Key Findings

• The Indiana Condominium Act imposes a general maintenance duty, not a scheduled structural inspection. The bylaws of every condominium must provide for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of the common areas and facilities, and co-owners must contribute pro rata toward those expenses. Neither provision sets an inspection cadence.
• The Act requires property and liability insurance — a master casualty policy at full replacement value and a master liability policy — and requires a replacement reserve fund, but it doesn't require a reserve study.
• Indiana administers statewide building, fire, and elevator codes through the Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission within the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. These govern construction, alteration, and specific building systems. None imposes a periodic whole-building structural inspection of the building envelope.
• The declaration and board rules, together with carrier-imposed inspection conditions, are the practical drivers of inspection cadence for most Indiana condominiums.
• The separate Homeowners Associations Act (IC 32-25.5) governs non-condominium planned communities and sits outside the scope of this condominium topic.

Details

1. Overview: Condo safety inspections in Indiana

Indiana has no statute requiring milestone or structural-integrity inspections of condominium buildings and no structural integrity reserve study requirement of the kind Florida adopted in 2022.¹ Condominium safety obligations instead arise from four operative sources: the general duty to maintain, repair, and replace common areas under the Indiana Condominium Act; the statewide building and fire codes; insurer requirements; and the recorded declaration.²

This topic lives in the Indiana Condominium Act at IC 32-25, not in the separate Homeowners Associations Act at IC 32-25.5, which governs non-condominium planned communities and sits out of scope here.³ Indiana's exposure to tornadoes, straight-line wind, and freeze-thaw cycles makes structural maintenance a real concern for Hoosier condominiums, but the state addresses that risk through construction-stage code compliance and insurance rather than a statutory inspection mandate.⁴

Nationally, this places Indiana among the no-statutory-mandate states, apart from statutory-mandate states such as Florida.⁵ The sections below lay out the statutory and regulatory framework, the specific compliance obligations by category, and the recent legislative and judicial record.

2. The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. The Indiana Condominium Act: maintenance, repair, and insurance

The Indiana Condominium Act is codified at IC 32-25, recodified from the former IC 32-1-6 and re-added by P.L.2-2002.¹ The load-bearing maintenance provision is functional, not calendar-based.

IC 32-25-8-2 requires that the bylaws of every condominium provide for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of the common areas and facilities and for payment of those costs, and IC 32-25-4-4(a) binds co-owners to contribute pro rata toward the expenses of administration and of maintenance and repair of the general common areas and facilities.⁶ The statutory definition of common areas and facilities at IC 32-25-2-4 expressly includes foundations, columns, girders, beams, supports, main walls, roofs, stairways, and fire escapes, so the maintenance duty reaches the structural elements of the building.⁷

Critically, none of these provisions establishes a fixed timetable, a trigger age, an inspection interval, or an inspector-credential requirement. The obligation is a continuing duty to maintain, not a periodic statutory structural inspection.

On insurance, IC 32-25-8-9 requires the co-owners, through the association, to purchase a master casualty policy affording fire and extended coverage in an amount consonant with the full replacement value of the improvements that comprise the common areas, and a master liability policy.⁸ On reserves, IC 32-25-4-4(c) requires that all sums assessed be established using generally accepted accounting principles and include the establishment and maintenance of a replacement reserve fund, held in a separate interest-bearing account and usable only for capital expenditures and replacement, not ordinary repairs.⁹

Indiana doesn't, however, mandate a reserve study for condominiums, and a reserve fund requirement isn't the same thing as a structural inspection.⁹ Where an association incorporates as a nonprofit, the Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991 (IC 23-17) governs corporate formalities only and imposes no inspection duty.¹⁰

2B. The statewide building and fire codes and elevators

Indiana administers statewide building and fire codes through the Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission, a body established in IC 22-12-2 that sits within the Indiana Department of Homeland Security (IDHS).¹¹ The Indiana Building Code for commercial construction is based on the 2021 International Building Code and applies to Class 1 structures, which include commercial buildings and residential buildings with three or more dwelling units — the category that captures multifamily and high-rise condominiums.¹²

The Indiana Fire Code is the 2014 edition, based on the 2012 International Fire Code, and a committee is reviewing the 2024 International Fire Code for a future update.¹³ Enforcement splits: under 2023 legislation (HEA 1575), the substantive building and fire safety laws in force statewide are the Commission's rules, while local jurisdictions retain administrative authority over permits, plan review, inspection schedules, and fines, and local fire officials conduct fire and life-safety inspections of Class 1 structures under IC 36-8-17-8.¹⁴

These regimes govern construction and alteration and specific building systems; they don't impose a comprehensive periodic structural inspection of the building envelope of the kind Florida mandates.¹²

