Condominiums and Townhouses

Buying and owning a condominium or townhome means your insurance needs are much different from the average homeowner.   In fact, these types of policies are the most difficult insurance policies to set up properly.  Not only do you need to have coverage for your personal property and liability, but you’ll need coverage for interior structural parts of your unit that are not covered by your association’s master policy.

If your agent doesn’t ask for a copy of your association documents, most commonly referred to as the ‘bylaws’, then you have no way of ensuring you are properly covered.  These documents will define what the association is required to insure and then what you as the individual unit-owner are required to insure.  They set the ground rules before any loss occurs.

Once you determine where the association’s legal liability ends, this gives you a good starting point of where your coverage should begin.  That could mean insuring the flooring inside the unit, bathroom fixtures, kitchen cabinets, built in appliances, lighting fixates…..even the plumbing fixtures to the point they come out of the wall.

It’s also a good idea to purchase “loss assessment coverage” which covers your portion of a claim made by the association for coverage shortfalls in the master policy.  Adding “deductible assessment coverage” is also a wise move to cover your portion of a deductible if and when a loss occurs under the associations master policy.  Typically associations carry large $5,000 to $10,000 deductibles which could be split up and shared by all unit owners, or assessed to just one.   Again, reading and understanding your association bylaws is the key making sure you carry the right coverage.

Work with an insurance professional at Cronk Insurance to ensure you are properly covered.  Contact us for your free condo or townhouse quote today!