TL;DR
Data & research
Most HOA and condo insurance content on the internet is written to sell a quote. This page is written to be a reference: discrete, sourced, individually citable facts about coverage structure, statutory requirements, and market conditions across every association type we cover. We publish ranges and qualitative framing where the underlying number is not independently verifiable, never a fabricated precise benchmark and never a bound quote.
For a condominium project to be warrantable, Fannie Mae requires the association to carry commercial general liability coverage of at least 1,000,000 dollars per occurrence for the common elements.
This is a regulatory floor, not a market average. Associations in higher-exposure settings often carry more, with an umbrella layered above.
Source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-4-01, General Liability Insurance Requirements for Project Developments
Fannie Mae requires condo and co-op projects of more than 20 units to carry fidelity or crime coverage at least equal to the association reserves plus three months of total assessments on all units.
The requirement scales with the size of the funds an insider could misappropriate, not with a flat dollar figure.
Source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-4-02, Fidelity/Crime Insurance Requirements for Project Developments
Under the December 2022 Fannie Mae update, a management agent’s own fidelity or crime policy is not an acceptable substitute for the association’s own policy; the association must be the named insured, and its policy must cover the acts of the management agent.
A common warrantability failure is an association relying on its management company’s corporate policy rather than carrying its own.
Source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-4-02 (per Selling Notice SEL-2022-10)
Fannie Mae requires the condominium master property policy to insure at 100 percent of replacement cost and to carry no coinsurance clause, or an agreed-value or agreed-amount endorsement that waives coinsurance.
Meeting a state statutory floor of 80 percent of value can still fail this Fannie standard.
Source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-3, Property and Flood Insurance
Fannie Mae limits the master property policy deductible to no more than 5 percent of the face amount of the policy for most perils.
Source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-3, Property and Flood Insurance
Freddie Mac places its property and casualty insurance requirements for condominium projects in Chapter 8202 of the Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide, while condominium project eligibility rules sit in Chapter 5701.
Source: Freddie Mac Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide, Chapter 8202
California limits the personal liability of a volunteer condominium officer or director when the association carries general liability and directors and officers coverage of at least 500,000 dollars for associations of 100 or fewer separate interests, and at least 1,000,000 dollars for more than 100.
California requires an association to maintain fidelity bond coverage for its directors, officers, and employees in an amount at least equal to the combined total of the reserves plus three months of total assessments on all separate interests.
California requires condominium associations to inspect exterior elevated elements such as balconies and decks at least once every nine years under SB326.
Source: Cal. Civ. Code 5551 (SB326)
Under the standard ISO loss assessment endorsement, the portion of an assessment attributable to the master policy deductible is capped at a 1,000 dollar sublimit unless that sublimit is specifically endorsed upward.
Buying a larger overall loss-assessment limit does not, by itself, raise this deductible-assessment cap.
Source: ISO Homeowners Loss Assessment Coverage (HO 04 35)
On the standard ISO commercial general liability form, defense costs and supplementary payments are paid in addition to the policy limits and do not erode them; only settlements and judgments draw down the general aggregate.
Defense-within-limits erosion is a feature of directors and officers and professional liability forms, not the standard general liability policy.
Source: ISO Commercial General Liability Coverage Form (CG 00 01)
The ISO water backup endorsement carries an insured-selected limit shown in the policy schedule rather than a fixed default, commonly starting around 5,000 dollars with buy-ups to 10,000 or 25,000 dollars and higher.
Source: ISO Water Back-Up and Sump Overflow endorsement (HO 04 95 / HO 06 95)
Water and sewer-backup losses are among the most frequent property claims community associations file, which is why water-damage sublimits and deductibles are a recurring point of negotiation at renewal.
This is a qualitative field observation, not a published benchmark statistic.
Texas requires a condominium association to carry property insurance on the common elements and units at a minimum of 80 percent of replacement cost, or actual cash value where replacement cost is not reasonably available.
