When you buy a condo, your homeowners association maintains a master insurance policy that covers the building's structure, roof, and common areas. It is easy to assume that policy protects you too. In most cases, it does not—at least not inside your unit. Condo owners who rely entirely on the HOA policy often discover the hard way that their flooring, cabinets, appliances, and personal belongings are their own financial responsibility. An HO-6 condo policy is designed specifically to fill that gap.
HOA master policies generally come in two forms. A "bare walls" policy covers only the building's skeleton—framing, exterior walls, roof, and shared systems—stopping at the unfinished interior surfaces of your unit. A "walls in" or "all-in" policy goes further and includes original fixtures, flooring, and built-in appliances as they were when the unit was first built. Even the more generous walls-in version does not cover your personal belongings, upgrades you made after purchase, or your liability for injuries that occur inside your unit. Reviewing your HOA's master policy documents—specifically the declarations page and definitions section—is the only reliable way to know where their coverage ends.
A standard HO-6 policy picks up where the HOA master policy leaves off. It typically includes several distinct protections that condo owners need:
Loss assessment coverage deserves special attention because it addresses a risk most condo owners never consider. If the HOA master policy is exhausted by a large claim—a major fire in the building, for example—the association can charge each unit owner a proportional share of the remaining cost. These assessments can reach tens of thousands of dollars. Standard HO-6 policies include some loss assessment coverage, but the default limit is often only $1,000 to $2,000. Increasing that limit through an endorsement is usually inexpensive and worth doing.
Condo insurance coverage is only as strong as the coordination between your HO-6 policy and your HOA's master policy—and most condo owners have never compared the two side by side. A Truscott coverage review examines both documents together, identifies the exact point where the HOA policy stops covering you, and confirms your HO-6 limits are sized to close the gap. Contact us before your next renewal so you are not left funding repairs or assessments out of pocket.
Walls in insurance is the part of your condo HO-6 policy that covers everything from the unfinished surface of the wall inward. Here is where the association's master policy stops, where yours begins, and why that line causes most condo claim disputes.
Homeowners InsuranceYour declarations page is the single most important document in your homeowners policy, yet most homeowners never read it closely. Here is what every line means and what to check before a claim.