The State Fire Marshal leads the Division of Fire and Building Safety within IDHS and oversees code enforcement, fire investigations, boilers and pressure vessels, and elevators.¹⁵ For residential condominium buildings, ongoing fire inspections are generally carried out by local fire departments under the Fire Code rather than by a statewide periodic structural review.¹⁴

Elevators are regulated separately. The Indiana Elevator Safety Code at 675 IAC 21, administered by the Commission's Elevators and Amusement Rides Section within IDHS, requires that a regulated lifting device not be operated without a current operating certificate, that renewal follow completion of applicable safety tests, and that the certificate be displayed in or on the device or its machine room.¹⁶ Chapter 30 of the Building Code confirms that elevators in Class 1 structures must conform to the Elevator Safety Code.¹² This is a system-specific certification regime for elevators, not a whole-building structural inspection.

2C. Insurance, the declaration, and the practical inspection drivers

Because the Act sets no inspection timetable, the recorded declaration and the board's rules are the operative documents that set inspection cadence for many Indiana condominiums. The declaration defines the common elements and allocates maintenance responsibility, and the board administers that duty through the bylaws.⁶

The statutory insurance obligation under IC 32-25-8-9 pushes associations toward carrier relationships, and property and casualty insurers commonly impose their own inspection conditions — roof age, wind mitigation, electrical, and similar — as a condition of coverage or pricing.⁸ Those carrier-imposed conditions are market-driven, not statutory. In practice, then, the cadence of any structural or systems inspection at an Indiana condominium is set by the declaration, the board, and the insurance market rather than by state law.

3. Compliance obligations

A. Structural and building-envelope obligations

• The association must maintain, repair, and replace the common areas and facilities, which by statutory definition include foundations, main walls, roofs, and other structural elements. Source type: statutory (IC 32-25-8-2; IC 32-25-4-4; IC 32-25-2-4).⁶ This is a general duty to maintain plus building-code compliance, not a periodic statutory structural inspection.
• New construction and alterations to condominium buildings must comply with the Indiana Building Code (2021 IBC for Class 1 structures). Source type: building code (675 IAC 13).¹²

B. Fire and life-safety obligations

• Condominium buildings must comply with the Indiana Fire Code, enforced by local fire officials who may inspect Class 1 structures. Source type: fire code (675 IAC 22; IC 36-8-17-8).¹³
• Fire protection systems installed under the codes must be maintained and not removed or modified except under the Commission's rules. Source type: fire and building code (675 IAC 13; 675 IAC 22).¹⁴

C. Elevator and mechanical-systems obligations

• Each condominium elevator must hold a current operating certificate, renewed after passing applicable safety tests, with the certificate displayed. Source type: building/elevator code (675 IAC 21).¹⁶
• Elevators in Class 1 condominium structures must conform to the Indiana Elevator Safety Code. Source type: building code (675 IAC 13, Chapter 30).¹²

D. Reserve, insurance, and disclosure obligations

• The association must purchase a master casualty policy at full replacement value and a master liability policy. Source type: statutory (IC 32-25-8-9).⁸
• The association must establish and maintain a replacement reserve fund using generally accepted accounting principles, though no reserve study is required. Source type: statutory (IC 32-25-4-4(c)).⁹
• Inspection conditions tied to insurance coverage or the declaration are set by carriers and the governing documents. Source type: insurance-driven and declaration-driven.⁸

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

4A. Recent bills

No qualifying bill exists in the window. As of the 2026 Indiana legislative session, no post-Surfside structural-inspection or SIRS bill has been introduced, and no bill has been introduced to amend the Indiana Condominium Act's maintenance, insurance, or reserve provisions to add an inspection mandate.¹ The community-association legislation that did move in the 2026 session, such as House Bill 1152, addressed governance matters under the Homeowners Associations Act (IC 32-25.5) and didn't touch condominium structural inspections.¹⁷

4B. Recent appellate rulings

No qualifying appellate ruling exists in the window. A review of courts.in.gov and Google Scholar found no Indiana Court of Appeals or Supreme Court decision in the past 36 months addressing a condominium association's duty to maintain, condominium structural defects, or condominium building-envelope or water-intrusion failures under IC 32-25.¹⁸ The closest on-point Indiana condominium construction-defect and water-infiltration decision, The Residences at Ivy Quad Unit Owners Association, Inc. v. Ivy Quad Development, LLC, 179 N.E.3d 977 (Ind. 2022), was decided by the Indiana Supreme Court on January 25, 2022, which falls just outside the 36-month window.¹⁸

4C. Active legislative debates

Indiana has shown no legislative momentum toward a milestone, structural, or reserve-study mandate for condominiums; the post-Surfside inspection debate that followed the June 24, 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, Florida, which killed 98 people, and that has produced statutes in Florida, Maryland, Virginia, and other states, hasn't generated an Indiana bill.⁵

