Section 1 — Overview: Condo safety inspections in Kentucky

Kentucky has no milestone or structural inspection statute for condominiums and no structural integrity reserve study requirement of the kind Florida adopted in 2022.¹ As of a review of the Kentucky Revised Statutes current through the 2026 Regular Session, no Florida-style periodic structural inspection regime and no SIRS-equivalent exist in Kentucky law. Condominium safety-inspection obligations instead arise from a layered set of sources: the association's general duty to maintain, repair, and replace the common elements under the applicable condominium statute; the mandatory statewide building code and local fire codes; property-insurer requirements; and the recorded declaration.²

Applicability turns on the declaration's recording date, because condominiums created on or after January 1, 2011 fall under the Kentucky Condominium Act (KRS 381.9101 et seq.), while those created earlier remain under the Horizontal Property Law (KRS 381.805 et seq.), and the two acts have different maintenance and insurance provisions.¹ Kentucky's exposure to flooding, tornadoes, and freeze-thaw cycles makes structural maintenance important, but the Commonwealth addresses those risks through building-code compliance and insurance rather than a statutory inspection mandate.³

Nationally, Kentucky sits with the no-statutory-mandate states, apart from statutory-mandate states such as Florida.⁴ The sections below detail the statutory and regulatory framework, the specific compliance obligations and their sources, recent legislative and judicial activity, and Kentucky's national positioning.

Section 2 — The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. The condominium statutes: maintenance, repair, and insurance

The post-2011 Kentucky Condominium Act (KRS 381.9101 to 381.9207), modeled on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act as amended and effective January 1, 2011, governs condominiums created on or after that date.¹ Under KRS 381.9175, except as otherwise provided by the declaration, the association is responsible for maintenance, repair, and replacement of the common elements, and each unit owner is responsible for maintenance, repair, and replacement of the owner's unit.⁵ Insurance obligations sit at KRS 381.9187, which requires the association, to the extent reasonably available, to maintain property insurance on the common elements with total coverage after deductibles of not less than 100 percent of actual cash value, plus liability insurance.⁶

The pre-2011 Horizontal Property Law (KRS 381.805 to 381.910) applies a different scheme: KRS 381.870 requires all co-owners to contribute pro rata to maintenance expenses and references a replacement reserve fund,⁷ and KRS 381.885 addresses insurance in permissive terms, providing that the council of co-owners may acquire casualty and liability coverage.⁸ Applicability is determined by creation date under KRS 381.9103, though several Condominium Act provisions extend to pre-2011 regimes for events after January 1, 2011.⁹

Neither act imposes a scheduled structural or milestone inspection; the maintenance duty is a general standard, not a fixed-timetable inspection requirement.⁵ Neither act mandates a reserve study. The Condominium Act recognizes reserves for capital expenditures for disclosure purposes under KRS 381.9203 but sets no funding level, formula, or study requirement, and the Horizontal Property Law references a replacement reserve fund without prescribing its size.¹⁰

2B. The mandatory statewide building code, fire and life safety, and elevators

Kentucky administers a mandatory, uniform, statewide building code under KRS 198B.050, adopted and enforced by the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction (DHBC); local governments may not adopt or enforce any competing building code.¹¹ The current code is the 2018 Kentucky Building Code (Fourth Edition), based on the International Building Code with Kentucky amendments.¹² Enforcement splits between DHBC's Division of Building Codes Enforcement and local building departments under Section 104 of the code: where a local jurisdiction operates an inspection program it holds jurisdiction over multifamily and high-rise construction, and where it doesn't, non-single-family projects are submitted to DHBC for plan review and inspection.¹² The code governs new construction, additions, alterations, and changes of occupancy; it doesn't impose a periodic whole-building structural inspection.¹²

Fire and life-safety enforcement runs through the State Fire Marshal, a division within DHBC in the Public Protection Cabinet, and through local fire departments.¹³ The Division of Fire Prevention inspects existing public buildings for compliance using NFPA 1 and NFPA 101, but there's no requirement that buildings be inspected every year.¹⁴

Elevators are regulated by DHBC's Elevator Inspection Section, which inspects new and existing elevators and issues certificates of operation on a yearly basis.¹⁵ These regimes impose obligations at construction and for specific systems such as fire protection and elevators, but they don't create a comprehensive periodic structural inspection of the building envelope of the kind Florida mandates.¹²

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

The Kentucky Condominium Act's property and casualty insurance requirement at KRS 381.9187 is the statutory floor for post-2011 condominiums; the Horizontal Property Law's insurance provision at KRS 381.885 is permissive for pre-2011 regimes.⁶ In practice, carriers add their own inspection conditions, such as roof, wiring, or four-point inspections, as a condition of binding or renewing coverage; these carrier requirements are market-driven, not statutory.

