Posts tagged "Hoa"

What type of Home Owners Insurance do we need for our San Francisco condo?

We own a 1 unit of a 2 unit condo in San Francisco. We have a separate policy that covers our personal property within the walls of our unit. We and the owners of the other unit form the Home Owners Association, and are trying to figure out if we need a separate policy to cover the exterior and the yard, or if we can each get separate policies to cover our share. Any advice?

The HOA should get the master policy for the exterior and common areas. Do this so that you’re each not personally liable if something goes wrong – the HOA will be liable. For example, if a part of the building falls down and kills someone, you don’t want that on your personal insurance – that will likeley be excess and you’ll be responsible for what the insurance doesn’t cover.

Is Renters Insurance Mandatory If I Rent A Condo?

I’ve been having a hard time finding a new place, but I came across a very nice 3 story condo complex that had one on the 2nd floor for an affordable price.
A few people have told me that I HAVE to get renters insurance if I want to rent it.
Is this true?

It also claims I have to pay for the gas as well. I’ve never had to pay for gas before in the apartmetns I’ve had. Is this a costly expense?

thanks!

The HOA may very well require insurance.

Consumables, like gas are almost always paid by the tenant, not the landlord.

What kind of earthquake insurance to you other California condo owners have?

Our HOA has some coverage, but I’m looking for supplemental insurance to cover meals and hotels if necessary, special assessments, things like that. Any ideas?

Can’t you get an earthquake endorsement on your condo owners policy? The HO6 form? If you were outside of CA, that’s how to do it. I"m not familiar with CA, so I don’t know if you can endorse a standard policy for earthquake, or if you need stand alone coverage, but your insurance agent should know, and should be able to help you!

What’s the difference between condo and renters insurance?

Thanks!
Thanks so far but I was told I needed renters insurance b/c of our tenant. We own a condo and rent it out. Is this true?

Renter’s insurance only covers your personal belongings inside the home, whether it’s a condo, house, or apartment. It doesn’t cover the structure itself. So if you buy a condo and only have renter’s insurance, if the building catches on fire and burns to the ground your personal stuff is covered but they don’t pay to rebuild the building itself.

If you are buying a condo and the HOA fees include insurance, it means they will pay to rebuild the building if it burns down but NOT cover your personal belongings.

Does that make sense?

How much condo hazard insurance should I carry?

I bought the condo for 95k. The HOA insures from the studs out. My personal property is worth approx 10k. It has 2 bed 2.5 bath, a living & dining room totaling 1024 sq ft with a 512 sq ft basement.

The inside is basic with mostly carpet and vynal, basic countertops, appliances, and shelving.

Please take the time to sit down with a local agent who can calculate the cost to rebuild the interior of your unit based on the square footage and local labor and building supply costs. Most agents have the software available to help you determine this as accurately as possible. In terms of your personal property your calculation should not be based on the current "used" value but the value to "replace" or purchase these items brand new. Your personal items includes your clothing, your furniture, your small appliances, computers, electronics & media (games, cds, dvds, software,etc), dishes, pots & pans. As a rule of thumb if you tend to buy your personal property at Wal-mart or K-Mart a 2 bedroom unit contains between $25,000 to $40,000 in personal property. Also purchase the replacement cost coverage option on the personal property and on coverage A–the building coverage. You need to make sure that this figure is as accurate as possible. If you are underinsured at the time of a loss, you will be penalized by the same percentage that you are underinsured. Also make sure to include ordinance and law coverage, loss assessment coverage and sewer/water back up coverages. In addition I would have a minimum of $500,000 personal liability coverage and $5,000 medical payments coverage. To save money, please consider the following–have whoever writes your auto insurance quote this for you so that you can possibly get a multi-policy discount, take a deductible of at least $500 or $1,000, consider putting an alarm, fire extinguisher, etc.

If you own a condo- is Condo Insurance necessary or the Homeowners Insurance be enough?

The condo owner under my unit said that my AC unit was leaking on her ceiling – how much will it cost me to fix it? – How do I handle this? I do not have Condo Insurance?

The hazard insurance is normally purchased by the HOA but does not include liability or contents in your unit. Therefore it would be adviseable to carry condo insurance.

Do I need additional condo insurance other than what I pay in HOA fees?

I pay about $800 every three months in HOA fees. Do I need to carry additional condo insurance if I have a mortgage with Countrywide or do I just call them and give them the condo assoc. insurance info?

The HOA would have had to provide Countrywide with a copy of their blanket insurance on the condos before you would have ever closed on the condo. You don’t have to carry additional insurance basically on a condo all you would carry is renters insurance which would cover the interior and contents only. the HOA’s insurance policy would cover building the outside of the unit if a fire occurred, your insurance would cover rebuilding the inside and replacing all of your items lost. My HOA covers not only the outside but rebuilding the interior of the unit to the condition I purchased it at. I still carry additional renters insurance for this along with content insurance to replace what I lose.

If you choose to get renters insurance you do not need to provide this to countrywide as it’s irrelevant to them.

What liability should I consider when purchasing Condo Insurance?

When purchasing a condo insurance, how far should I go with liability protection? Can HOA or my neighbors as individuals sue me if it was my barbeque grill (lit cigarette, etc.)?

Yes, the condo association or an individual has a legal right to sue the negligent party that was responsible for a loss. In fact it would probably the insurance company that compensated your association that would ultimately be the plaintiff. That being said it would probably be hard to conclusively prove that it was your sole negligence that was the cause of the loss. Even if you were not at fault the defense costs could be significant. If I owned a condo I would purchase significant limits of liability insurance because the cost is relatively minor (i.e. $1,000,000 or more ).

But I would also be concerned how your insurance matches up with the condo bylaws. Your condo association purchases insurance on the building and premises. Broadly speaking there are two approaches condo bylaws take to insure the property.

One approach is the condo association agrees to cover only the exterior and common areas. You are responsible to insure the interior this can include walls, wall coverings, flooring, furnace, appliances, lighting, plumbing fixtures, kitchen and bath cabinets (basically everything inside your condo). In this scenario you are responsible not only for your personal property but also the entire interior of your condo. As an insurance agent I did not like this approach because it is very difficult to determine how much insurance you should have to be able to repair or replace everything in within the walls of your condo.

The other approach, which I always preferred, was more comprehensive where the association agrees to cover the entire unit as it was originally built. In this scenario you only insure your upgrades (i.e. bookcases, upgrades, finished basements. etc.) and your personal property.

You need to carefully review your condo bylaws or have a good insurance agent go over the bylaws with you. If you don’t insure the property that you are responsible for you could find yourself woefully under insured and perhaps unable to rebuild your condo.

In addition to insuring the part of the building you are responsible for you need to determine the replacement cost of your personal property within the condo.

Sorry for the long answer but it is a surprisingly complex question.