A homeowners’ associations (HOA) is an organization of homeowners living in a real estate development, the major purpose of which is to enforce deed restrictions and maintain common areas of the development. The development might be a condominium, a planned unit development (PUD) with separate home sites or a planned residential development.
Comprehensive Insurance Program
Every association needs a comprehensive insurance program to protect itself from casualty losses, personal injury and property damage claims, as well as miscellaneous areas of liability exposure, such as officers and directors liability for the HOA’s board of directors. An adequate insurance program should consider how the units are situated or connected. A condominium building will have different needs than a subdivision with a clubhouse and a pool.
Even though a condominium is required to obtain a blanket fire and casualty insurance policy covering all units, as well as all common areas, a planned unit development has the option of either obtaining such a policy or insuring only the common areas. A developer usually prefers to have the PUD association insure only the common areas, since that eliminates the cost of fire insurance on individual units.
An HOA needs to have insurance but what is right for one community may not be right for another. Coverage needs to be appropriate for the association involved. The following coverages should be considered when determining what is right for your HOA:
- Property insurance
- Commercial general liability insurance
- Automobile insurance
- Director’s and officer’s liability insurance
- Employee dishonesty insurance
- Comprehensive equipment coverage insurance
- Workers’ compensation insurance
- Umbrella liability insurance
Read the full article at real-estate.lawyers.com