Source: Tex. Prop. Code 82.111
Arizona requires a condominium association to maintain property insurance on the common elements at a minimum of 80 percent of the actual cash value at the time the insurance is purchased.
Source: Ariz. Rev. Stat. 33-1253
Nevada requires a common-interest community association to maintain property insurance on the common elements at a minimum of 80 percent of the actual cash value at the time the insurance is purchased.
Source: Nev. Rev. Stat. 116.3113
Colorado requires a common-interest community association to maintain property insurance on the common elements at full replacement cost, less reasonable deductibles.
Source: Colo. Rev. Stat. 38-33.3-313
Illinois requires a condominium association to insure the common elements and units for full insurable replacement cost, and to carry coverage for the increased cost of construction due to building code or ordinance changes.
Source: 765 ILCS 605/12
Virginia requires a condominium unit owners association to insure the common elements at not less than the full replacement value, and to carry fidelity coverage for anyone handling association funds sized to a statutory formula.
Source: Va. Code 55.1-1963
North Carolina requires a condominium or planned-community association to maintain property insurance on the common elements at a minimum of 80 percent of replacement cost at the time the insurance is purchased.
Several states set a statutory property-insurance floor of 80 percent of value, which sits below the 100 percent replacement cost standard Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require for a warrantable condominium.
An association can satisfy its state minimum and still fail a lender insurance review, stalling unit sales and refinances.
Directors and officers liability coverage protects volunteer board members against claims arising from their governance decisions, including many non-monetary and injunctive claims that a general liability policy does not address.
Volunteer board members are frequently individually named in owner disputes, which is the exposure D&O is built to answer.
In the hardened Florida and California property markets, community associations have faced non-renewals, larger wind and named-storm deductibles, and a shift of placements into the surplus lines market.
This is a qualitative market observation. The surplus lines market trades admitted-market guaranty-fund protection for the form and rate flexibility needed to write difficult risks.
A lender generally requires flood insurance for any building in a Special Flood Hazard Area, and condominium associations typically place it through the National Flood Insurance Program Residential Condominium Building Association Policy, sometimes with private excess above the program limits.
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act is a make-available law that requires a property and casualty carrier to offer terrorism coverage and disclose its premium, but it does not require a community association to buy it, so a board can accept or decline the coverage in writing.
Where a purchase requirement exists it comes from a contract, such as a cooperative's underlying blanket mortgage or a bank loan covenant, not from TRIA itself.
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Terrorism Risk Insurance Program (TRIP)
Under the federal terrorism backstop, once the Treasury certifies an act of terrorism and industry insured losses cross the 200 million dollar program trigger, the government pays 80 percent of covered losses above each carrier's deductible while the carrier retains a 20 percent co-share, up to a 100 billion dollar annual program cap.
TRIA does not insure anyone directly; it is federal reinsurance behind the carrier's own policy, and the current reauthorization extends the program through December 31, 2027.
Source: Terrorism Risk Insurance Program regulations, 31 CFR Part 50
A scheduled property policy assigns each building its own separate stated limit, while a blanket property policy insures all of an association's buildings under one combined limit that a single loss can draw against regardless of which building was damaged.
Blanket versus scheduled decides how the limit is allocated across buildings; it is separate from the valuation basis, which decides how the dollar amount behind that limit was calculated.
Many blanket property policies contain a margin clause, also called a maximum-amount-payable provision, that caps a single-building recovery at the value shown for that building on the statement of values plus a stated margin, often in the range of 110 to 125 percent of the scheduled value.
A blanket policy with a margin clause behaves closer to a scheduled policy with a built-in cushion than to a borderless limit, so accurate per-building values still matter.
A coinsurance clause requires the insured limit to equal a set percentage of full replacement cost, commonly 80, 90, or 100 percent, and if the limit falls short at the time of loss the carrier pays only the proportion the carried limit bears to the required amount, reducing the payout on even a partial loss.
