Condo insurance, and the part your strata does not cover.
Your strata insures the building. Your policy insures your unit, your belongings, your liability, and the deductible the strata can charge back to you. That last one is what most owners find out about at claim time.
Get condo insurance See what is coveredYour belongings, your liability, the finishes inside your unit, and the strata deductible if it lands on you.
Anyone who owns a condo, a townhouse or any unit in a strata.
Your strata plan number, and the strata insurance summary if you have a copy.
What does condo insurance actually cover
Four things. Your belongings. Your liability, if something starts in your unit and reaches someone else. The finishes the strata policy leaves to you, like flooring and cabinets. And the strata deductible, if the strata charges it back to you.
A hose behind your dishwasher lets go while you are at work. Water reaches two units below. The strata policy responds to the building, and the strata charges its deductible back to you. That amount is set by the strata’s policy, not by yours.
We read your strata’s insurance summary before we quote, so the deductible cover on your policy matches the deductible you could actually be charged.
Six covers, doing six different jobs.
Your belongings
Furniture, clothes, electronics and everything else inside the unit, and usually your things when they are away from home.
The strata deductible
If a loss starts in your unit, the strata can charge its deductible back to you. That is a separate limit on your policy, and it is worth checking yours is not smaller than the strata’s deductible.
The finishes in your unit
Flooring, cabinets, counters and anything upgraded since the building went up. The strata policy usually stops at the standard the unit was built to.
Your liability
If someone is hurt in your unit, or water from your unit damages another, this is the part that answers.
Somewhere to live
Hotel and extra living costs while the unit is repaired and you cannot live in it.
Water damage
Sewer backup and overland water are separate options on most policies. On a lower floor they are usually the ones that pay.
How much cover do you actually need
Three numbers decide it, and only one of them is about your furniture.
Your deductible cover
Read the strata’s deductible, then read the limit on your own policy. If the strata’s water deductible is larger, the difference is yours.
Your finishes
Price what it would cost to put the unit back the way you have it now, not the way it was handed over.
Your belongings
Walk one room and add it up honestly. Most people are surprised, and most people are under.
A situation we see.
A washing machine hose fails on the eighth floor. Three units take water. The strata claims on the building policy, pays its deductible, and charges that deductible to the owner where the water started. Her policy carried deductible cover, but a smaller amount than the strata’s deductible, because nobody had compared the two since the day she bought. The gap was hers. It is one of the few losses where reading two documents side by side is the whole answer.
A rented condo is a different policy.
Owner-occupied and tenant-occupied are not the same risk
If you live in it, this is your page. If you rent it out, the policy changes and so does what the strata expects of you. See landlord insurance.
And if you rent a unit rather than own it, the building is not yours to insure. See tenant insurance.
The conditions condo owners meet at claim time.
A condo policy shares the building with the strata’s policy, and the conditions live along that boundary. Four worth knowing before a leak finds them.
The deductible you can be assessed
The strata’s water deductible can be charged to the owner whose unit a loss starts in. Cover exists for exactly this. Carry it at the strata’s current number, not the one from three AGMs ago.
Improvements the schedule never met
Hardwood, a renovated kitchen, a better bathroom – upgrades beyond original spec are the owner’s to insure. Unrecorded, they are argued about; scheduled, they are paid.
Renting the unit out quietly
A condo policy written for owner-occupancy may not respond once tenants or nightly guests move in. The use belongs on the policy before the keys change hands.
The unit empty for weeks
Vacancy conditions apply inside stratas too – travel seasons and slow sales both trigger them. Water cover narrows first, and upstairs neighbours do not pause their dishwashers.
The strata policy, your policy and the bylaws are one system – worth reading the deductible and the improvements schedule together, once a year.
What condo owners ask us.
What is a strata deductible chargeback
If a loss starts in your unit, the strata’s policy may respond to the building, and the strata can then charge its deductible to you. Your own policy can carry cover for that, up to a limit you choose.
Does the strata policy cover my flooring and cabinets
Usually only to the standard the unit was built to. Anything upgraded since is generally yours to insure.
Is water damage included
Damage from a burst pipe inside the unit is usually standard. Sewer backup and overland water are separate options on most policies, and they are the ones that answer for water arriving from outside or from below.
My strata says I must carry insurance. Is that allowed
Yes, and it is common. Strata bylaws often require owners to hold their own policy, and some ask for proof of it.
I rent my condo out. Does this policy work
No. A tenant-occupied unit is a landlord policy. The building is the same, the risk is not.
What should I send you
Your strata plan number, and the strata’s insurance summary if you have a copy. That summary carries the deductibles we need to see.
Let us read your strata summary first.
Send it with your quote request and we will check your deductible cover against what the strata could actually charge you.