HOA Home Owner's Insurance

[Amin]

Jurisdiction

California

Good morning,

I purchased a home back in March of 2015. This home is in a gated community with an HOA. At the time of purchase my realtor indicated I needed to acquire my own Home Owner's insurance. I also asked the HOA director what the coverage of the HOA dues were. Neither the realtor or the HOA indicated that the HOA was covering home owner's insurance. I was only made aware of this within the last two weeks as it seems that there were an abundance of water damage claims by home owners, which was resulting in issues maintaining the service. Perhaps I don't understand, but it appears that I've been "doubling up" on home owner's insurance, unintentionally. Do I have any recourse at this juncture or am I SOL for not completely understanding the CCRs. This is my first home and perhaps I naively expected my realtor and the HOA director to explicitly let me know that this was covered. Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Zigner]

Good morning,

I purchased a home back in March of 2015. This home is in a gated community with an HOA. At the time of purchase my realtor indicated I needed to acquire my own Home Owner's insurance. I also asked the HOA director what the coverage of the HOA dues were. Neither the realtor or the HOA indicated that the HOA was covering home owner's insurance. I was only made aware of this within the last two weeks as it seems that there were an abundance of water damage claims by home owners, which was resulting in issues maintaining the service. Perhaps I don't understand, but it appears that I've been "doubling up" on home owner's insurance, unintentionally. Do I have any recourse at this juncture or am I SOL for not completely understanding the CCRs. This is my first home and perhaps I naively expected my realtor and the HOA director to explicitly let me know that this was covered. Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks!

Generally, the HOA doesn't provide homeowner's insurance. My advice to you is to figure out what is actually covered.

 

[zddoodah]

Neither the realtor or the HOA indicated that the HOA was covering home owner's insurance. I was only made aware of this within the last two weeks

Made aware of what? You wrote in the first sentence of your post that, "[a]t the time of purchase [your] realtor indicated [you] needed to acquire [your] owne [h]ome [o]wner's insurance."

Perhaps I don't understand, but it appears that I've been "doubling up" on home owner's insurance, unintentionally.

Don't understand what?

Do I have any recourse at this juncture or am I SOL for not completely understanding the CCRs.

Recourse for what? It would be beyond rare for an HOA to provide homeowner's insurance for all of the homeowners. In the incredibly unlikely case that your HOA does that, you certainly don't have any legal claim against anyone just because you also purchased homeowner's insurance. And it's certainly no one's responsibility other than yours to ensure that you understand the CC&Rs.

By the way, is your home a single family residence? A townhome? A condo? Something else?

perhaps I naively expected my realtor and the HOA director to explicitly let me know that this was covered.

I'm not sure naive is the right word, but it certainly would be unreasonable to have such an expectation.

 

[Amin]

Thanks for the replies. I spoke to the HOA director. Yes, it is rare but all the units are covered. It's a single family home.

 

[adjusterjack]

I spoke to the HOA director.

I seriously doubt that the director has any real clue about what the HOA insurance covers.

It's a single family home.

A separate dwelling on its own lot, separate from other dwellings? Or a townhome, condo, or rowhouse sharing walls with other homes?

That's an important distinction.

 

[Amin]

So what happened was the community started out 25 years ago with homes with shared walls and the HOA covered insurance for all those units. Then more units were built that were single family homes and the HOA kept coverage. He supplied me with documentation and I read the CCRs more thoroughly. They did indeed provide home owners insurance. When I asked him, at the time of purchase, what was covered he not once indicated this. My realtor had me sign up with my own insurance company despite her agency handling both myself and the seller. The reason I became aware of this is that there were 16 water damage claims by home owners that resulted in Farmers raising the deductible on claims from 1k to 50k. Apparently there seems to be a developer flaw (from 25 years ago) that had resulted in Slat flooding on some of these homes. The HOA is holding an election to remove insurance coverage all together. Had this not transpired I would've never had a clue that my dues covered insurance over the last 4.5 years of my residence at this home. My guess is I have no recourse, but given this was such a unique situation and I inquired directly about it I wish the realtor or the HOA had informed me when I inquired.

 

[adjusterjack]

You should have your own policy anyway and having it all those years was to your advantage. You owned it, you controlled the insurance you bought.

The HOA's policy is for the benefit of the HOA. If your house had burned down or your roof blown off in the wind, the HOA policy would have paid the HOA then you would have had the hassle of getting the HOA to release the money to you. If your plumbing cut loose and flooded your home you would get nothing because of the high deductible. And, if anything, your personal property wouldn't have been covered by the HOA policy so if somebody broke in and cleaned you out you would get nothing.