Key Findings

• Oregon imposes strong reserve and maintenance-plan requirements but converts none of them into a periodic structural inspection. The distinction is central: a reserve study funds future work; it doesn't inspect the building envelope for safety.
• The most significant recent development is legislative, not judicial. HB 3746 (2025), effective January 1, 2026, shortens the construction-defect statute of repose and adds a moisture-intrusion inspection duty for newly built condominiums. It's a defect-detection and litigation-reform measure, not a Surfside-style structural inspection of aging buildings.
• No Oregon appellate decision in the past 36 months squarely addresses a condominium association's duty to maintain common elements, building-envelope or water-intrusion failure, or a construction-defect claim bearing on maintenance obligations.
• Oregon has enacted no milestone, structural-integrity, or SIRS mandate, and no such proposal is currently active.

Details

Section 1: Overview

Oregon doesn't impose a milestone or structural-integrity inspection statute on condominiums, and it has enacted no structural integrity reserve study (SIRS) requirement of the kind Florida adopted in 2022.¹ Safety-inspection obligations in Oregon arise from a layered set of sources rather than one condo-safety statute: the association's general duty to maintain, repair, and replace common elements under the Oregon Condominium Act (ORS Chapter 100),² the reserve study, reserve account, and maintenance-plan requirements of ORS 100.175,³ the mandatory statewide building code and local fire codes, insurer requirements, and the recorded declaration. Oregon requires a reserve study, a reserve account, and a written maintenance plan, but those are funding and planning tools, not a structural or milestone inspection, and the two remain distinct.³

Cascadia subduction-zone seismic exposure and a wet climate with a documented water-intrusion and construction-defect history are reasons structural maintenance matters in Oregon, but those risks are addressed through the building code at construction, the reserve and maintenance-plan regime, litigation, and insurance rather than through a periodic structural-inspection mandate. Nationally, Oregon sits with the reserve-study states rather than the structural-mandate states such as Florida. The sections below set out the statutory and regulatory framework, the practical compliance map, recent legislative and judicial activity, and Oregon's national position.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. The Oregon Condominium Act: maintenance, insurance, reserves, and the maintenance plan

Condominiums in Oregon are governed by the Oregon Condominium Act, ORS Chapter 100.² (Planned communities are governed separately under ORS Chapter 94 and are outside the scope of this page.) The Act allocates maintenance responsibility rather than prescribing an inspection schedule. The bylaws must address the maintenance, repair, and replacement of the common elements and association property, and payment for that work,⁴ and the association is responsible for maintaining the common elements while unit owners maintain their units, subject to the declaration and bylaws.⁵ This is a general standard of maintenance and repair, not a fixed-schedule statutory inspection.

On funding, ORS 100.175 requires the association to establish a reserve account for major maintenance, repair, or replacement of common elements that will normally require such work in more than one and fewer than 30 years, including exterior painting where applicable.³ The board must annually determine reserve requirements by conducting a reserve study or reviewing and updating an existing one, and must prepare and keep current a written maintenance plan describing the maintenance, repair, and replacement to be conducted and a schedule for it.³ The reserve study and maintenance-plan requirements don't apply to a condominium of one or two units, excluding ancillary parking or storage units.³

On insurance, ORS 100.435 requires the board, where the bylaws give the association authority over repair or reconstruction, to obtain property insurance covering the common elements and liability insurance covering the association and its manager,⁶ and the board must review the association's insurance coverage at least annually.⁷ Taken together, the Act requires a reserve study, a reserve account, and a maintenance plan, but it doesn't impose a scheduled structural or milestone inspection, and the maintenance duty it creates is general.

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

Oregon has a mandatory statewide building code adopted by the Building Codes Division (BCD) of the Department of Consumer and Business Services. The current commercial code is the 2025 Oregon Structural Specialty Code (OSSC), which became mandatory for permit applications on April 1, 2026, replacing the 2022 edition.⁸ The OSSC applies to all buildings other than one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses, which means all multifamily and high-rise condominiums fall under it.⁹ BCD sets the code, but enforcement is generally handled by the local building department (the authority having jurisdiction) through plan review and inspections at the construction stage, with BCD providing building-department services in a limited number of counties.⁹

Seismic design for the Cascadia hazard is handled inside this code at the design and construction stage. The OSSC assigns seismic design categories based on ASCE 7 and imposes special inspections during construction; it doesn't require a periodic seismic inspection of existing buildings.

