Coverage guide · Condo owners
Condo insurance that starts where your association's policy stops.
Your association's master policy covers the building. Everything from your walls in is yours to insure, and the line between the two is exactly where condo owners get caught.
This is an educational guide from RateShield, a technology company. We do not sell or place insurance. The coverage described here is quoted and placed by licensed producers at Lakeshore Risk Advisors LLC, an independent Illinois brokerage.
What it covers
Interior and improvements
Your walls-in coverage: cabinets, flooring, fixtures, and finishes. What the master policy covers depends on your association's declarations, and we read them.
Personal property
Everything you own inside the unit, quoted at replacement cost.
Loss assessment
When the association passes a large master-policy deductible or shared loss to unit owners, this pays your share. It is one of the most valuable and least understood coverages in the policy.
Liability
Protects you if a guest is injured in your unit or water from your unit damages the one below. In a building, that second one matters.
Loss of use
Somewhere to live while your unit is repaired after a covered loss.
Water backup
Backup losses happen in buildings too, and the standard policy excludes them. We quote the endorsement by default.
Worth knowing
What a licensed producer watches for
Master policy deductibles are rising
Chicago associations increasingly carry large master-policy deductibles and pass them to owners after a loss. Loss assessment coverage is how you keep that from becoming a personal bill.
Your declarations decide your coverage
Whether the master policy is bare walls or all-in changes what you need to insure. Bring your declarations page and we will do the reading.
Water is the claim that finds condos
A failed supply line on the eighth floor is a claim on three floors. Liability limits and water coverage deserve more attention in a building than in a house.
Common questions
It covers the building and common areas. Your unit's interior, your belongings, your liability, and your share of association assessments are on you. That is what an HO-6 condo policy is for.
When the association assesses unit owners for a shared loss or a master-policy deductible, it pays your share up to the limit you choose. It costs little and can save you thousands.
Yes, and it usually earns a multi-policy discount. We price it both ways and show you whether bundling actually wins.
Related coverage
One call does it.
Sixty seconds to start. A licensed producer at Lakeshore Risk Advisors does the rest.