An agreed value, also called agreed amount, endorsement waives the coinsurance condition for the policy term, so a partial loss is paid without the penalty even if the number later proves a little light.
Ordinance or law coverage, written on the ISO commercial property form CP 04 05, is built from three parts: Coverage A for the value of the undamaged portion a code forces you to demolish, Coverage B for demolition and debris removal, and Coverage C for the increased cost of rebuilding to current code.
Coverage A is folded into the building limit and inherits any shortfall in it, while Coverage B and Coverage C require their own separately scheduled limits that are often written thin.
Source: ISO Building Ordinance or Law Coverage endorsement (CP 04 05)
A fidelity or crime bond generally will not respond when an association is tricked into wiring funds to a criminal, because the money left through a legitimate instruction rather than employee theft, so it is cyber liability's social engineering and funds transfer fraud coverage, typically written as a sublimit, that fills that gap.
Carriers frequently gate the coverage behind a warranty requiring independent verification of any wire or change of banking instructions before funds are released, and a claim can be denied if the warranty was not followed.
Roof age drives the community-association property markets to attach actual cash value roof endorsements, higher roof deductibles, and cosmetic exclusions, and an ACV settlement deducts depreciation so an older roof pays out well short of what replacement actually costs.
The size of the ACV shortfall depends entirely on the age and condition of what is damaged, so it cannot be reduced to a single figure.
Fannie Mae spreads its condominium insurance warrantability conditions across three Selling Guide sections at once: property and flood in B7-3, commercial general liability in B7-4-01, and fidelity or crime coverage in B7-4-02.
A lender reviews these as a single pass-or-fail set, so a project can hold every individual policy and still lose warrantability if one item is out of position.
The Fannie Mae commercial general liability requirement of at least 1,000,000 dollars per occurrence sits in Selling Guide section B7-4-01, not in the B7-3 property section it is most often miscited against.
Liability and property are separate warrantability tests in the Selling Guide, and confusing the two sections is a common source of review confusion.
Source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-4-01, Liability Insurance Requirements for Project Developments
For any project building located in a Special Flood Hazard Area, the Fannie Mae Selling Guide section B7-3 requires flood coverage at least equal to the lesser of the National Flood Insurance Program maximum or the building's replacement cost.
A redrawn FEMA flood map that moves a building into the Special Flood Hazard Area can trigger this requirement even though nothing about the building changed.
Source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-3, Property and Flood Insurance
Freddie Mac Chapter 8202 sets condominium property and casualty requirements that parallel Fannie Mae: replacement cost coverage on the project improvements, commercial general liability of at least 1,000,000 dollars per occurrence, and, for projects of more than 20 units, fidelity or crime coverage of at least three months of aggregate assessments plus the association reserve funds.
Source: Freddie Mac Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide, Chapter 8202
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae keep their condominium insurance requirements substantially harmonized, so a master policy built to one standard usually meets the other, but the two do not word every provision identically and a lender may review to whichever agency will purchase the loan.
When a unit sale stalls at the lender insurance review, it is worth confirming which agency the loan is destined for and checking the flagged provision against that agency's own text.
Source: Freddie Mac Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide, Chapter 8202
FHA condominium project approval carries insurance conditions including hazard coverage on the common elements at 100 percent of replacement cost, commercial general liability on the common areas, flood insurance for any building in a Special Flood Hazard Area, and, for projects of more than 20 units, a fidelity or employee dishonesty bond that also reaches any managing agent handling association funds.
Source: HUD Handbook 4000.1 / FHA Condominium Project Approval Guide
FHA condominium project approval sets a baseline minimum owner-occupancy ratio of 50 percent, which FHA can allow as low as 35 percent when the project meets stronger reserve funding, delinquency, and insurance conditions.
For an investor-heavy community between the 35 percent and 50 percent band, the stronger reserve and insurance posture is exactly what can preserve eligibility at the lower ratio.