5. National positioning and related coverage

Indiana sits on the no-statutory-mandate side of a widening national divide. Statutory-mandate states impose fixed structural inspection and reserve regimes: Florida's Senate Bill 4-D became law on May 26, 2022 as a direct response to the Surfside collapse, is codified at Fla. Stat. § 553.899, and requires a milestone inspection by an architect or engineer when a condominium or cooperative building three or more stories in height reaches 30 years of age (25 years if within three miles of a coastline) and every 10 years after that, plus structural integrity reserve studies.⁵

Elevated-element states impose targeted inspections; California's SB 326, approved by the Governor on August 30, 2019 and adding Civil Code Section 5551 to the Davis-Stirling Act, requires condominium associations to inspect wood-supported exterior elevated elements such as balconies more than six feet above ground level, with the first inspection due January 1, 2025 and re-inspection at least once every nine years.¹⁹ Indiana has adopted neither model.

The practical implication for multi-state operators is direct: a firm managing Florida condominiums must not assume that Florida's milestone or SIRS obligations exist in Indiana, and the absence of an Indiana mandate doesn't eliminate liability, because the duty to maintain, the building and fire codes, and insurer conditions still apply. As verified above, Indiana shows no current legislative momentum toward a mandate. Federal financing is a further driver outside Indiana's own inspection framework: FHA and VA condo-approval reviews independently examine a project's reserve funding and physical condition, so a reserve shortfall or deferred-maintenance finding can jeopardize a project's ability to obtain or retain FHA approval even though Indiana law imposes no inspection or reserve-study mandate of its own.²¹

Community association managers are overseen through real estate licensing by the Indiana Real Estate Commission within the Professional Licensing Agency; Indiana has no dedicated HOA regulator, and trial disputes proceed through the Circuit and Superior Courts, with appeals to the Indiana Court of Appeals and review by the Indiana Supreme Court.²⁰

1. Indiana Code Title 32, Article 25 (Condominiums), Indiana General Assembly (iga.in.gov) ↩
2. Indiana Code IC 32-25-8-2 (bylaws; maintenance) and IC 32-25-4-4 (contributions), Indiana General Assembly ↩
3. Indiana Code IC 32-25.5 (Homeowners Associations Act), Indiana General Assembly ↩
4. Indiana Department of Homeland Security, severe weather and building safety programs (in.gov/dhs) ↩
5. Florida Statutes § 553.899 (milestone inspections; Senate Bill 4-D, effective May 26, 2022), Online Sunshine (Florida Legislature) ↩
6. Indiana Code IC 32-25-8-2(6) (bylaws; maintenance, repair, replacement) and IC 32-25-4-4(a), Indiana General Assembly ↩
7. Indiana Code IC 32-25-2-4 (definition of common areas and facilities), Indiana General Assembly ↩
8. Indiana Code IC 32-25-8-9 (insurance; co-owners), Indiana General Assembly ↩
9. Indiana Code IC 32-25-4-4(c) (replacement reserve fund), Indiana General Assembly ↩
10. Indiana Code Title 23, Article 17 (Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991), Indiana General Assembly ↩
11. Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission (established under IC 22-12-2), Indiana Department of Homeland Security ↩
12. Indiana Building Code (675 IAC 13) and codes list, Indiana Department of Homeland Security ↩
13. 675 IAC 22 (Indiana Fire Prevention Codes), Indiana Administrative Rules and Policies (iga.in.gov) ↩
14. HEA 1575 (2023) impacts on building and fire safety enforcement, Indiana Department of Homeland Security ↩
15. Office of the State Fire Marshal, Division of Fire and Building Safety, Indiana Department of Homeland Security ↩
16. 675 IAC 21 (Safety Codes for Elevators, Escalators, Manlifts and Hoists), Indiana Administrative Rules and Policies (iga.in.gov) ↩
17. House Bill 1152 (2026), Homeowners association matters (Public Law 53), Indiana General Assembly ↩
18. Indiana Appellate Court Decisions database (public.courts.in.gov); The Residences at Ivy Quad Unit Owners Ass'n v. Ivy Quad Development, LLC, 179 N.E.3d 977 (Ind. Jan. 25, 2022) ↩
19. California Civil Code § 5551 (exterior elevated element inspections; SB 326, approved Aug. 30, 2019), California Legislative Information ↩
20. Indiana Real Estate Commission, Professional Licensing Agency (in.gov/pla) ↩
21. HUD, FHA Condominiums (financial condition, physical property condition, and compliance with applicable state law as part of FHA project-approval review) ↩