The recorded declaration is the operative document for most Kentucky condominiums: because the statutes set only a general maintenance duty, the actual inspection cadence, the allocation of responsibility for particular components, and any reserve practices are commonly set by the declaration and the board.⁵

Where an association incorporates as a nonprofit, the Kentucky Nonprofit Corporation Act (KRS Chapter 273) governs corporate formalities such as records and meetings, but it imposes no inspection duty.¹⁶ Kentucky also has no dedicated HOA regulator and no separate community-association-manager license; real estate brokerage is licensed by the Kentucky Real Estate Commission.¹⁷ The operational takeaway: absent a statutory inspection mandate, an association's inspection obligations come from the building code and local fire codes, insurer conditions, and the declaration, read together.

Section 3 — Compliance obligations

There's no single Kentucky condo-safety-inspection statute. Most obligations below are code-based, insurer-driven, or declaration-based, and the condominium-statute obligations differ by creation date.

A. Structural and building-envelope obligations

• The association must maintain, repair, and replace the common elements, including structural and envelope components, under KRS 381.9175.⁵ Source type: statutory (Kentucky condominium statutes). Applies to: post-2011 condominiums.
• Pre-2011 condominiums carry the analogous maintenance obligation through pro rata co-owner contributions under KRS 381.870.⁷ Source type: statutory. Applies to: pre-2011 condominiums.
• New construction, additions, alterations, and changes of occupancy must comply with the Kentucky Building Code.¹² Source type: building code. Applies to: both. The structural obligation is a general duty to maintain plus building-code compliance, not a periodic statutory structural inspection.

B. Fire and life-safety obligations

• Residential condominium buildings must maintain fire and life-safety features in compliance with the Kentucky Standards of Safety and are subject to inspection by the State Fire Marshal's Division of Fire Prevention or a local fire department.¹³ Source type: fire code. Applies to: both.
• Fire protection and alarm systems installed during construction or alteration must meet the building code and referenced NFPA standards.¹² Source type: building/fire code. Applies to: both.

C. Elevator and mechanical-systems obligations

• Condominium elevators must pass DHBC Elevator Inspection Section inspection and hold a current certificate of operation, issued on a yearly basis.¹⁵ Source type: building code (elevator regulation). Applies to: both.
• Mechanical systems installed or altered must comply with the applicable Kentucky code and be inspected at installation.¹² Source type: building code. Applies to: both.

D. Reserve, insurance, and disclosure obligations

• Post-2011 associations must maintain property insurance on common elements at not less than 100 percent of actual cash value, to the extent reasonably available, plus liability insurance, under KRS 381.9187.⁶ Source type: statutory. Applies to: post-2011 condominiums.
• Pre-2011 regimes may carry casualty and liability insurance under KRS 381.885 and must fund a replacement reserve fund through pro rata contributions under KRS 381.870.⁸ Source type: statutory. Applies to: pre-2011 condominiums.
• On resale, the seller must disclose the amount of any reserves for capital expenditures under KRS 381.9203.⁹ Source type: statutory. Applies to: both, extended to pre-2011 regimes. Kentucky doesn't mandate a reserve study.

Section 4 — Recent legislative and judicial activity

4A. Recent bills

4B. Recent appellate rulings

4C. Active legislative debates

No active Kentucky proposal would create a milestone, structural, or reserve-study mandate, and the 2025 and 2026 sessions produced no post-Surfside inspection legislation.

Section 5 — National positioning and related coverage

Kentucky is a no-statutory-mandate state for condominium structural inspections, in contrast to the statutory-mandate states. Florida, responding to the June 24, 2021 partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, which killed 98 people, enacted Senate Bill 4-D, signed May 26, 2022, creating a milestone inspection and structural integrity reserve study regime codified at Fla. Stat. § 553.899; milestone inspections are required at 30 years of building age (25 years within three miles of the coast) and every 10 years after that for condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or higher.⁴

California separately requires visual inspection of exterior elevated elements such as balconies, decks, stairways, and walkways every nine years under Civil Code § 5551, added by Senate Bill 326, effective January 1, 2020, after the 2015 Berkeley balcony collapse.²⁰ Kentucky has enacted neither model.

