Tips Regarding California HOA Insurance PDF Print E-mail
Written by Gregg Kell   
Tuesday, 27 July 2010 09:31
Insuring an entire unit or neighborhood is a huge issue that you may find difficult to tackle. If you're a member of a homeowner's association and are worried about the policy your group has, or if you're looking into purchasing a plan for the first time, here's some information about a few of the regulations and things to consider when purchasing California HOA Insurance.
by GreggKell


Insuring an entire unit or neighborhood is a huge issue that you may find difficult to tackle. If you're a member of a homeowner's association and are worried about the policy your group has, or if you're looking into purchasing a plan for the first time, here's some information about a few of the regulations and things to consider when purchasing California HOA Insurance.

Purchasing insurance for property that is jointly owned is necessary for areas of the association that are commonly owned and used, and for which no one individual has sole responsibility. It includes such areas as a swimming pool or any courtyards or gardens, and common parking places. Insurance is also needed to cover the foundation of the structure, the roof that multiple dwellings share, and any outer walls.

If you need to start considering a plan, there are a lot of policies and options out there and you'll want to familiarize yourself with them. You should put yourself in touch with different insurers so see what kinds of customized options they can offer you. Because there is so much to consider in insuring an entire community of homes or condos, you want to make sure there is no overlap in your plan that you're paying for, nor any major gaps that could surprise you further down the line. There's a lot you need to think about.

California law requires insurance for basic common disasters such as fire damage in most places. It's also usually required that liability insurance be provided in case accidents occur on the grounds covered by the association, though that doesn't cover accidents that happen inside individually owned private dwellings.

California law also allows the boards to charge an insurance premium to all members however, so it might be a good idea to have a meeting to decide what should be covered and what shouldn't. One example of something worth discussing would be workers compensation insurance.

Even though your board may not actually have any full time employees that need to be insured, there are policies available that would cover any uninsured contractors who do work on your property such as landscaping or gardening work. Plus you could cover any board members, committee members, or volunteers who get injured while doing work for the good of the community.

Other things to think about are what dangers your particular property is prone to, such as earthquake damage, water damage, or fire damage. You also want to think about whether you want to have insurance to protect the entire association against law suits, should one member have complaints against the rest.

If you're nervous about purchasing California HOA insurance, don't be. It's a lot to handle but if you start a discussion going with your members and look into your various options, you'll find it's quite an easy issue to tackle.

DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice.