Florida Homeowner Insurance - Condo Insurance

On the topic of homeowners, we’d like to talk about condo insurance. There’s a lot of condos in Florida, and Kevin can give us some information.

Florida Homeowner Insurance - Condo Insurance

There are literally hundreds of thousands of people in this state that choose to make their living in a condominium. And what’s unusual about that arrangement versus the standard homeowner's policy that we’ve talked about is, when you move into a condominium, you have to understand what property is in that complex that you are responsible for insuring versus what the association is responsible for insuring, because you’ve got 2 different interests in that property. And what a lot of people don’t realize is how much of the common property is actually the responsibility of the unit owner. Most people don’t realize that. They just assume that they need to have insurance for whatever they bring into the condominium: their furniture, their electronics, their clothing, all their personal items. And that’s true. But if you look at the declarations you signed when you bought the condominium, chances are they’re gonna require that you cover a few more things that you might not known about.

Typically, you’ll see in the condo docs that the condo’s responsible for the drywall, and that’s it. You’re responsible for the paint in. So, if you were gonna rent a shell, and you had to put all your walls up, your doors, your cabinetry, your carpet, your light fixtures, that’s typically what you want to insure on your condo policy. So, you really wanna be careful because, if you have a loss, don’t rely on your condo association to pay for your interior. That’s really your responsibility. It’s a big deal, because there were a lot of claims for condos after 2004 and 2005.

A lot of people buy the condo unit, and they go in, and there’s already fixtures there. There’s already counters there. There’s already cabinets there. There’s already appliances there, and they assume because, they had no control over those items being there or being attached or whatever the case, that means that it’s the responsibility of the association to insure that stuff. If you review the declarations, it clearly states, in some cases, no, the purchaser of the unit is responsible for insuring those things. So, it's extremely important if you buy a condominium or if you are considering buying a condominium, talk with your insurance agent, have them look at the insurance requirements of the condominium declarations that are presented to you and let you know exactly what your responsible for insuring, because it can make a tremendous difference both in the cost of your insurance and how that claim gets paid when the loss happens.

You have to be extremely careful. At one point in time after 2004, a lot of associations decided, especially if they were single story units, then they were gonna change they way they insured it. They were gonna make the whole thing the responsibility of the unit owner, because they couldn’t find insurance. It was too pricey. So, again, you wanna make sure you bring your condo docs, current, not old ones, current ones to your agent, have him review them, make sure you know what your responsible for, and then buy the adequate coverage.