rather than a research tool. It is not a searchable public log of complaints by association name, so confirm directly with the division what it will and will not disclose before relying on an absence of complaints as evidence of anything.

What the records cannot show

• A reserve study estimates remaining useful life and replacement cost. It is not a guarantee that a component will last that long or cost that much.
• A budget shows what the board planned. It does not show what the board will approve at the next meeting.
• A percent funded figure compares money on hand to a projection. It does not tell you which component fails first.
• The state complaint process is a filing route, not a searchable history, so no complaint on file does not establish that no dispute exists.
• None of these documents price the interior condition of the unit you are buying.