Moon Insurance Managers, Inc. · TDI license #5595
Condo Insurance in Houston, TX
Your association insures some of your building. You insure the rest. Every condo question — what an HO-6 is, how much of it you need, why your neighbor's policy looks nothing like yours — comes down to where that line sits, and here is the part most pages will not tell you: the line is not standard. It is written in your association's declaration, and Texas law draws it in a place most people do not expect.
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Chapter 82
What the master policy covers — and where it stops
Texas sets a floor rather than a line. A condominium association must insure the insurable common elements against the risks of direct physical loss commonly insured against, in a total amount of at least 80 percent of the replacement cost or actual cash value, and it must carry commercial general liability coverage for the common areas. Almost every page you will read quotes that as “80 percent of replacement cost.” The statute says or, and on an older building the difference between those two numbers is the whole argument.
Above the floor, the declaration decides, and the market has settled into three conventions for how far a master policy reaches:
- Bare walls-in The narrowest
- The association’s coverage stops at the drywall. Flooring, cabinets, fixtures — sometimes the interior walls themselves — are yours to insure, and the number your HO-6 needs for the unit is correspondingly large.
- Single entity As built
- The master policy covers the structure and the original fixtures as the building was built, but not what anyone has added since. The kitchen the previous owner put in is yours; the kitchen the developer put in is not.
- All-in The broadest
- The master policy reaches most permanent interior fixtures, upgrades included. You still need your own policy — belongings, liability, somewhere to stay and assessments are never in a master policy on any convention.
None of those three is a legal category. They are shorthand for what a particular declaration happens to say, which is why the honest answer to “what does my association cover?” is always: it is written down, and somebody has to read it.
| Criterion | Master policy | Your HO-6 |
|---|---|---|
| Who buys it | The association, out of your dues | You, from your own carrier |
| The common elements | Insured — the statutory floor applies here | Not yours to insure |
| The unit itself | Only where units are stacked, and then only as the statute requires | Whatever the declaration leaves to you |
| Improvements you installed | Not required, even in a stacked building | Yours, on every convention |
| Your belongings | Never | Yes, to the limit you choose |
| Your liability | The common areas only | You, your household and your unit |
| Somewhere to stay | No | Loss of use |
| A special assessment | Creates it | Loss assessment coverage responds, up to its limit |
| Flood | Never | Never |
Sources: Tex. Prop. Code § 82.111 — insurance; TDI — home insurance guide. Verified .
§ 82.111(b)
The Texas wrinkle almost nobody explains
The statute requires the association to insure the units themselves only where the building contains units with horizontal boundaries described in the declaration — which is the legal way of saying: only where one unit sits above or below another.
So if you are in a townhome-style condo where nothing is stacked on yours, the association may not be required to insure your unit at all, and your HO-6 may be carrying far more of the building than the phrase “walls-in” suggests. Insure it as though it were walls-in and the shortfall shows up exactly once, at a total loss.
And in a stacked building the statute still stops short of your upgrades: the required coverage “need not include improvements and betterments installed by unit owners.” The kitchen you put in is yours to insure either way.
This is why we read the declaration before we quote rather than after. It is not a formality — it is the coverage amount, and it is the one number on a condo policy that cannot be estimated from outside the building.
Source: Tex. Prop. Code § 82.111(b). Verified .
The fifth coverage
Loss assessment — what owners find out about too late
When a big loss hits the common property, somebody pays the association's deductible, and that somebody is the owners. On a Gulf Coast building that deductible is frequently written as a percentage of the insured value rather than a flat sum — a five- or six-figure number before anything is repaired. Divided among the units, it arrives in your mailbox as a special assessment.
Loss assessment coverage is the part of your HO-6 that responds to it. It is normally included, and the default limit on many policies is a fraction of what a real assessment runs — which is a quiet problem, because a coverage you have feels like a coverage you have enough of. Check the limit on your declarations page. Raising it is usually one of the cheapest changes on the policy.
Wind and hail work the same way on a condo as on any Houston home policy — including the corridor east of SH 146, where a separate windstorm policy applies — and our homeowners page and windstorm page explain both.
Edges and hand-offs
Houston specifics, and where this page stops
Flood
No condo policy — yours or the association's — covers flood; that is a separate policy, explained on our flood insurance page. Whether the association carries it on the common property is a fair question to ask at the next meeting.
Townhouse, or townhome-condo?
The words are used interchangeably and the policies are not. If you own the structure and the lot outright, with no association insuring the building, that is usually a homeowners policy rather than an HO-6 — see our homeowners insurance page. If an association exists and a declaration divides the insuring duty, you are on the right page whatever the building looks like.
Renting the unit out
Renting your unit out instead of living in it? That is a landlord policy, not an HO-6 — see rental property insurance. The declaration still matters just as much; the policy on your side of it changes.
No obligation
Bring us the declaration page
Ask your association for the declaration — the management company usually has it as a PDF and is used to the request. Then read it to us over the phone or send it with the quote request, and we will quote a policy that starts where the master policy stops. No more, and no less. The phone is fastest: (281) 484-8320. There is a longer quote request form if you would rather write it down, and the callback form above takes five fields.
If you cannot get it before closing, call anyway. Some questions we can answer from the building alone, and stacked-or-not is usually the first.
On the HO-6 side we compare the Texas FAIR Plan and RT. Whether either will write your unit turns on the building and on what the declaration leaves you holding, which is the same reason we ask for it first.
Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 5:00; Friday, 9:00 to 4:00. 360 FM 1959, Houston, TX 77034.
Condo questions we get every week
What is the difference between the master policy and my policy?
The master policy is the association’s. Texas law makes it insure the insurable common elements, carry liability for the common areas, and — where one unit sits above another — insure the units themselves, though not improvements a unit owner installed. Past that floor the declaration decides. Your HO-6 covers what the declaration leaves to you, plus your belongings, your liability, somewhere to stay, and special assessments.
Is condo insurance required in Texas?
Not by state law. Your lender requires it as a condition of the mortgage, and associations commonly require proof and ask to be notified if it lapses.
What is loss assessment coverage?
When the association divides a large loss, or its own master-policy deductible, among the owners as a special assessment, loss assessment coverage pays your share up to its limit. Default limits are small next to what a real assessment runs, so check yours.
I am renting my condo out — is this the right policy?
No. A unit with a tenant in it needs a landlord policy rather than an HO-6, because coverage follows who occupies the property. Our rental property insurance page is where that lives.
Does my condo policy cover flood?
No condo policy covers flood — not yours and not the association’s. Rising water is a separate policy, explained on our flood insurance page.