If disaster strikes, will your condo investment be covered?

The disastrous collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside has panicked condo owners across Florida who fear their insurance policies wouldn’t protect them against a financial catastrophe.

In many cases, their fears are justified.

Condo insurance can be an arcane world to understand, and many condo owners may lack sufficient coverage to avert financial ruin, insurance experts say.

Here’s what analysts and financial advisers suggest to protect your most valuable asset: the roof over your head.

Types of protection

For condos owners, insurance coverage is generally broken down into two main segments:

The association’s coverage determines how much coverage the condo owner needs. Associations often pick between two options:

It’s unclear which type of coverage is most common for condo associations, but experts say owners should find out before buying policies for their own condos.

Condo insurance for individual owners takes the form of a so-called HO-6 policy, which covers items the association’s policy doesn’t.

HO-6 is an insurance industry classification that specifies a type of homeowner coverage for condo owners. “HO” is short for homeowners. The policy is similar to insurance on a single-family home, often called HO-1.

Fernando Alvarez, a principal at JAG Insurance Group of Coral Gables and Delray Beach, said owners can buy enough coverage to replace a destroyed condo, which became a sudden concern of many owners after the Surfside collapse.

During a court hearing last week, a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge declared that the insurance bought by the Champlain Tower South association — property coverage of $30 million and liability coverage of $18 million — was insufficient to cover the expected losses.

An HO-6 policy could help cover the difference, Alvarez said. For example, an owner might take out a $750,000 policy that covers his investment in the condo as well as his possessions.

How much to buy

“A lot of it depends on how the master policy is written,” said Mark Friedlander, the Florida spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute. “It’s up to the individual to discuss with their insurance agent what type of coverage they need” so that if the building is destroyed, they are not financially devastated.

One way for people to find out, Friedlander said, is to examine the so-called declaration page toward the front of the association’s insurance policy. It will summarize the building coverages, allowing the owners and their agents to figure out what is needed to include in the condo insurance, based on their investment and the value of their possessions.

The money from the owner’s condo policy can be used to buy another home elsewhere, Friedlander said.

“The statutes are clear in Florida that you can take the money from the HO-6 policy and use it to buy another property,” he said. “It would have to be a replacement.”

Owners are advised to update their policies every 36 months as their property’s value increases and replacement costs rise.

“If we look at property insurance in general, when you buy a home you buy homeowners insurance and it covers you for the amount it would cost to replace the home,” said Janet Ruiz, director of strategic communications for the Insurance Information Institute. “It’s not about your purchase price. It’s about the cost to rebuild the home. Recently, the price to build has kept going up. Those numbers can all vary.”

Required condo insurance

Most association bylaws require owners to carry HO-6 insurance regardless of whether they have a mortgage, Friedlander said.

“Most require each individual owner to have coverage in addition to what the master policy covers,” he said. “It’s a good time to review your coverage with your insurance professional if you own a condo.” If there are gaps, discuss what to do about it and what to change.

Paying off mortgages

If a building is destroyed, those who borrowed to buy their condos are still obligated to pay off their loans in full. The money from the insurance coverage can be used to pay off the remaining balance on the mortgage.

“You always want to make sure you have dwelling coverage that at the bare minimum covers your mortgage,” Friedlander said.

Lenders insist on it if a buyer puts down less than 20% on their purchase. The buyer will be obliged to take out private mortgage insurance, commonly known as PMI, which would be added to the owner’s monthly payment.

People who put down more than 20% or pay cash won’t be forced into PMI, so it’s up to them to make sure they’re adequately covered.

If an owner dies while owing on a mortgage, the unpaid portion of the loans would have to be settled with the lender when the estate is settled.

Mortgage term life insurance policies are available to repay the debt if the borrower dies. Mortgage unemployment insurance is available for people who involuntarily lose their jobs.

Property taxes

Typically, properties are assessed on Jan. 1 of each new year and tax bills are sent out in November. Currently, surviving owners of the Champlain Towers and representatives of the deceased victims’ would still get tax bills based on the assessments of the condo units before the building collapsed.

But Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar said the state has a “calamity” statute that allows taxes to be reduced. The law was installed in 2004 to cover damages from multiple hurricanes. If a storm hits during the year, the assessment is adjusted downward and recorded on Jan. 1 of the following year.

Under the act, the Surfside assessments would be reduced effective Jan. 1, 2022.

Kiar said Wednesday that he hopes the Legislature or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would step in and through a new law or executive order allow the assessments for the Champlain complex to be adjusted downward for the current tax year.

“In this situation — and thank God it’s never happened in Broward County — what would occur is we would have to go to the Legislature for a special session or executive order from the governor to allow us to treat the assessed value of the property as if it were destroyed on Jan. 1 of this year,” Kiar said.

On Thursday, DeSantis announced he would go further by suspending tax collections against the properties at Champlain Towers South, which have been reduced to piles of rubble.

“My goal is to suspend or waive any law I can under the state of emergency to forestall that and then we’ll probably ask the Legislature to remit any property tax liability from Champlain Towers South,” the governor said.

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