Condo insurance, and where the association’s coverage stops

A unit owner’s policy, often called HO-6, fills in around the master policy. Here’s the typical list.

• Interior of your unit: what’s covered here depends on where the association’s coverage stops.
• Personal property: your furniture, clothes, electronics and other belongings.
• Personal liability: if someone is hurt in your unit or you damage a neighbor’s property.
• Additional living expenses: extra costs if a covered loss makes your unit unlivable.
• Loss assessment: can help when the association bills owners for a covered loss.
• Flood: separate. A condo policy doesn’t include it. See my flood insurance page.

Where the association’s coverage stops and yours starts depends on the association’s documents. So those documents matter. A lot. Gather what you can.

• The association’s master policy summary or declarations page.
• The sections of the condo declaration or bylaws that talk about insurance.
• Your lender’s insurance requirements.
• Anything the association sent about assessments.

Short list, I promise.

• Your address, unit number and the year the building was built, if you know it.
• What the association’s documents say, or the documents themselves.
• Roughly what your belongings are worth and what you’ve updated inside the unit.
• Whether you rent the unit out. That changes things. See my page on insuring a rental property.
• Your lender’s name and requirements, if you have a mortgage.

• Florida Department of Financial Services: homeowners and renters insurance

This page is general information, not a policy or a promise of coverage. Coverage, limits and eligibility depend on the company, the policy and your association’s documents. Chris Chase is a licensed independent insurance broker in Hudson, Florida.