Condominium Insurance

What Is Condo Insurance?

When you own a condominium, you — not your condo association — are responsible for what’s inside your condo. That’s why having a personal condo insurance policy is important.

Condo associations have master policies that cover the property, common areas and physical structure of your building. However, these master policies do not cover your personal property or your legal responsibility, and, possibly, improvements or customizations to your unit.

If you’re shopping for a condo insurance policy, you typically will find coverages, up to the amount you select, such as:

• Personal property
• Replacement value of your primary dwelling and specified permanent attachments, up to a specific value
• Bodily injury if someone is hurt on your property
• Liability for property damage and bodily injury
• Damage protection from dangers, such as fire, plumbing freezes, vandalism, glass breakage, etc.

A basic condo insurance policy will cover damages to most of your interior personal belongings.

However, most condominium by-laws or trust agreements state that the condo owner is responsible for everything within the unit, including:

• Walls, floors, ceiling coverings, etc.
• Permanently attached fixtures
• Other improvements to premises

Additions & Alterations coverage provides coverage for damage to these interior items including improvements to your unit.

Loss Assessment Coverage generally pays for your share of expenses for a covered loss, up to your policy limits, when your association requires an assessment on all unit owners for certain covered losses.

Before you shop for condo insurance, take an inventory of what you own to decide what level of coverage makes you comfortable.