There are options for water leaks and the damage they cause, home equipment breakdown coverage, replacement cost versus actual cash value coverage, identity theft, credit card fraud, and even scheduled items coverage. There is one option no condo insurance policy should be without though…
How much condo insurance an owner needs is one of the more challenging questions I must answer when talking with someone who’s buying or owns a condo. Regardless of how the policy is written (see last week’s post, https://wiseinsurancegroup.com/two-ways-condo-insurance-can-written/), the amount of coverage must be sufficient to protect the finish out of the home and their personal property or contents. Let’s examine how to approach both areas.
I have been working with a first-time condo buyer over the last week. As we reviewed the different condo insurance options available to her from all our carriers, I was reminded of the two different ways insurance companies approach insuring a condo. Let’s look at what condo insurance is designed to cover from a property standpoint and then address how different carriers approach it.
I had an interesting conversation last week with a Dallas area mortgage professional about condo insurance. He was working on his client’s loan and had several questions about coverage, which I thought would be useful in guiding a blog post for those who own, or are considering buying a condo.
I am talking with a prospective client who’s buying a condo later this month. She was unware of an option on the condo insurance quotes I prepared for her which is important because her new home has a mandatory Home Owner’s Association for the complex. In fact, regardless of whether you own or are buying a home, town house, or condo with a mandatory HOA, this one option should be included with your home insurance. It’s loss assessment coverage and it can save you thousands of dollars.
There’s an old saying, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck.” That isn’t always the case when it comes to a town house. From an insurance standpoint, sometimes a town house is a house and other times it’s a condo. It really depends on the homeowners association and their insurance policy.
Last week’s post, An Introduction to Condo Insurance (see https://wiseinsurancegroup.com/an-overview-of-texas-condo-insurance/) addressed how to determine the amount of condo insurance needed and what it covers. There’s more to a condo policy, however, than covering the finish out of the home and your personal property or contents. There are other coverage items to consider including personal liability, medical coverage, deductibles, and home owner’s assessment.
I wrote a condo insurance policy last week for a new client. He’d started out with an offer for a single family home in the Dallas area which fell apart after the home didn’t appraise for the amount he offered. As he thought through what he desired in his next home, he decided to look at condos in the area. It turns out, he found the perfect home, but since it was the first condo he’s ever purchased, he had a lot of questions about condo insurance.
This past week I helped a new client with condo insurance for his new home. The condo is in a high rise condominium tower located in the Turtle Creek area of Dallas. It’s beautiful and the view is amazing. He’s very excited and has been wonderful to work with. There was one little issue we had to work through involving the amount of insurance for his new home and what the mortgage underwriters would approve. It was an interesting conundrum.
?Home insurance covers the entire structure of the home along with the owner’s personal property. Renters insurance doesn’t cover any of the structure, be it apartment or home. It starts with the person’s personal property. Condo policies straddle the space between a home insurance policy and a renter’s policy.
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