Condominium Owners Need To Have Their Own Insurance Policy

A common mistake made by condominium owners is not having condominium owners’ insurance. Although most condominium declarations contain provisions that require owners to have their own insurance that covers their separate interest, there is typically no oversight to make certain that owners obtain the required insurance coverage. As a result, many condominium owners either forgo purchasing their own insurance to save money and/or mistakenly think their separate interest is going to be covered by their association’s insurance policy in the event of a loss and they don’t purchase their own policy to cover their separate interest. It is also common for condominium owners to purchase a policy that does not provide important coverage. Such owners ultimately realize that they made a costly mistake when a loss occurs, and they learn that they don’t have insurance coverage.

As condominium owners’ insurance policies also provide liability coverage, the same could hold true for an owner whose separate interest is damaged because of an incident that an uninsured neighboring owner is responsible for, such as water damage caused by a broken appliance in the neighboring unit.

Insurance policies that are designed to provide coverage for condominium owners’ separate interests are commonly known as “HO-6” policies. HO-6 policies are sometimes referred to as “Homeowner 6” or “Condominium Unit Owner” policies. Such policies provide condominium owners with the following types of coverage that are not included in master policies that are purchased by the condominium association:

• Dwelling Coverage. This insurance pays to replace damaged property in your unit such as drywall, tile, flooring, and cabinets.
• Personal Property Coverage. This insurance covers: