Senate Bill 4-D: A Guide for Florida Property Managers and Condo Associations

Starting January 1, 2024, Florida’s property landscape is shifting. With the enforcement of Senate Bill 4-D, property management groups, condo associations, and owners are entering a new era of accountability and resilience.

This bill, passed by the Florida Legislature in May 2022, brings forth crucial mandates aimed at enhancing the safety and longevity of condominiums, commercial, and co-op buildings standing three stories or taller. This Bill specifies that condominium associations must complete a Structural Integrity Reserve Study, SIRS, by December 31, 2024.

This study will meticulously outline the estimated remaining useful life and repair/replacement costs for each structural component, including the amount of funds that must be reserved to cover these expenses.

SB 4-D:

“Requires the study to include a visual inspection, state the estimated remaining useful life, and the estimated replacement cost of the roof, load bearing walls or other primary structural members, floor, foundation, fireproofing and fire protection systems, plumbing, and any item with a deferred maintenance or replacement cost that exceeds $10,000.”

The Bill also:

“Requires the visual inspection to be performed by a person licensed as an engineer or an architect. However, any qualified person or entity may perform the other components of a structural integrity reserve study.”

One of the main components in the “plumbing” system that affects the structural integrity of your building are the multiple vertical drainage stacks found behind the walls. Originating beneath the first-floor foundation, these vertical drainage pipes extend upward, reaching above the roof to safely release sewer gases into the atmosphere. A significant number of properties affected by the Bill’s ‘safety inspection requirements’ feature cast iron drainage systems, known for their typical lifespan of 25-30 years in the Florida climate. You may find information online that says the lifespan of cast iron is 50 years, but the salt air along the Florida coast cuts that timeline in half.

Many Florida condominium associations invested in a vertical stack pipelining method called “Gapping” or “Stop and Start.” This method will not pass the SB-4D visual inspection.

The Gapping installation method, as implied by its name, highlights a major issue that will be reflected in the SB 4-D report – disqualifying the vertical stack as rehabilitated. The “gaps” in the lining material at each branch fitting leave a significant portion of the original cast iron vertical stack pipe untouched.These areas are not covered by the contractor’s material warranty. This material installation ignores several sections in the plumbing code, resulting in non-compliant deficiencies in the remaining useful life reserve schedule. 

Additionally, each downstream liner segment creates a “ledge or shoulder,” violating plumbing code and noted as a deficiency. Branch fittings can be found inside a vertical stack at every 8 to 10 feet intervals and are a crucial element in the plumbing structure. In a 100-foot-tall building, the ‘gapping’ installation method results in 10 to 12 unrehabilitated cast iron branch fitting deficiencies within a single stack. 

This method also overlooks the significance of the two cast iron ‘no-hub’ couplings at each ‘gapped’ branch fitting. These couplings incorporate neoprene gaskets, crucial for maintaining the airtight and watertight integrity of connections between the 10 to 12 fittings and the pipe within the 100-foot vertical stack. 

The useful life of the neoprene gaskets in these “no-hub” couplings is also 25-30 years. Therefore, in a ten story building, the inspection will reveal 20 to 24 deteriorated neoprene gaskets. This adds a corresponding number of ‘useful life’ deficiencies to the report for that specific vertical stack.