Fire and life safety are enforced by the Oregon State Fire Marshal (OSFM) and local fire departments. OSFM became an independent state agency on July 1, 2023, having previously operated as an office within the Oregon State Police.¹⁰ The State Fire Marshal and deputies may enter and inspect all buildings and premises except private residences to determine whether fire hazards exist,¹¹ and local fire agencies conduct fire and life-safety inspections of commercial and multifamily occupancies, including the common areas of residential condominium buildings.¹²

Elevators are regulated by BCD under the Elevator Safety Law: an elevator may not be operated without a current operating permit,¹³ and BCD periodically inspects each elevator to confirm safe operation and maintenance,¹⁴ with operating-permit (general safety) inspections scheduled by the inspector every two years.¹⁵ These regimes impose obligations at construction and for specific systems such as fire protection and elevators, but they don't create a periodic structural inspection of the building envelope of the Florida kind.

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

Beyond the statutory property and liability insurance requirements of ORS 100.435,⁶ condominium associations in Oregon commonly face inspection conditions imposed by their carriers as a condition of binding or renewing coverage. Those conditions are market-driven and aren't created by statute. The recorded declaration and bylaws are the operative documents for many associations: because ORS 100.415 requires the bylaws to address maintenance, repair, and replacement of the common elements, the actual inspection cadence at a given condominium is typically set by the declaration and the board rather than by statute.⁴

Where an association is incorporated as a nonprofit corporation, the Oregon Nonprofit Corporation Act (ORS Chapter 65) governs corporate formalities, and the Condominium Act controls in the event of a conflict; Chapter 65 imposes no inspection duty.¹⁶ The operational takeaway is that, absent a statutory inspection mandate, an Oregon condominium's actual inspection obligations come from the statewide building code and local fire codes, insurer conditions, and the declaration, read together.

Section 3: Compliance obligations

A. Structural and building-envelope obligations

The core obligation is a general duty to maintain, repair, and replace the common elements under the bylaws required by ORS 100.415, combined with building-code compliance, not a periodic statutory structural inspection (source type: statutory under the Oregon Condominium Act plus building code).⁴ Original construction, alterations, and repairs must meet the Oregon Structural Specialty Code, enforced by the local building department at permit and inspection (source type: building code).⁸ Seismic design for the Cascadia hazard is satisfied at construction through the code's design categories and special inspections, with no recurring structural inspection required afterward (source type: building code).⁹

B. Fire and life-safety obligations

Condominium common areas are subject to fire-code inspection by the State Fire Marshal and local fire departments, which may enter and inspect all premises except private residences (source type: fire code).¹¹ Ongoing fire and life-safety enforcement (alarms, egress, sprinklers, and similar systems) is carried out by local fire agencies for multifamily buildings (source type: fire code).¹²

C. Elevator and mechanical-systems obligations

A condominium elevator must have a current operating permit and may not be operated without one (source type: building/elevator code).¹³ BCD periodically inspects each elevator, with operating-permit safety inspections scheduled every two years (source type: building/elevator code).¹⁵

D. Reserve, insurance, and disclosure obligations

The association must maintain a reserve account, conduct or update a reserve study annually, and keep a written maintenance plan under ORS 100.175 (source type: statutory under the Oregon Condominium Act).³ The board must obtain the property and liability insurance required by ORS 100.435 and review coverage at least annually (source type: statutory under the Oregon Condominium Act).⁶ Carrier-imposed inspection conditions are a practical obligation but are market-driven, not statutory (source type: insurance-driven). The declaration and bylaws may set additional inspection or maintenance obligations specific to the community (source type: declaration-driven).⁴

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill introduced in the 2023 through 2025 sessions created a milestone or structural-integrity inspection mandate or a SIRS-style requirement for Oregon condominiums.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No Oregon Court of Appeals or Oregon Supreme Court decision issued in the past 36 months squarely addresses a condominium association's duty to maintain common elements, building-envelope or water-intrusion failure, or a construction-defect claim bearing on association maintenance obligations. Oregon's trial courts are the Circuit Courts, intermediate appeals are heard by the Oregon Court of Appeals, and discretionary review lies with the Oregon Supreme Court. Because no qualifying appellate ruling was verified in the relevant window, no case is reported here.

C. Active legislative debates

There's no active proposal in Oregon to create a milestone, structural-integrity, or SIRS-style inspection mandate for condominiums; recent legislative momentum has been directed at construction-defect litigation reform and moisture-intrusion inspection of new condominiums through HB 3746 rather than at a periodic structural-inspection regime for existing buildings.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Nationally, condominium safety regulation splits into distinct camps. Florida is the leading structural-mandate state: enacted through Senate Bill 4-D, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on May 26, 2022, after the June 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, its regime requires milestone structural inspections for condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or higher under Florida Statute 553.899, due by December 31 of the year a building reaches 30 years of age (25 years within three miles of a coastline) and every 10 years thereafter, plus a structural integrity reserve study on a 10-year cycle.¹ California requires condominium associations to inspect exterior elevated elements such as wood-framed balconies and walkways at least every nine years under Civil Code Section 5551, added by Senate Bill 326 (approved August 30, 2019), with the first inspection due by January 1, 2025.¹⁹

