Florida condo insurance now begins before the purchase contract: since Surfside, the state's milestone inspection and reserve requirements have turned association paperwork into the single best predictor of what a unit will really cost to insure and to own. The HO-6 itself is the familiar walls-in policy; the Florida skill is reading the building first, then sizing the unit policy around what the documents reveal.
Read the building before the policy
Three documents tell the story. The milestone inspection, mandatory for aging buildings, reports structural condition, and its findings drive both repair assessments and the master policy's insurability. The reserve study and budget show whether the association has funded the roof, waterproofing and systems, or will be levying owners when they fail; post-Surfside law has ended the era of waived reserves. And the master policy's declarations show the building's coverage amount, its wind deductible, usually a large percentage, and any exclusions. A cheap unit in a building with a thin master, weak reserves and an unfunded inspection is not cheap; it is pre-assessment.
Build the HO-6 around the building's reality
Size unit improvements at Florida reconstruction prices, and set loss assessment coverage against the numbers you just read: the master's wind deductible allocated across units is a knowable figure, and your loss assessment limit should cover your share with room, since Florida associations have been levying at historic rates for inspections, reserves and premiums alike. Your own HO-6 hurricane deductible deserves conversion to dollars. Contents and displacement coverage follow standard logic, with additional living expenses respected in a state where a storm can close a building for months, and replacement cost settlement on contents, about 10% more per the III's guidance, doing its usual work.
The two waters, and the market itself
Rising water is excluded from HO-6 and master policies alike: storm surge and rainfall flooding need NFIP coverage, the unit policy for your contents and improvements, the association's flood policy for the building, and both questions deserve answers before buying, since FEMA's FloodSmart reports almost one-third of NFIP flood claims come from outside high-risk flood areas and Florida's mapped zones are wide anyway. The market context completes diligence: Florida's carrier landscape shifts yearly, Citizens backstops what the voluntary market declines, and an association whose master policy just moved carriers or jumped deductibles is telling you something. An independent agent who writes Florida condos daily reads these signals professionally.
Questions people ask about florida condo insurance
What should I read before buying a Florida condo?
The milestone inspection, the reserve study and the master policy's declarations. Together they predict assessments and insurability better than any listing.
How big should loss assessment coverage be?
At least your unit's share of the master's wind deductible, computed from the documents, with room for the inspection-and-reserve era's levies.
Does the building's flood policy cover me?
No, it covers the structure. Your contents and improvements need an NFIP unit policy, and shortfalls in the building's coverage return as assessments.
What changed after Surfside?
Mandatory milestone inspections and funded reserves, which raised assessments and master premiums but made building risk legible. Diligence now starts with those documents.