Insurance Discussion – February 28, 2012

Gary: My big concern is to make sure that each of you are individually insured, as well as the HOA.  Taking this hypothetical:  You live in a building that’s a quad, light some candles and have a nice quiet dinner, you go out without putting out the candles, and the whole quad burns down.  What’s going to happen?  The HOA insurance is going to be primarily responsible to take over and build that structure.  However, you were negligent.  You were one of 4 unit owners, you caused the loss.  You could be held responsible.  Do you have adequate coverage in the event your other 3 neighbors come after you, or Greater New York, the insurance company for the HOA, comes after you for the rest of the building?  I’m going to be summarizing our findings and the information you receive this evening.  We’re going to put it on the website, put it in the Welcome Packet from now on for new owners, so that we give as much practical information as possible to reduce whatever risk and exposure there may be to you as individual owners.  HOA is protected, we’re comfortable with that.  Now we want to make sure you’re properly protected as well.  George: If you’re in a 2-unit, 3-unit, or 4-unit, we are looking at what that maximum probable loss scenario would cost and making sure that your individual policies are able to cover that in a way which is not financially burdensome to you.  As we know, an HO6 policy, which most of you probably get on your units, is not a very high-cost policy, and we want to make sure we can get that tailored properly for you in a cost-effective manner.  If one unit burns, the others in a quad will also, since there are no firewalls between.  An HO6 covers your contents and the liability for the HOA.  Most of them are standard at a million, some at $500K, some are at $300.  It would be just making sure you have the right liability limit to be able to protect you properly in that situation. How to know that the unit owners are actually getting that coverage even though it is mandated?   The HOA might want to get named as an additional insured on each unit owner’s policy.  That way you get a copy of the policy.  You also get notification when somebody fails to pay premiums or their policy is cancelled as well.   From the HOA’s standpoint, it’s a great way to take a common look at everybody’s contracts to make sure we have enough liability insurance.  You might want to talk about it with your agent. What we’re looking at for you is to have basic standards to know that you have enough for your structure.  When you go forward with your Welcome Packet, we want to put out the common standard, “This is what you want to ask for as coverage,” based on a 2- 3- or 4-unit building.

Communications Committee

Lake Country Village Homeowners Association Board of Directors.

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