Will Condo Board take care of Insurance? -

I am subletting my condo and would like to find out if there is a possible fire. I do have a condo owner's insurance, but it seems to cover only personal belongings. What happens if there is a fire and the condo is damaged? Will the condo board take care of the damages and rebuild? When you own a condo usually the association has a policy that covers the building itself (outer walls, roof, framing, plumbing, electrical) and the owner is responsible for (and hopefully has their own policy covering) the rest (paint, cabinets, fixtures, etc.) Your condo's bylaws will spell out what the association is responsible to insure, but state laws (which have often changed to move more of the responsibility from the association to the unitowner) and different insurers can make that broader or more narrow. Your own individual condo unitowners policy should cover the parts of the building that you are responsible to insure (building coverage, or additions and alterations) and your contents (plus other coverages like Personal Liability). Most unitowner policies have very small limits for building coverage (usually under $10000), so you have to increase that coverage to reflect your own rebuilding costs. (Personally, I carry $50,000 because in my community I'd have to even rebuild my staircase!) Because you're going to be renting out your unit you need to: 1. First check if there are any restrictions in your bylaws about renting out the policy. 2. Check with the insurance company for the association to see what the deductible is. If the total amount of your loss is less than the association's policy deductible it obviously won't pay, even if it is a covered loss. 3. Check with the company that has your individual policy to see if they will endorse the policy to allow you to rent it out, and if they will cover the association's policy's deductible (subject to your own) if there is a fire, etc. (they usually will) . 4. Adjust your own policy to reflect your new needs. For example, if you're moving out all of y our furniture you don't need as much contents (personal property coverage). 5. Increase your liability coverage to at least $300,000. As the owner you can be sued over the actions/negligence of the tenant. So, the bottom line is that generally the association will rebuild for a fire, but unless it is a major fire it's likely going to fall onto your shoulders, so make sure you are properly covered. There are so many variables you need to do your homework first. You should check the condo constitution. Likely you are responsible for fire etc. The lessee will be responsible for content insurance. Check with the board to be certain,not knowing could result in costly consequences. You'd better contact your own condo owner' insurance company to find out what changes you need if converting to a rental. If something happens, the condo association could wind up suing you for damage caused by your tenant. No idea. YOu'll have to check your bylaws - it's going to spell it out there. You're also going to want to check the master policy, to see what their deductible is. That condo unit owners insurance SHOULD have some building coverage to it - usually $1,000 is the standard, minimum amount. YOu might want to increase that to $25,000 or however much, based on what you find out when you read the bylaws.