Insurance

Condo insurance explained

It's very important to check with your agent as each provider has different coverage amounts.

Background

In September of 2006, the Strata was faced with a deductible for water damage originating in one of the units. The water damage deductible at the time was $2500, which was raised by the Strata Council by process of a special levy assessed to each unit, resulting in an approximate levy of $115 to each unit. Since 2006 court proceedings in British Columbia has changed policy to indicate that the owner of the unit where the source of the damage originated is actually liable for covering the deductible. If the same type of scenario played out again, Strata would assess the full cost of the deductible to the owner of the unit where the source of the damage originated. Our current water damage deductible sits at $5000.

Condo Unit Owners Policy

No one wants to be faced with a large unexpected bill, and a Condo Unit Owners Policy (sometimes referred to as content insurance) can help cover you in this case. In the event that a unit owner is faced with a bill from a deductible, a policy holder can contact their insurance agency and initiate a claim to cover the cost of this deductible. Often these policies come with their own deductible, but often a substantially smaller deductible than the one proposed by the Strata Corporation’s commercial policy.

Aside from covering Strata deductibles, Condo Unit Owners insurance can also helps protect owners in two other important ways:

a) A good policy will cover unit owners in the event that the Strata Corporation is underinsured. Over the last major fire season, Okanagan insurers witnessed contractor costs soar as the demand for contractors could not be met for home repairs. In these cases, some of the Strata’s policies were under-evaluated to cover the total replacement costs of units, leaving a burden on unit owners to cover the remaining costs. This burden can be greatly reduced or eliminated with a Condo Unit Owners Policy.

b) A good policy will cover betterments and improvements to a unit. The Strata’s commercial policy only covers the replacement costs of original installations. This means if a unit owner replaced their original carpet flooring with hardwood floors, the Strata’s policy would only cover the costs to refurnish the unit with a carpet on the scale of the original purchase. This also means that if a unit was originally sold with an unfinished area, the Strata’s policy would only cover the cost for rebuilding with the same unfinished portion as was sold at the original time of construction. The burden of paying for betterments and improvements can be greatly reduced or eliminated with a Condo Unit Owners Policy.

Perhaps the largest reason for a Condo Unit Owners policy is that the Strata’s Insurance Policy does not cover anyone’s personal contents. Damage or replacement of unit owner’s personal belongings, electronics, furniture, or other valuables are not covered by the Strata Corporation’s policy. For renters, Tenant Insurance Policies can be purchased to cover these costs. Rented Condo policies are available for landlords to cover the cost of their appliances, lost rental income unit betterments improvements, assessments of strata deductibles, and coverage for underinsured strata policy.

What does the Strata Corporation Insurance Policy typically cover?

In the event that a claim is generated from an incident not originating from a particular unit (for example earthquake or flood), the insurance deductible is to be paid by the Strata Corporation, and could at that time be collected in the form of a Special Levy, at the discretion of Council.

• Building exterior and common property inside and outside your unit.
• "Permanently" affixed items inside your unit such as kitchen cabinets, floor coverings, appliances, intercom and other similar items that were installed at the time the building was constructed. The strata corporation’s insurer does not take into account any improvements or betterments that have been made to the unit by you or your predecessors.