There have been many questions regarding who is responsible for storm damage repairs. It is hopeful this will answer those questions. At the bottom, some helpful insurance information is listed.
The Home Owners Association (HOA) uses the monthly fees to maintain the common grounds. This includes the pond areas, open spaces, clubhouse and pool areas. Also, the HOA uses the monthly fees to place some money aside into escrow accounts. These accounts are used for building maintenance that is needed due to normal building age and attrition. The townhouses and standalone townhouses were painted a few years back as part of maintaining the buildings. The association has a roof escrow account that will be used in the future to replace building roofs as that will be needed as part of normal building age and attrition.
All homeowners are required to have their own building/unit insurance. The purpose of that insurance is to cover any damage due to storms or other unforeseen events. As some have damage caused by the recent hurricane or heavy storms such as fences, roofs, leaking windows and building fascia damage to list a few, the individual homeowner’s insurance would be responsible for claims and repairs. This is the reason owners are required to carry their own insurance. The homeowner needs to work with their personal insurance company for any loses they incurred due to the storm. Note the HOA does not carry any insurance on the townhouse buildings which is the responsibility of the homeowner.
The HOA has insurance on the clubhouse and pool areas. Also, the insurance covers the association common areas. