How does an HOA board hire a structural engineer?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 31, 2026

When an HOA board needs a structural engineer, how to check the license in TX, FL and CO, write the scope letter, compare fees and read the sealed report.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Call a licensed professional engineer who does structural work before you call a repair contractor whenever something the association maintains carries weight and is moving, cracking, rotting or leaning. That covers balconies, walkways, exterior stairs, retaining walls, carports, pool decks, footbridges and any foundation or framing the declaration puts on the association. The engineer tells the board what is wrong, how urgent it is and what the fix should be. Contractors then price that fix instead of inventing one. Our guide on how to inspect and repair an HOA retaining wall shows how this works for one common structure. In Texas, Florida and Colorado there is no separate structural engineer license. The person you want holds a professional engineer (PE) license and practices in structural work. Both Florida and Colorado make it unlawful for an unlicensed person to use the title: Fla. Stat. 471.031(1)(b) lists 'structural engineer' by name, and C.R.S. 12-120-205(3) does the same. Texas goes further. Tex. Occ. Code 1001.301(a) bars anyone without a license from practicing engineering at all, and 1001.301(b) bars them from calling themselves an engineer. The rules in this guide vary by state and by your declaration and bylaws. It is general education for board members, not legal advice.

Hire the engineer before the contractor

The costly mistake is letting the company that will do the repair decide what the repair is. A deck contractor looking at a soft balcony will usually propose rebuilding it. Sometimes the real problem is a gutter dumping water onto a beam, and the rebuild fails again in six years. An engineer with no stake in the construction contract can tell the difference. Home inspectors and handymen can point out a problem, but they cannot give the board a sealed engineering opinion. In Texas, taking a fee for engineering work without a license violates 1001.301(d). Call an engineer when you see any of these on association property: a crack in a wall or slab that keeps getting wider, a retaining wall that leans or bulges, a balcony or walkway that bounces or slopes toward the building, rust stains or spalled concrete around steel, stair treads pulling away from the stringer or settlement near a structure. If anyone could get hurt, tape it off that day and then make the call.

Check the license and the firm

Get proposals from two or three firms and check each one before the board votes. The lookups are free. Texas: search the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors roster at pels.texas.gov. Each engineer's record shows an Enforcement Status field, so you can see discipline at a glance. The firm needs its own registration under Tex. Occ. Code 1001.405(b), and it has a separate firm roster on the same site. Florida: search the licensee lookup at myfloridalicense.com, which the Florida Board of Professional Engineers links to. Under Fla. Stat. 471.023(1), a company offering engineering services must be qualified by a licensed engineer, and the engineers doing the work must hold Florida licenses. Colorado: use the Division of Professions and Occupations license lookup. C.R.S. 12-120-205(2) makes it unlawful for a company to practice engineering unless the individual in responsible charge has complied with the licensing part of the statute. Then ask each firm in writing for the name and license number of the engineer who will sign the report, a certificate of professional liability insurance, and two recent projects like yours. Call one of those references.

Write a one-page scope letter

A vague request gets a vague proposal. Send every firm the same letter with photos and a site map. Here is wording you can adapt: 'The Oak Hollow Homeowners Association maintains a timber retaining wall about 180 feet long behind lots 14 to 22. Since March, the middle 40 feet has leaned toward the lots and two posts have split. Photos and a map are attached. We ask for a proposal to (1) inspect the wall and tell us whether it is safe for owners to use the yards below it now, (2) identify the likely cause, (3) recommend repair or replacement with an opinion of probable cost for each option, and (4) say whether the work needs a permit and sealed drawings. Please price the inspection and report separately from any design work. We would like the report within six weeks of signing.' Ask each firm to list what it will not do. A visual inspection is not soil borings, concrete cores or opening up a wall. If the engineer expects to need those, find out before you sign.

