Insurance news and information

The idea for the Federal Housing Administration’s new rules and enforcement was to allow for more buyers to qualify for FHA loans, thus increasing business for condo and apartment associations. But how good is it?

In fact, realtor associations and builders groups are opposed to the new rules, stating that the FHA has just made it that much harder for new building projects to be delivered and for existing apartment and condo complexes to qualify for the federal lending program. Apartment and condo associations agree. One section of the new FHA rules limits how many buyers of condo and apartment units can get an FHA loan. And the rules limit the number of FHA-backed loans to half of the existing units in a building.

Read more…

One potentially confusing issue in condominium associations is who insures what.  In the past, most condominium association policies would cover whatever the association owned.  Other association policies extended coverage into the units – for example, the sheetrock walls and ceiling, the plumbing, and the electrical within each individual unit.  Association policies would often be written broad enough to cover the floor, kitchen cabinets, appliances, and carpeting.

In recent years, with the rising cost of insurance claims and the ambiguous language in some association CC&R’s, insurance coverage has changed dramatically.  Many condominium documents specifically detail what is to be covered – - for example:  roof repair and replacement only.  In this instance, the documents are explicitly pointing out that all other structure is not covered. Read more…