Condominium insurance - A special Ho 6 Insurance policy

A condominium may not be similar to a home but you still need insurance if you own a condominium. You need to insure your condo against:

• Personal property damage
• Liability
• Damage to building
• Loss of use

This is a special insurance designed to provide for the needs of the condominium owners. Condominium owners may not own the entire complex. Usually they own their own unit and only share common ownership with other unit owners. This means that the common areas of the association become the responsibility of the unit owners. An association would, therefore, collect a monthly payment from all unit owners towards the insurance of these common areas. However, you need to buy your own policy if you want to cover your unit.

The rules of the association must clearly mention the distinction between the part to be commonly insured, the part to be insured by you and the part to be insured bu the association.

There are 2 categories of the master condo policies:

• Bare walls in - All real property from the exterior are covered, but do not cover any fixture or installations inside a condominium unit.

• All in: This covers fixtures, installations inside the units, floors as well as ceilings of the individual condo units.

How much condo insurance is right for you?
Now that you know what you want to protect with your Ho-6 insurance, you need to assess the right amount of insurance that you require. It would be best to do a little research. Find out how much other unit members had to pay for nay recent upgrades they had to do in their condo. This way you can get a fair idea of the amount you might need to insure your own condo.

Once you have finished deciding on the amount of coverage you want, you can now decide what coverage to buy. The two basic categories include:

1. Cash value - Pays the depreciated value of the content covered.
2. Replacement cost - Pays what would be required to replace a covered content.

Is contents insurance a separate policy?
Yes it is. Anything inside your unit will not be covered under a common policy or even the one that the association has. You need to purchase a separate content insurance for that. If you do not purchase separate contents insurance do not expect to get coverage when you need it.

Juanita Martinez is a longtime contributor and Moderator of the ampminsure community. She is a financial writer, specializing in the field of insurance. You can reach-out to her through the ampminsure community for ho6 insurance related queries.