Back in October of 2016 a post was sent to warn all homeowners of the danger of burst pipes and the precaution of shutting off your water when you are not in residence.
With the recent cold spells, we did have a house where the water pipes burst. Unfortunately for the home owner, they had not obtained the correct dual homeowner insurance coverage.
Your HOA has a policy (Condominium/Association Policy) for all of our homeowners as part of the requirement to live in an HOA. This coverage is through State Farm and covers your home and garage structures, but not your personal property. The State Farm policy has a deductible of “In case of loss for All Peril of $10,000. Water damage would come under “All Peril”
All homeowners should purchase a separate policy covering contents and other items not physically attached to the structure. Please check with your insurance agent to make sure that you are appropriately covered, and that your Separate policy will cover what is not covered by the Association policy. Specifically, consider a rider to your contents coverage for structural damage up to $10,000 that will cover your deductible on the CHOA insurance policy.
A $10,000 deductible?? Whose brilliant idea-was that? The agent, with the HOA gladly agreeing? I can hardly imagine a burst water pipe causing more than $10,000 damage in the structure, at which time the HOA policy would finally kick in.
I checked and have this answer for you:
About five years ago there was a very large increase in our HOA insurance policy premiums. At that time we had a $1,000 deductible.
The cost of adding a $10,000 structural rider to residents personal contents insurance coverage was minimal compared to what each resident’s cost would have been to maintain the lower deductible in the HOA policy.
With the rider the larger HOA deductible is covered by residents contents coverage.
What is the deductible for the othe HOAs?
Joann
The change in the deductible was over 5 years ago. The post was to inform our residents to make sure that they were aware and could check their own insurance so they could be prepared for any possible water problems.
Your question about what other Similar HOA’s might be better discussed in face to face. To that end I encourage you to attend our next board meeting in February. The next meeting is February 8th at 10:00 am at Rec Hall C on Lafayette street.
The $10,000.00 deductible does seem very excessive. The total coverage on my policy is also very lopsided. Why am I paying for a $3,000,000.00 policy on a piece of property only worth $500,000.00? If I subtract the value of the lot the condo is not worth more than $400,000.00. $3,000.000.00 coverage for a $400,000.00 condo. This is crazy.
Lastly, if we are to cover the $10,000.00 deductible with a rider from another insurance company, why would that be any less expensive than having a rider for the deductible from State Farm or having a smaller deductible in the first place?
Bill
The change in the deductible was over 5 years ago. The post was to inform our residents to make sure that they were aware and could check their own insurance so they could be prepared for any possible water problems.
Your question might be better discussed in face to face. To that end I encourage you to attend our next board meeting in February. The next meeting is February 8th at 10:00 am at Rec Hall C on Lafayette street