Are you looking for condo insurance? Condo insurance is a good idea if you rent or own a condo, as it protects you, your possessions and the people who are in your home. If this is the first time you’ve ever hearing of condo insurance, stay tuned for our overview of frequently asked questions, below:


Frequently Asked Questions About Condo Insurance

What is condo insurance?

When you own a condo, the outside of the condo is protected by the insurance coverage of the condo association. However, that insurance policy almost never covers the inside of the condo. This is where condo insurance comes in. Your condo insurance policy covers damage to the interior walls of your condo, your appliances, and and damage or loss of your personal property or valuables.


On top of protecting the inside of your condo, your condo insurance protects you in case someone else is injured on your property. In this case, the condo insurance will cover the cost of any medical bills that arise. If the injured party were to sue you, your condo insurance would cover the cost of your legal fees and any settlement that were to result in the lawsuit.


What coverage does condo insurance provide?

As we mentioned, your condo association probably has a master policy that covers certain things around your condo. Your condo insurance covers whatever the master policy does not cover. The coverage provided by the condo association master policy is usually broken into types:

• All-in condo master policies are sometimes called “single-unit” master policy. All-in or single-unit policies include coverage over the appliances, the walls and wiring, the flooring, and the plumbing. The only limitation with this type of insurance policy is that of your personal belongings within your condo. If your condo association offers this policy, you would want condo insurance to protect your personal property.




• Bare walls-in condo master policies covers the exterior of the condo, but nothing inside the walls. Sometimes this type of policy covers the wiring and plumbing, sometimes it does not. You would need to carefully review the specific coverage that your bare walls-in insurance includes in order to understand what coverage you need from a condo insurance provider.

In addition to filling in the gaps that are left from your condo association’s coverage, your condo insurance also protects your personal property within your condo, and takes on your liability in case on injury within your home. Also, if something happened to your condo that was so significant that you could not stay there while the repairs were made (such as fire or flood), your condo insurance would cover your living expenses to stay somewhere else.


How does condo insurance repay me when my property is damaged?

Condo insurance is very similar to other property insurance policy, such as renters insurance, recreational vehicle insurance, or home owners insurance. If a covered event were to arise on your property, such as a burglary or fire, you contact your insurance provider and file a claim, just as you would with any other property insurance policy. For example, if your condo experiences a flood because your washing machine malfunctioned, this is most likely an incident that is not covered by condo association’s policy. In this case, you would start by contacting the provider of your condo insurance with the details of your incident. They will walk you through the rest of the process.

Any time you are unsure of whether or not an incident in your home is covered by your insurance provider, the best step is to contact your agent directly and ask.


What’s the big deal about condo insurance?

Having condo insurance is not mandatory, and you have some degree of coverage through your condo association, so why bother adding the extra expense? There was a time when auto insurance was not mandatory, so you technically used to be able to save some money by not protecting yourself with insurance while on the road. However, no matter how careful of a driver you are, sometimes accidents are unavoidable. These situations would leave you up a creek without a paddle.


Likewise, when your condo is not properly insured, an unplanned accident could completely ruin your livelihood and leave you with no where to turn.