Fees, phases and whether you need bids

Structural engineers usually price small association jobs one of two ways: a fixed fee for each phase, or an hourly rate with a not-to-exceed cap. Either is fine. Insist on the cap if it is hourly. Break the work into phases the board approves one at a time: inspection and report, repair drawings, help with contractor bids, and construction observation, where the engineer visits to confirm the work matches the drawings. A board that stops after the report has nobody checking whether the contractor built what the drawings show. Two or three observation visits on a major repair cost little next to redoing the work. Pick on qualifications first. A firm that repairs balconies every month will write a better scope than a cheaper firm that mostly designs warehouses. State bid rules differ. Fla. Stat. 720.3055(1) requires an HOA to get competitive bids when a contract exceeds 10 percent of the total annual budget, including reserves, but 720.3055(2)(a)1 exempts engineering services from that rule. The contract still has to be in writing. Texas Property Code 209.0052(c) requires an association to use its own bid process for services costing more than $50,000, and 209.0052(b) adds conditions before a director, a director's relative or their company can win the contract. In Colorado, follow your declaration, bylaws and any procurement policy the board has adopted.

What the report should contain

The final report should be signed and sealed. Tex. Occ. Code 1001.401(b) requires a Texas engineer's seal on any report for a project to be built or used in Texas. Fla. Stat. 471.025(1) requires final documents given to the owner to be signed, dated and sealed. C.R.S. 12-120-216(2) lets a Colorado engineer seal only work prepared under the engineer's responsible charge. An unsigned email or a 'preliminary memo' is not the same document. The sealed report is the one that belongs in the records. A useful report answers, in plain language: What the engineer looked at, what was left out, and how (visual only, sounding, probes, measurements). What is wrong, where, with photos keyed to a plan. The likely cause. How urgent each item is. Good reports sort items into something like immediate safety, repair within a year, and monitor. Repair options, with an opinion of probable cost for each. Whether the repair needs a permit and sealed drawings. If the report says anything is unsafe, close it the same day, tell owners in writing, and record the decision in the minutes. A board that sits on an engineer's safety warning is worse off than one that never hired an engineer.

Florida milestone inspections are a condo rule

Florida boards often ask whether they now owe a structural inspection every ten years. Fla. Stat. 553.899(3)(a) requires a milestone inspection, by an engineer or architect licensed in Florida, only for buildings of three or more habitable stories under condominium or cooperative ownership (chapters 718 and 719). A chapter 720 association of single-family homes is not covered. If a condominium building sits inside your master association, check which entity owns it.

A sample timeline and motion

Day 0: photograph the problem, tape it off if anyone could get hurt, and notify the insurer if a claim is possible. Week 1: request proposals from two or three firms with the scope letter. Check each license. Week 2 or 3: compare proposals at a noticed board meeting and approve one. Weeks 4 to 6: site visit. Weeks 6 to 8: sealed report delivered. Send owners a summary within a week. Next meeting: the board adopts the repair option and authorizes design or bidding. Our guide on how to write an HOA request for proposal covers the contractor bid packet. A motion the board can adapt: 'Move to engage Ridgeway Engineering, PE license number on file, to inspect the retaining wall behind lots 14 to 22 and deliver a sealed report under its proposal dated October 3, for a fixed fee of $____, with any design work to come back to the board for separate approval.' An owner notice: 'The board has hired a licensed engineer to inspect the retaining wall behind lots 14 to 22. Until the report arrives, please keep children and pets out of the taped area. We expect the report in about six weeks and will share a summary.'

Mistakes boards make

Letting one director hire and direct the engineer without a board vote. Approve the proposal at a meeting, name one contact, and copy the board on the engineer's emails. Asking the engineer to 'take a look' with no written scope, then arguing over the bill. Treating 'further investigation recommended' as optional. If the engineer could not see inside the wall, the report is telling you it does not know yet. Leaving the report in a director's inbox. Keep the proposal, the sealed report, photos and the board's decision in the association's official records, and give the next reserve study provider a copy so the repair shows up in the plan.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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