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Home Insurance
Tips on what to look for when buying Condominium Insurance
If you own a condominium unit, you will be sharing common areas of the building with other unit members. Keeping this mind, you need to have appropriate insurance coverage for all possible risks that you are likely to face. Here are a couple of tips on what you can look for in condominium insurance
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Find out what coverage is offered by the condominium association. They probably have a master policy which covers common areas such as the garage, the swimming pool, the club house and tennis courts and so on. Find out how their coverage protects you and under what circumstances damages to common areas may require you to pay out from your pocket. There are tricky situations where this can come about.
- Find out which items are not covered by the master insurance policy that my actually fall under your responsibility.
- The insurance you take out must also include areas where you have made modifications or additions. If you do any remodeling, be sure to inform your company on this and take up the additional coverage you require on it from the insurance company.
- Compare premium rates offered by different companies before you take out a policy. When you make a comparison be sure to compare the same items from different companies. For example, compare only the coverage for structural loss against the same thing with another company. Rates will widely vary and you also need to check out the insurance company’s history before you take up the policy with them.
- Find out if the insurance policy provides coverage for damages from the back-up of sewers or drains. This is important because policies usually don’t have it and you may be stuck with a problem on your hand if you don’t check it out.
- In case you own expensive items such as antique furniture, jewelry or paintings, you need to take coverage separately for this.
- Consider umbrella liability, as it will offer wider protection for liability damage than in a regular condo insurance policy.
- Take up the insurance policy with a company that specializes on condominium insurance.
- You an reduce premiums by raising your deductible and asking for any discounts applicable.
- When you take up insurance with the same company that is insuring the condominium building, you might also get an additional reduction in premiums.
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