City of Miami
Vilano Engineering performs building recertification inspections for condominium, cooperative, and commercial buildings in the City of Miami — structural inspection, electrical inspection, and infrared thermography, sealed and submitted to the City as a single package.
The requirement comes from the Miami-Dade County code, but the City of Miami publishes guidelines of its own setting out what each report must examine and how the findings are to be documented. Those guidelines are the standard your submittal is reviewed against.
A recertification notice from the City of Miami Building Department means your building has reached the age at which the requirement applies, and it names the date your reports are due. What the City is asking for is a structural report and an electrical report, each on the approved forms and each signed and sealed, supported by colour photographs, with an infrared thermographic scan of the electrical distribution equipment where the building's service warrants it.
Send us the notice and we can tell you what your submittal needs to contain.
Send us your notice →The structural portion is a visual examination covering the habitable and non-habitable areas of the building and any part, material, or assembly bearing on structural integrity — foundations and evidence of settlement, masonry walls and the pattern of cracking, floor and roof systems, steel framing and its connections, balconies, railings, and the facade.
The City's guidelines state that visual examination will in most cases be adequate. Where the examination identifies substantial structural deterioration, a further phase follows.
The City of Miami requires an electrical report alongside the structural one. It begins with a description of the service — its amperage, phase configuration, and means of protection — and covers metering and distribution equipment, panelboards, branch circuits and the conductors serving them, grounding and bonding, the condition of conduit and raceways, and emergency lighting and fire alarm equipment.
Every meter room on the property is examined directly, so access to those spaces is usually what sets the schedule.
The City of Miami requires an infrared thermographic inspection of the electrical distribution equipment where the system operates at 400 amperes or more. The City's guidelines go further than most and specify the qualification: the scan must be performed by a certified Level II thermographer or higher with documented experience in commercial buildings.
That is worth confirming before anyone is engaged, because a scan performed by someone without the certification does not satisfy the requirement. The scan itself is performed on energized equipment under load, and it requires coordination — a Florida-licensed electrical contractor removes the panel covers the day before and assists on site during the scan.
More on infrared thermography inspections →Miami-Dade requires its own report forms and will not accept a report prepared in a firm's own format. Each page is signed and sealed by the engineer or architect responsible for that scope, and colour photographs at a resolution sufficient to show the conditions described are part of the required documentation rather than an addition to it. Where the property includes parking, illumination and guardrail certifications go in with the package.
The City's guidelines also allow the Building Official to audit a submitted report and to revoke a recertification already approved.
Miami-Dade's requirement applies county-wide and every municipality administers it through its own building department, so a building here and a building in Miami Beach are held to the same county standard on the same forms but answer to different building officials.
The standard changes at the county line. Broward operates a separate county-wide program covering structural and electrical systems, and it does not require thermography. Palm Beach County operates no county-wide program at all — Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, and Highland Beach each run their own, and a building elsewhere in that county is subject to the statewide milestone inspection, which is structural only.
For the County's requirement, see the Miami-Dade recertification page. For the City's inspection guidelines, see the City of Miami recertification guidelines. For the statewide milestone requirement, see Florida Statute 553.899. For what happens between receiving a notice and closing the file, see what to do when you receive a recertification notice.
A structural report and an electrical report on the approved County forms, signed and sealed and supported by colour photographs, with an infrared thermographic scan of the electrical distribution equipment where the system operates at 400 amperes or more. Confirm your specific requirements and deadline with the City's building department.
No. Vilano Engineering performs all three and submits them as a single sealed package.
The City's guidelines call for a certified Level II thermographer or higher with documented experience in commercial buildings.
No. Miami-Dade requires its own forms and proprietary formats are not accepted.
No. The milestone inspection is a statewide structural requirement. Miami-Dade's recertification is a separate county program covering structural and electrical systems. A building may be subject to both, and whether work done for one applies to the other depends on scope.
The building's age runs from the certificate of occupancy, but the applicable schedule is administered by the City. Confirm the date with the City of Miami Building Department.
Vilano Engineering, LLC is a licensed engineering firm providing building recertification and safety inspections, infrared thermography, electrical design, expert witness services, developer turnover, and property condition assessments.
Nicholas Strachan, PE
Licensed Professional Engineer — Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, New York, North Carolina, Texas
Certified Level II Thermographer
Licensed Plans Examiner — Florida
25+ years in engineering design, inspection, and quality assurance