What Type of Insurance Do I Need for a Co-op?

Purchasing an Apartment Insurance Policy

If you have decided to buy a communal house, condo or other property with another group of people your new co-op home will probably be covered by a master insurance policy that is included as the price of your maintenance fee that you pay on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. Is that all the insurance you need, however, or should you look into a personal insurance policy of your own?

What is Co-Op Insurance

The insurance provided by your co-op covers the building and the community owned property as well as providing liability insurance for the corporation organizing the co-op, but you can still be individually liable in a co-op in a number of ways. If you have provided any furnishings or decorations for the unit and it is burglarized, you would not be covered for your personal losses. If a fire damaged part of the home, causing smoke damage throughout, the insurance provided by the co-op would not cover that either. If someone renting out the home trips and falls, you could be held personally liable for their injuries as well. Co-op insurance will provide you with personal protection in all of these instances and more.

How Much is Co-Op Insurance

Fortunately, the incident of issues happening in a co-op home that would require personal insurance coverage is rare and the premiums for co-op insurance policies reflect this fact. Like an umbrella policy on your home, you can receive a co-op policy for next to nothing and a premium rate that is probably easy to pay for a year at a time so you can forget about it. Some insurance companies also offer joint-protection policies for co-ops which provides protection to the unit and liability protection to multiple owners at the same time. This helps to avoid any confusion, issues or tangled lawsuits if there is a personal liability claim made by an occupant (if multiple owners have different policies, which one is liable for the injury?). You should speak with your fellow owners in the co-op and see if any of them would be interested in sharing a policy with you which will reduce the cost to you even further.