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Condominium Unit Owners Need Property Insurance

By
Mortgage and Lending with January Financial

The following article was submitted by Tim Bush, a State Farm insurance agent and strategic partner with January Financial. This article is being reprinted here with his permission.

You finally decided that your residence should be a condominium. Condos can be an appropriate choice for a number of reasons - fewer maintenance worries and no yard work are only some of the benefits. But what about insurance on your property?

In most cases, homeowners insurance differs from condominium unit owners insurance. Homeowners insurance protects the building structure and the items inside, whereas condominium unit owners insurance protects the items you keep within your unit. Also, unit owners insurance may be needed to protect any additions or alterations you have made to your unit.

Know your responsibility. The condominium association insures the building structures and the common areas, like the club house or the swimming pool with the master policy. But master policies vary widely and it's important to read the bylaws and know what is covered by your association and what items are your responsibility to insure.

As a unit owner, there are several insurance coverage options to consider:

  • Personal property: protects personal items such as clothing and furniture.
  • Building property: protects the additions or alterations you made to your unit.
  • Loss of use: coverage for the necessary costs to maintain your standard of living after a major fire, tornado, or another insured catastrophe.
  • Personal liability: protects you if someone makes a claim or brings a lawsuit against you for bodily injury or property damage for which you or a member of your family are responsible.
  • Rentals: If you own a unit that is rented to another party most of time, ask your insurance agent about any special insurance coverage arrangements.

Learn to protect your personal property while living safely within your condominium community.

Tim Bush is a trusted State Farm® associate providing insurance and financial services. Tim is a third generation associate with State Farm and brings a wealth of product knowledge and passion for helping people to the table. Please contact Tim about any and all insurance and financial product needs at (714) 968-3655.

Comments(3)

Christine Donovan
Donovan Blatt Realty - Costa Mesa, CA
Broker/Attorney 714-319-9751 DRE01267479 - Costa M

This is such an important thing for condo owners to understand.  Many are under the misconception that the HOA insurance will cover them.

Aug 01, 2008 07:02 PM
Bo Hussung
Bell Title /Triserv LLC - Nashvle, TN

Nice post Carey! I am curious, why AR removed the points. Perhaps if you rewrote it and only quoted Tim Bush?

Bo

Aug 03, 2008 01:52 AM
Carey Pott
January Financial - Foothill Ranch, CA

Christine - I agree! We're trying to eliminate that misconception where we can...

Bo - It's actually part of a greater strategic plan on our part. We send out a monthly e-letter to our clients and we recently changed up the format so that instead of all the articles being on one page, we now have a link to the full article. For now, we've decided to post the full articles on Active Rain. That's why we have posts from Tim and another partner of ours, Laurel Mann. They need to get full credit for their work. We'll try it out for a couple cycles and see how we like it... Thanks for the suggestion though!

Aug 04, 2008 03:31 AM