Source: HUD Handbook 4000.1 / FHA Condominium Project Approval Guide
FHA condominium project approval is not permanent and must be recertified on FHA's cycle, currently every three years, so a lapse in any required coverage line such as the fidelity bond or a replacement-cost shortfall on the master policy can cost the project its approval.
Where full project approval is out of reach, FHA single-unit approval can sometimes clear an individual transaction, but the underlying insurance conditions still have to be satisfied.
Source: HUD Handbook 4000.1 / FHA Condominium Project Approval Guide
New York's Condominium Act sets no replacement-cost percentage for a standard condominium, providing only that the board shall insure the building against fire and other hazards if required by the declaration, the by-laws, or a majority of the unit owners.
Because the statute hands a board no number, the controlling standard becomes whatever the declaration requires and, in practice, the Fannie Mae warrantability bar a conventional lender applies at a unit sale.
Source: N.Y. Real Property Law 339-bb
The one place New York's condominium insurance statute prescribes an amount is the qualified leasehold condominium, where insurance is required in any event, must equal the full replacement cost of the building, and must be updated annually.
Source: N.Y. Real Property Law 339-bb
Massachusetts sets no statutory property-insurance floor for condominiums; General Laws Chapter 183A Section 10 authorizes the organization of unit owners to insure the common areas but names no replacement-cost percentage, leaving the master deed, bylaws, and lender to set the property standard.
Source: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, 10
For a Massachusetts condominium with more than ten units, Chapter 183A Section 10 requires blanket fidelity coverage against the dishonest acts of anyone handling association funds in an amount at least equal to one-fourth of the annual assessments, excluding special assessments.
That one-fourth figure is an exact statutory floor and should be recomputed each year as the budget and assessments change.
Source: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, 10
The Georgia Condominium Act requires a condominium association to carry property insurance consonant with the full insurable replacement cost, less deductibles, of all buildings and structures, plus commercial general liability insurance of not less than 1,000,000 dollars per single occurrence and 2,000,000 dollars aggregate.
Georgia's non-condominium Property Owners' Association Act sets no statutory property-insurance percentage and applies only to communities that expressly elect into it.
Source: O.C.G.A. 44-3-107
Ohio requires a condominium unit owners association to carry fire and extended coverage on all buildings and structures in an amount not less than 90 percent of replacement cost, a standard raised from 80 percent of fair market value by Senate Bill 61 effective September 11, 2022.
The 90 percent figure still sits below the 100 percent replacement-cost standard Fannie Mae requires for a warrantable condominium, so a policy can satisfy the statute and still fail a lender insurance review.
Source: Ohio Rev. Code 5311.16
Pennsylvania requires a condominium association to insure the common elements and units against all risks of direct physical loss in a total amount, after deductibles, of not less than 80 percent of the actual cash value of the insured property, exclusive of land, excavations, and foundations.
The floor is stated as 80 percent of actual cash value, which sits below the Fannie Mae 100 percent replacement-cost warrantability standard on both the percentage and the valuation basis.
Source: 68 Pa.C.S. 3312
Washington requires a common-interest community association created on or after July 1, 2018 to maintain property insurance on the common elements and, in most communities, the units, in a total amount after deductibles of not less than 80 percent of the actual cash value at the time the insurance is purchased and at each renewal date.
The parallel older Condominium Act at RCW 64.34.352 applies the same 80 percent actual-cash-value floor to condominiums created between July 1, 1990 and July 1, 2018.
Source: RCW 64.90.470
The Michigan Condominium Act sets no specific replacement-cost percentage for the association property program; the administrative rules require the bylaws to provide fire and extended coverage but prescribe no minimum percentage, so the governing documents and lender warrantability standard control the property amount.
A separate administrative rule requires the association to maintain a reserve fund at a minimum equal to 10 percent of the current annual budget on a noncumulative basis.
