Condo Homeowners Insurance

As a condominium owner, you may need to purchase up to three different types of dwelling and contents insurance. The complexity of the ownership makes that necessary to ensure being fully indemnified.

The first type of condo homeowners insurance is a personal insurance policy. This insurance accomplishes what the name implies; it is blanket coverage on your personal belongings. Additionally, it covers the cost or loss of damages to any upgrades you’ve made or will make to the structure of the condo.

It also covers any cost of living expenses off-premises you incur resultant from an event or natural disaster which is delineated in your verbiage of your policy. This personal property should also cover a person’s liability for bodily injury to others, and damage to property that your guests could incur as the result of your actions or a covered loss.

The next condo homeowners insurance is called the master insurance policy. This is the policy that will be provided to you by the condominium board. It will cover the cost of damages and replacement of common areas and shared aspects of the building, like lobbies, hallways, stairways, elevators, basements, storage areas, pools or the roof. These common areas will be covered against your liability as well.

The need for a third policy that you might need to purchase evolves from certain aspects of the necessary coverage policy’s lack of 100 percent comprehensive insurance. These insurances do not necessarily cover your higher priced personal goods, higher end liabilities or fees for upkeep on the shared parts of the property or complex.

Many times this extra insurance coverage is referred to as luxury insurance, but more commonly it is attached to your personal insurance as ‘riders’ or specialized specific item insurance added on to your main personal policy.

When deciding on the items needed in your personal insurance policy, you should obtain a copy of your condo association master policy, and review that with your insurance agent to determine what you’re going to need to ensure you are fully covered.

Some items you would think would be covered may not be covered at all, and you want to pay special attention to limits. What term limits means, is that diamond rings or jewelry might be covered, but there might be a dollar limit set on the item of say $5,000.00. If you are keeping grandma’s big rock worth $25,000.00, it wouldn’t be insured under the master policy.

You would need to add special personal condo homeowners insurance to ensure you are covered for grandma’s diamond.

Examples of the types of extra-added insurance coverage of condo homeowners insurance would include cabinets, built-in cabinets, plumbing, electrical wiring and fixtures. For instance, extra plumbing coverage, could protect the owner against water back-up.

Most city codes require having a backwater float valve installed in the floor, but extra coverage could protect the owner even if it didn’t, should a flood occur. You might put a rider on a policy that protects against earthquakes or hurricanes, or just a floater that indemnifies the owner against anything not covered by other policies.