Do you know for a FACT that your condominium association or HOA has all of the insurance the law requires you to have? Learn about the insurance coverage your condo or HOA should get in less than a minute.
Want to learn more about Wisconsin condominium and HOA law from experienced condo and HOA
How much insurance should your HOA or condo carry? Are your directors and officers covered? What happens in the unlikely event of a disaster? Please join Husch Blackwell’s Condominium and HOA Law Team and guest speakers Erica Joyce and Ryan Maloney, as they discuss critical insurance issues every board member, manager and unit owner needs to understand.
Continue Reading Association Academy: Insurance – September 11, 2019
IMPRESSION: The ruling in Great Am. Ins. Co. v. State Parkway Condo. Ass’n, No. 17-cv-3083 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 11, 2018), should serve as a cautionary tale to Condo and HOA boards.
DETAILS: In Chicago, a unit owner of a condominium located at 1445 North State Street filed an Illinois state discrimination claim in 2007 against the State Parkway Condominium Association (“SPCA”) for failure to accommodate his hearing disability during SPCA Board meetings. The SPCA defended the claim under its 2006-2007 Non-Profit Management and Organization Liability Insurance Policy (“policy) issued by Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America (“Travelers”).
A settlement between parties was reached in September 2007; but six months later, the SPCA sued the same unit owner in an entirely unrelated matter.
Continue Reading “Related Wrongful Acts” Can Exhaust an Association’s Liability Insurance Policy Limit
Issue: If your association was destroyed by fire or some other hazard, and it did not make sense to rebuild, how would the funds be divided?
Problem. Odds are that you don’t know the answer. The fact that you don’t know should scare you. Is every unit in your association worth the same amount? I doubt it. Do you each pay the same amount in assessments? Does that control? What does your declaration say about the distribution of insurance proceeds if the unit owners elect not to rebuild? Do you understand what it says? Does it even make sense?
Continue Reading Why You NEED to Amend Your Association Declaration Insurance Provision Before You Have a Loss
It has been said that insurance is the only product that both the seller and buyer hope is never used. That certainly rings true when it comes to community Associations’ insurance policies, but it does not diminish the need for Associations to protect themselves and their unit owners from an ever-widening array of damages they could suffer. Wis. Stat. § 703.17 requires Condominium Associations to obtain insurance against potential hazards, but only discusses scope by saying that the Association must acquire insurance “for not less than full replacement value of the property insured against.”
Continue Reading It’s Never Too Late to Ensure Your Association is Properly Insured
In Wisconsin condominium associations are required to insure all of the property (other than the personal property) of the unit owners. (See, Sections 703.17(1) and 703.02(14) Wis. Stat). Many unit owners worry (needlessly I would contend) that their neighbors have improved their unit more than they have and then argue that they don’t want to pay the insurance for those improvements. Ignoring for the moment that those improvements also likely increase the value of their neighbors unit and therefore increase the value of their unit, which they are more than happy to accept, this argument simply misses how insurance companies actually insure condominiums in Wisconsin. The law requires all of the property to be insured. The law requires that the insurance be paid as a common expense. (Section 703.17(1) Wis. Stat). Accordingly, arguing over who has to insure what, considering the clear language of the statute, wastes both the time and resources of an association. However, there is something a board of directors can do to increase the insurance it provides unit owners without any material cost to the association. To adequately explain where these savings can be obtained, I first need to explain how insurance companies currently charge premiums and pay condominium claims in Wisconsin.
Continue Reading Free Money from your Association Insurer