Condo Insurance
Similar to homeowners insurance, condo insurance is financial protection for condo owners. A condo policy can help pay for repairs to your condo, like if you have a kitchen fire. Coverage is also provided for your personal property inside your unit, like if it too is lost or damaged due to a kitchen fire or if someone breaks in and were to steal any of your personal belongings. You can expect your condo insurance to cover the following things:
Main parts of your condo insurance:
1. Dwelling coverage
This covers the structure of the condo unit itself and upgrades that you made, like your built-in appliances and custom hardwood flooring. The extent of your dwelling coverage depends on what’s already covered by your condo association policy. If you have the most thorough type of master policy, called all-in coverage, you may not need to include dwelling coverage in your condo policy.
2. Personal property coverage
Personal property coverage covers your stuff, like your clothing, appliances, furniture, and electronics if they’re damaged, stolen, or destroyed by a peril that’s covered by your policy.
3. Personal liability coverage
Personal liability coverage protects you in the event that you’re legally responsible for someone else’s injury or damage to their property, like if a friend slips and falls inside your condo.
4. Loss of use coverage
Loss of use coverage covers additional living expenses if your home becomes unsafe to live in after a covered loss. If you’re forced to relocate while your condo unit is being repaired, say, after a pipe bursts, loss of use coverage can pay for things like your hotel and relocation costs.
5. Loss assessment coverage
If the condo’s shared spaces or building exterior is damaged, and there were some remaining costs after the master policy paid out, loss assessment coverage can help pay for those remaining costs so you don’t have to pay out of pocket. Say your master policy contains $500,000 in coverage for the condo building and it’s damaged in a fire that amounts to $525,000. That remaining $25,000 will be charged to all the condo owners in the building, and if you have loss assessment coverage it can help cover your share of it.