Condo Insurance

Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Jerry Becerra with Barbary Insurance, and today I want to give you a little bit of advice on placing condominium coverage. A lot of people are buying condominiums, they’re in especially in urban areas. They’re the best way sometimes to enter into the housing market but condominium insurance while very affordable can be a little bit trickier than placing just a renters policy. The first thing you should do is evaluate your CC&R’s which are the covenants, conditions and restrictions for your condo association. They’re gonna put obligations on you. For instance, you may be required to insure the entire interior of your space for reconstruction and that means that if a fire comes through there may not be any coverage under the building policy for cabinets, fixtures, anything wallpapered in so see what your obligations are there and make sure that the insurance coordinates with that. There might also be bank requirements. It’s very common for a bank to require that you insure up to say 20 percent of the purchase value of the condominium so major lenders are aware that you might be responsible for replacing the interior and they want to make sure there’s coverage there for that. Therefore a really good thing to do is get an estimate for what’s it’s gonna cost even if it’s just a rough estimate. How much is it gonna cost to redo this kitchen. You probably need to do something to make sure that number has some grounding in reality. Then look at your personal property. A lot of people think only in terms of theft. You know my unit’s gonna get broken into. They’re gonna steal my stereo but really when you’re living in a multi-unit building your biggest exposure is fire and you could lose everything so don’t forget to count your clothing, your linens, all that kitchen stuff. If you have a fire that takes out your unit you’re gonna have to replace all of that and so don’t underestimate how much coverage you might need. Personal liability is included in your condominium policy and it’s usually only about 25 dollars a year to take that limit up from a 100,000 to 300,000. Buy the higher limit. you know now you’re a property owner, you could be really more exposed to a liability claim than before. You probably need a higher limit of coverage and at 300,000 you’re at the level where you can buy a personal umbrella above that for another million and finally ask about broadening endorsements. Ask your agent what else you might need to throw in there to make that policy really do what you need it to do. Do you have fine art? Do you have jewelry? Do you have anything that is a special exposure? Talk it through. Get good advice from your agent and place the policy you need and that’s my advice on condominium coverage. I’m Jerry Becerra with Barbary Insurance. You can find out more about me and coverage at: www.barbaryinsurance.com.