Do I need condo insurance in Fl?

Comments

1. girlwhoknowsitstrue says:

   May 18, 2010 at 7:22 am

   The condo insurance should be sufficient to rebuild – your mortage is irrelevant. If you call a reputable firm, they will ask you questions on square feet, style (brick, stucco) and will recommend how much insurance you need – BTW, check your condo association to see if they are responsible for any part of the physical condo itself – if so, you only have to have “renter’s style” insurance for the contents.

   You can generally pay quarterly – they’ll charge you an extra $5 / payment for that privilege.
2. mbrcatz17 says:

   May 18, 2010 at 8:07 am

   Do you want anyone to pay you if all your stuff gets burned up in a fire? Do you want an insurance company to pay a lawsuit if someone trips on an area rug inside your unit and breaks their leg and sue you? If you have a $40,000 kitchen fire, and the master policy has a $50,000 deductible, are you willing to pay that whole $40K yourself?
3. Sue says:

   May 18, 2010 at 8:09 am

   First, the previous owners insurance will NOT cover you, it is not your policy, it is their policy. They probably cancelled it by now anyway since FL property insurance is so expensive. Your mortgagee will probably want a copy of the master policyi showing building coverage. If they have a flood policy, that can be assigned to you & then you take over the policy.
   A condo policy will cover building items you are responsible for (sometimes studs in, sometimes drywall in, sometimes only additions & alterations to the original unit), your contents (usually worldwide with some limitations), your liability (usually worldwide) & your loss of use. It also covers loss assessment. Loss assessment is when there is a loss to common property that is not covered by the association & they assess all of the unit owners a portion of the loss. BUT & this is a big but, only $1,000 loss assessment coverage is for the master policy’s deductible, so if it is a loss to only your unit & the master policy has a $50,000 deductible, your policy will only pay $1,000 towards the deductible. If the loss can be assessed to 50 unit owners (example – loss to the pool house), the coverage is OK. This cannot be increased, it is written into the policy form.
   Good luck to you, insurance in FL is very expensive, but condo policies are not as bad as homeowners policies.
   Start calling independent agents in FL, they are the only ones that can give you a price for insurance. Don’t go to one of the little start up companies that are not rated by AMBest. Either go to Citizens (I know of someone who got coverage there cheaper than one of the little companies) or be sure the company you get is rated by AMBest (see ambest.com). If there was a big hurricane, they would not have the assets to pay the claims.