Condo insurance, and the gap the association leaves you
The question that decides your HO-6 policy is not about your unit. It is about your association's master policy, and specifically whether it is written all-in or bare walls. Most owners have never read it.
Sa sa touche
- Coverage A on a unit: your interior, which in a bare walls building means the drywall inward, cabinets, flooring and fixtures
- Contents, liability and loss of use, as in any homeowners policy
- Loss assessment, which pays your share when the association bills every owner after a loss
- Building ordinance or law, which matters in older buildings that have to come up to current code during repair
All-in versus bare walls
An all-in master policy covers the original fixtures inside the unit and leaves you responsible for improvements and contents. A bare walls policy stops at the unfinished interior surfaces, which means your cabinets, floors and drywall are yours to insure. The association's declaration says which one you have. Bring it and we will read it with you, because the wrong assumption here is a five-figure mistake.
What moves the premium
- Which master policy the building carries, and its deductible, because that deductible is what drives loss assessments.
- The building's age and its structural inspection status. In South Florida this now materially affects availability.
- Floor, exposure and opening protection.
- Your own claims history and the building's.
Loss assessment is the coverage to look at twice
After a major loss the association can assess every owner for the shortfall, including its own master-policy deductible. Loss assessment coverage is inexpensive and the limits most policies default to are far below what South Florida buildings have actually assessed in recent years. We raise it as a matter of course and tell you what it costs.
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The association says I am covered. Am I?
For the building, probably. For your floors, your kitchen and everything you own, almost certainly not. Read the master policy or bring it here.
Do I need flood insurance in a high-rise?
If you are above the ground floor the building's exposure is mostly the association's problem, but contents on a lower floor and your loss assessment exposure are yours. It is a real conversation, not an automatic no.
Work it out before anybody sells you anything
Four calculators that run in your browser, a page for every situation Florida puts people in, and the claims data for your own county. All of it free, and none of it behind a form. The form is for the other half of the job: when you have read enough and want a person on the phone.
Leave a name and a number and a licensed Florida agent gets in touch. No obligation, and no call from six companies you have never heard of.
A licensed Florida agent may call, text or email you about your request.