Source: MCL 559.156; Mich. Admin. Code R 559.511
The Minnesota Common Interest Ownership Act requires the association to maintain property insurance on the common elements in a total amount of not less than the full insurable replacement cost, less deductibles, measured at purchase and at each renewal date.
For attached-wall projects the statute reaches further, requiring the property insurance to include units or structures that share or have contiguous walls, siding, or roofs, not just the common elements.
Source: Minn. Stat. 515B.3-113
The Oregon Condominium Act requires property insurance on the common elements but names no replacement-cost percentage, while the separate Planned Community Act requires insurance covering the full replacement costs of repair or reconstruction if available at reasonable cost.
Both Oregon acts tie the fidelity minimum to the combined funds held in the association's name plus any United States government obligations it owns, so it should be recomputed as balances change.
Source: ORS 100.435; ORS 94.675
New Jersey requires a condominium association to insure all common elements and structural portions of the property under broad-form fire and extended coverage, but the statute names the coverage form and sets no replacement-cost percentage.
Because the New Jersey act fixes no amount, the governing documents and the lender replacement-cost bar control the adequacy question.
Source: N.J.S.A. 46:8B-14
Maryland requires a condominium council of unit owners to maintain property insurance against risks of direct physical loss in amounts it determines, but not less than any amount the declaration or bylaws specify, and sets no statutory percentage floor.
With no statutory percentage, the effective property standard in Maryland comes from the governing documents and the conventional lender rather than the statute.
Source: Md. Code, Real Property 11-114
Maryland caps a single unit owner's responsibility for the council's property insurance deductible at ten thousand dollars when the damage originates from that owner's unit, with any excess treated as a common expense.
Source: Md. Code, Real Property 11-114
Connecticut requires a common interest community association to maintain property insurance on the common elements at not less than 80 percent of the actual cash value of the insured property at the time the insurance is purchased and at each renewal date.
The Connecticut Common Interest Ownership Act also requires fidelity insurance but prescribes no formula or dollar amount for it.
Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. 47-255
Tennessee requires a condominium association to maintain property insurance on the common elements at not less than 80 percent of the total replacement cost of the insured property, after application of any deductibles, at purchase and at each renewal date.
Tennessee has no comprehensive statute imposing an equivalent property-insurance floor on non-condominium planned communities, so their recorded declaration and the lender standard control.
Source: Tenn. Code Ann. 66-27-413
Wisconsin requires a condominium association to insure the property against fire and other hazards for not less than the full replacement value of the property insured, setting no percentage floor below that standard.
Source: Wis. Stat. 703.17
Missouri requires a condominium association to maintain property insurance on the common elements at not less than 80 percent of the actual cash value of the insured property, after application of any deductibles, at purchase and at each renewal date.
Missouri has no parallel general statute setting a property-insurance percentage for planned communities that are not condominiums, so for those the governing documents and lender requirements control.
Source: Mo. Rev. Stat. 448.3-113
Indiana requires a condominium association to carry a master casualty policy affording fire and extended coverage in an amount consonant with the full replacement value of the common areas and facilities, while its Homeowners Associations Act sets no statutory property-insurance percentage for planned communities.
Source: Ind. Code 32-25-8-9
South Carolina requires a condominium council of co-owners to insure the property against risks but attaches no replacement-cost percentage, no actual-cash-value floor, and no valuation basis, leaving no statutory property-insurance minimum.
The South Carolina Horizontal Property Act's silence pushes the effective standard onto the governing documents and the lender replacement-cost requirement.
Source: S.C. Code 27-31-240
Utah requires both condominium associations and other community associations to maintain property coverage of not less than 100 percent of the full replacement cost of the insured property at purchase and at each renewal date.
The Condominium Ownership Act and the Community Association Act carry parallel full-replacement-cost provisions, so the statutory floor aligns with the lender bar and the pressure moves onto valuation accuracy.
