condo insurance

How Much Condo Insurance Do I Need?

September 1, 2021

If you own a condo, you need to insure its interior on your own. This is because the community area of the building is a shared responsibility of everyone living there. Condo insurance is crucial in order to cover damages or accidents that occur in your room. Most building will require you to get this as a necessary precaution.

Here’s everything you need to know about condo insurance and what it covers.

What Does Condo Insurance Cover?

Note that this is different from homeowners insurance. It will only covers the inside area of the condominium. Though insurance coverage varies from case to case, some standard coverage includes;

  • Personal property
  • Liability claims from a person injured on your property
  • Appliances and interior walls

In liability cases if the injured party decides to sue you, the insurance policy will cover your legal fees and their medical expenses.

Master Policy for a Condo

Your condominium has a master policy that covers the exterior portion and some interior structures of each unit. Typically, there’s two types of condo master policies:

  • All-in Policy– This policy covers basic appliances, carpet, fixtures, plumbing, and wiring in the building and condo unit. But it doesn’t cover any personal possessions.
  • Bare Walls-in Policy– The policy covers nothing within the inside areas of a unit. It covers the exterior and all the communal portions of the entire building including, lobby areas, hallways, external walls, and elevators.

A bare walls-in policy may cover plumbing and electrical issues in the unit if they are connected to the main ones throughout the building.

Associations with a bare walls-in policies require you to buy the insurance for new condos, while an all-in policy covers nearly everything except personal property. You need to get your condominium association’s policies so that you can read them thoroughly before buying insurance.

Good condo insurance includes personal property damage, coverage for weather-related disasters, and theft. Consider buying an umbrella liability policy to get added liability coverage for injuries related to an accident.

What to Keep In Mind

It’s crucial to take inventory of personal items and possessions before buying insurance for a new condo and allocate a specific dollar amount to each. This helps you determine or estimate the insurance coverage you’ll need.

Condo insurance costs vary based on the value of your possessions, the age of the condo, and location. The standard cost to insure a condo is around $600 a year. When calculating the cost of personal possessions, keep in mind that some condo insurance policies entail a “per-item limit.” That means each item covered by the insurer can’t exceed a certain amount, or it will not be covered.

Summing Up

All in all, living in a condominium requires you to have condo insurance. Before you invest in the policy, you need to understand that condo insurance doesn’t work like homeowners insurance policies. How much coverage you need depends on the requirements of your building and your comfortability with risk.

Additional Resources

Links

https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/how-much-condo-insurance-do-i-need