For multi-state operators, the practical implication cuts two ways: a firm managing Florida condominiums must not assume Florida's milestone or SIRS obligations exist in Kentucky, and the absence of a Kentucky mandate doesn't eliminate liability, because the general duty to maintain, the building and fire codes, and insurer conditions still apply. Kentucky has shown no legislative momentum toward a structural-inspection or reserve-study mandate through the 2026 session. Federal financing supplies an independent driver regardless of Kentucky's own inspection law: FHA and VA condo-approval reviews examine a project's reserve funding and physical condition on their own terms, so a reserve shortfall or deferred-maintenance finding can jeopardize a project's ability to obtain or keep FHA approval even though Kentucky imposes no inspection or reserve-study mandate.²¹ Planned communities with shared multi-story structures such as clubhouses or parking structures may face analogous building-code and insurance inspection obligations, but Kentucky has no comprehensive modern planned-community statute of the uniform type and no condo-safety inspection coverage for them.

1. Kentucky Revised Statutes, Chapter 381 (Kentucky Condominium Act, KRS 381.9101 to 381.9207, effective January 1, 2011; Horizontal Property Law, KRS 381.805 to 381.910), Kentucky Legislature ↩
2. KRS 381.9175, Upkeep of condominium, Kentucky Legislature ↩
3. Kentucky State Fire Marshal, Division of Fire Prevention (fire and life-safety enforcement of existing buildings), Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction ↩
4. Fla. Stat. § 553.899, Mandatory structural inspections for condominium and cooperative buildings (milestone inspection at 30 years, 25 years near the coast, then every 10 years; enacted by 2022 Senate Bill 4-D following the Surfside collapse), The Florida Senate ↩
5. KRS 381.9175, Upkeep of condominium (association responsible for maintenance, repair, and replacement of common elements), Kentucky Legislature ↩
6. KRS 381.9187, Insurance, Kentucky Legislature ↩
7. KRS 381.870, Maintenance — Pro rata contribution — Adjustments, Kentucky Legislature ↩
8. KRS 381.885, Insurance (Horizontal Property Law), Kentucky Legislature ↩
9. KRS 381.9103, Application and construction of KRS 381.9101 to 381.9207, Kentucky Legislature ↩
10. KRS 381.9203, Documentation to be furnished by seller of unit — Certificate (reserves for capital expenditures disclosure); KRS 381.870 (replacement reserve fund), Kentucky Legislature ↩
11. KRS 198B.050, Uniform State Building Code, Kentucky Legislature ↩
12. Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, Division of Building Codes Enforcement (2018 Kentucky Building Code; state/local jurisdiction split under Sections 104.15–104.16; review and inspection of new construction, additions, alterations, and changes of occupancy) ↩
13. Kentucky State Fire Marshal, General Inspection (inspection of existing public buildings for compliance with state fire/life-safety codes using NFPA 1 and NFPA 101), Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction ↩
14. Commonwealth of Kentucky Public Protection Cabinet, Housing, Buildings and Construction FAQ (no requirement for buildings to be inspected every year; Division of Fire Prevention performs periodic inspections) ↩
15. Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, Elevator Inspection Section (inspects new and existing elevators on a yearly basis and issues certificates of operation) ↩
16. Kentucky Revised Statutes, Chapter 273 (Kentucky Nonprofit Corporation Act), Kentucky Legislature ↩
17. Kentucky Real Estate Commission (real estate brokerage licensing) ↩
18. Senate Bill 233 (2026 Regular Session), AN ACT relating to property owner associations, Kentucky Legislature (record and status) ↩
19. Floyd v. Parkview Council of Co-Owners, Inc., No. 2022-CA-0765-MR (Ky. App. 2023) (opinion; not to be published) ↩
20. Cal. Civ. Code § 5551, Inspection of exterior elevated elements (added by Senate Bill 326, effective January 1, 2020), California Legislative Information ↩
21. HUD, FHA Condominiums (financial condition, physical property condition, and compliance with applicable state law as part of FHA project-approval review) ↩