Source: Utah Code 57-8-43 and 57-8a-405
California Civil Code 5806 requires the association's crime or fidelity coverage to include protection against computer fraud and funds-transfer fraud and to extend to a managing agent that handles association funds, and self-insurance does not satisfy the requirement.
A missing managing-agent endorsement is one of the most common gaps even when the headline limit is adequate.
California Civil Code 5551 (SB326) requires the exterior elevated element inspection, covering balconies, decks, stairways, walkways, and their railings, to be performed by a licensed structural engineer or architect, and a report from an unqualified inspector does not satisfy the statute.
The California Davis-Stirling Act requires an association to review its reserve study at least every three years and to disclose reserve funding in the annual budget package.
The reserve-study cycle supports both financial health and the insurance renewal, since carriers and lenders increasingly ask to see a current study.
Whether a condominium master policy is written bare-walls, single-entity, or all-in determines how much walls-in coverage an individual unit owner needs on an HO-6 policy.
A bare-walls master leaves the owner responsible for everything inward from the unfinished interior surfaces.
At developer turnover, a community association moves from the developer’s builders risk and controlled program onto its own master and directors and officers coverage, creating a transition window where gaps and uncovered prior acts commonly surface.
A transition or turnover study is the standard way boards identify these gaps before they become claims.
Florida requires a condominium association to insure the property and association buildings for their full insurable value on a replacement cost basis, determined by an independent appraisal at least every 36 months.
Source: Fla. Stat. 718.111(11)
Florida requires a Structural Integrity Reserve Study for each residential condominium building three or more habitable stories tall, and prohibits waiving reserves for the structural components it identifies.
The post-Surfside reserve funding obligations have become a central driver of insurability and special assessments.
Source: Fla. Stat. 718.112(2)(g)
Florida requires a milestone structural inspection of a condominium or cooperative building three or more habitable stories tall by the year it reaches 30 years of age, and every 10 years after; a local enforcement agency may require the first inspection at 25 years where local conditions such as proximity to salt water warrant it.
Source: Fla. Stat. 553.899
In coastal Florida and other wind-exposed regions, hurricane and named-storm deductibles are typically expressed as a percentage of the insured value rather than a flat dollar amount, which can produce a very large out-of-pocket assessment after a major storm.
Source: Fla. Stat. 627.701 (hurricane deductible disclosure)
Florida requires a condominium association's property insurance deductible to be consistent with industry standards and prevailing practice for communities of similar size, age, and construction in the same locale.
The cheapest, highest deductible on offer is not automatically defensible; a board should be able to show the wind deductible it selected was a reasoned choice under this standard rather than simply the option that shaved the most off the premium.
Florida Statute 627.701 governs how a hurricane or named-storm deductible is offered, disclosed, and stated, requiring the deductible to be shown clearly on the policy so the insured understands the dollar amount at risk before a loss.
A board can use that disclosure to get the applied basis, the trigger definition, and the resulting dollar figure in writing rather than assumed.
Source: Fla. Stat. 627.701 (hurricane and named-storm deductible disclosure)
Florida Statute 718.111(11) frames the condominium association's insuring obligation as covering the property as originally installed, or replacement of like kind and quality, which lines up with single-entity coverage while the recorded declaration still governs the detail.
Source: Fla. Stat. 718.111(11), Condominium Association Insurance
Florida's Structural Integrity Reserve Study covers a defined set of structural components, including the roof, load-bearing structure, fire protection, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, and windows and exterior doors, and the association must fund reserves for those components based on the study.
Source: Fla. Stat. 718.112(2)(g), Structural Integrity Reserve Study
Florida's milestone inspection is a structural safety inspection performed by a licensed engineer or architect, and where it identifies substantial structural deterioration a more detailed phase-two inspection follows.
Source: Fla. Stat. 553.899, Mandatory Structural Inspections for Condominium and Cooperative Buildings
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