Home & property insurance
Condo and co-op insurance (HO-6)
The line between the building's policy and yours is not drawn in either insurance policy. It is drawn in your offering plan or your bylaws, and until somebody reads those, nobody can tell you what you need.
Co-ops and condos dominate large parts of Jackson Heights, Sunnyside, Rego Park and Forest Hills, and the insurance question is genuinely different from a house. You do not own the building; you own shares in a corporation with a proprietary lease, or a unit within a condominium. What that ownership includes is a legal question, answered in the offering plan.
The common shorthand is bare walls, all-in, or something between. Bare walls means the building's policy stops at the unfinished surfaces and everything inboard of that — floors, cabinets, bathrooms, fixtures — is yours to insure. Most Queens co-ops sit at or near that end, which makes the HO-6 policy considerably more important than people assume.
What an HO-6 actually covers
Building property: your floors, kitchen, bathroom, built-in cabinetry, and anything a previous shareholder installed that the building's policy does not consider its own. This is often the single largest number on the policy and the one most frequently set too low, because people quote it against the value of their furniture rather than the cost of a kitchen.
Personal property, liability, and loss of use — the same three as a renters policy and working the same way. And loss assessment, which is the one that is specific to this kind of ownership and which we will come back to.
Loss assessment, the coverage that is peculiar to co-ops
If a loss hits the building and exceeds the building's insurance — or falls inside the building's deductible, which in a large Queens co-op can be a very substantial figure — the board can assess the shortfall against the shareholders. Your share of that arrives as a bill, and it is not optional.
Loss assessment coverage on your HO-6 pays it, up to the limit you bought. Policies commonly include $1,000 as standard, which in a landmarked pre-war building with a six-figure deductible is close to meaningless. Raising it to $50,000 typically costs a small amount, and in older buildings we quote it as a matter of routine.
Improvements, betterments, and who insures what
If you renovated the kitchen, that renovation is almost certainly yours to insure regardless of what the building's policy says about original construction. The same is true of anything a previous owner installed and left behind. Carriers ask what the unit is worth to restore; the honest answer includes every improvement made since the building went up.
The other half of this is water. Water passing from your unit into the one below is the defining co-op claim, and the argument that follows involves your policy, your neighbour's, the building's and sometimes the managing agent. Adequate liability on your HO-6 is what keeps you out of the middle of it.
Getting the documents, which is most of the work
You need three things: the offering plan or bylaws section describing what the corporation insures, the building's current certificate of insurance including the deductible, and the managing agent's requirements for unit owner cover — many buildings now specify minimum liability limits and require the corporation to be named.
Managing agents supply these routinely and we will ask for them on your behalf. It takes a few days and it is the difference between a policy built for your building and a generic HO-6 that happens to be cheap.
Ask about limits, not about “full coverage”. Full coverage is a phrase, not a product, and no policy on earth is sold under that name. It usually means liability plus comprehensive plus collision, which is three of the seven things a New York motor policy can carry, and it says nothing whatever about your limits. A minimum-limits policy with comprehensive and collision on it satisfies that phrase completely and will not survive a serious injury claim. We quote limits and deductibles by their numbers, and we would rather have the conversation about what 25/50/10 actually pays for than let a slogan stand in for it.
Included as standard
How we handle this line
The offering plan actually read
We ask the managing agent for the insurance section and read it before quoting, because it is the document that decides what you need.
The building's deductible checked
A large building deductible is the main driver of how much loss assessment cover you should carry. We get the figure rather than guessing.
Loss assessment raised
From the token $1,000 that comes as standard to a limit that reflects your building's age and deductible.
Improvements valued honestly
Your kitchen and bathroom at what they would cost to replace, not at what your furniture is worth.
Board requirements met
Minimum limits and the corporation named where the managing agent requires it — arranged before you are chased for it.
Water liability sized properly
The defining co-op claim travels downward. Your liability limit is what keeps you out of a three-way argument.
When to ring us
Signs this is worth a conversation
- You have never seen the insurance section of your offering plan.
- Your loss assessment limit is $1,000 and your building is pre-war.
- You renovated the kitchen or bathroom and never raised the building property limit.
- Your managing agent has written asking for evidence of unit owner cover.
- You assumed the building's policy covers your floors and fittings.
Condo & co-op — what it typically costs
- Typical annual premium for a Queens co-op or condo unit, before any loss assessment or improvements-and-betterments cover is added.$300 – $850
This is a typical premium range for this area. It is not a quote, and it is not our price. We do not set premiums: a carrier files its rates with the Department of Financial Services and our commission is already inside the filed rate, so the same policy from the same carrier costs the same through any producer in New York. What genuinely moves your own number is which carrier writes it, the limits and deductibles you choose, and the facts on your record — which is what we would go through with you before anything is quoted.
Questions we are actually asked
Condo & co-op — frequently asked
What does an HO-6 policy cover?
The parts of the unit the building's policy does not: floors, fittings, kitchen and bathroom, plus your belongings, your liability, loss of use and loss assessment. Where the line falls is set by your offering plan or bylaws, not by the insurance policy, which is why we ask for that document before quoting.
My co-op has insurance. Why do I need my own?
Because the corporation's policy insures the corporation's property and interest. In most Queens co-ops that stops at or near the bare walls, leaving your floors, fittings, contents and liability uninsured. It also does not pay a loss assessment levied against you — only your own policy does that.
What is loss assessment coverage?
It pays your share when the board assesses shareholders for a building loss that exceeds the building's insurance or falls within its deductible. Standard policies include a token $1,000. In an older building with a large deductible that is nowhere near enough, and raising it is one of the cheapest useful changes available.
How much is co-op insurance in Queens?
Typically $300 to $850 a year, depending mainly on the value of the improvements you are insuring and the liability limit. Adding meaningful loss assessment cover usually costs very little on top of that, and it is the coverage most likely to be needed in a pre-war building.
Related cover
Usually considered alongside this
Renters insurance
The cheapest genuinely useful policy sold in New York, and the one whose liability half almost nobody realises they are buying.
$180 – $420
Homeowners insurance
Rebuilding cost rather than market value, the four exclusions that matter in Queens, and why your mortgage company's number is not the right one.
$1,300 – $2,900
Water backup
Sewer backup and boiler failure are both excluded as standard and both restored by an endorsement that costs less than one cleanup.
$60 – $220
Umbrella insurance
A million dollars of liability sitting above the policies you already have, for roughly the price of a month of car insurance.
$250 – $600Bring the declarations page and we will read it with you
Ask us what it would cost
Send or bring the summary pages of what you already have — those two sheets are where most of the useful conversation is. We will tell you what we would place it with and what that would cost, what we are paid for doing it, and whether you should move at all. Quite often the answer is that your current policy is priced fairly and you should keep it, and that is an answer we give in writing like any other.