Oregon belongs to a different group: states that require reserve studies and maintenance planning but not structural inspections. For a firm managing across states, the practical implication is that Florida's milestone and SIRS obligations must not be assumed to exist in Oregon, and the absence of an Oregon inspection mandate doesn't eliminate liability, because the duty to maintain, the building and fire codes, insurer conditions, and Oregon's reserve-study requirement all still apply. Oregon's ORS 100.175 reserve study, reserve account, and maintenance-plan documentation is exactly the kind of record FHA and VA condo-approval reviews consume: a reserve deficit or adverse physical-condition finding the state-mandated study surfaces can directly jeopardize a project's ability to gain or keep FHA project approval, even though the underlying reserve-study mandate is purely a matter of Oregon law.²⁰ Oregon has shown no verified legislative momentum toward a structural or milestone inspection mandate.

Recommendations

• Immediate (all associations). Confirm the reserve study, reserve account, and written maintenance plan required by ORS 100.175 are current and that the board conducts the annual reserve determination; treat these as funding and planning obligations, not as evidence that a structural inspection has occurred. Confirm the ORS 100.435 property and liability coverage is in place and reviewed annually.
• For condominiums created on or after January 1, 2026. Calendar the ORS 100.417(8) moisture-intrusion inspections for the two-year and six-year marks after substantial completion, budget them from reserves, and adopt a written policy for the notice and voting steps HB 3746 requires before defect litigation.
• For all boards and managers. Read the declaration and bylaws to identify any inspection cadence they impose, and obtain each insurer's inspection conditions in writing; in Oregon these two sources, together with building and fire codes, are where real inspection duties live.
• For multi-state operators. Don't port Florida milestone/SIRS or California Section 5551 checklists into Oregon portfolios, and don't treat the absence of an Oregon mandate as an absence of liability.
• Thresholds that would change this guidance. Introduction of an Oregon bill creating a milestone, structural-integrity, or SIRS-style inspection requirement; enactment of any statewide periodic structural or building-envelope inspection for existing condominiums; or an Oregon appellate decision defining the scope of the association's ORS Chapter 100 maintenance duty. Any of these would warrant an immediate update to this page rather than waiting for the quarterly cycle.

Caveats

• This page covers condominiums under the Oregon Condominium Act (ORS Chapter 100). Planned communities under ORS Chapter 94 are out of scope; those with shared multi-story structures (clubhouses, parking structures) may face analogous building-code and insurer inspection obligations, but no condo-safety statute governs them.
• The building code edition and elevator inspection interval reflect current BCD practice; both are set administratively and can change on the next code-adoption or rulemaking cycle.
• The absence of a qualifying 2022–2026 Oregon appellate decision reflects diligent searching of court and law-firm sources; a paid docket search could confirm this null result with greater certainty.
• HB 3746's operative provisions apply prospectively to condominiums whose declarations are recorded on or after January 1, 2026, so most existing Oregon condominiums are not subject to its moisture-intrusion inspection duty.

1. Florida DBPR, Milestone Inspections and Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SB 4-D; Fla. Stat. 553.899) ↩
2. ORS Chapter 100, Oregon Condominium Act (ORS 100.010 short title) ↩
3. ORS 100.175, Reserve account for maintaining, repairing and replacing common elements; reserve study; maintenance plan ↩
4. ORS 100.415, Contents of bylaws (maintenance, repair, replacement of common elements) ↩
5. ORS 100.540, Use and maintenance of common elements; access for maintenance ↩
6. ORS 100.435, Insurance for individual units and common elements; fidelity bond ↩
7. ORS 100.417, Board of directors of association; powers and duties (annual insurance review) ↩
8. Oregon Building Codes Division, Adopted codes online (Oregon Structural Specialty Code editions and effective dates) ↩
9. Oregon Building Codes Division, Oregon Structural Specialty Code adoption and enforcement ↩
10. Oregon State Fire Marshal, About Us (independent state agency July 2023) ↩
11. ORS 476.150, Entry and inspection of premises ↩
12. Oregon State Fire Marshal, Fire and Life Safety Division ↩
13. ORS 460.045, Permits, licenses, certificates and authorizations required ↩
14. ORS 460.125, Periodic inspection of elevators and permits ↩
15. Oregon Building Codes Division, Elevator services (general safety inspections scheduled every two years) ↩
16. ORS 100.100, conflict between ORS Chapter 100 and ORS Chapter 65 ↩
17. HB 3746 (2025 Regular Session), OLIS measure overview ↩
18. Enrolled House Bill 3746, measure text (ORS 100.417(8) moisture-intrusion inspection; recording-date applicability) ↩
19. California SB 326, adding Civil Code Section 5551 (nine-year exterior elevated element inspection; first inspection by January 1, 2025) ↩
20. HUD, FHA Condominiums (insurance coverage, financial condition, pending legal action, and physical property condition; projects must comply with applicable state law), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ↩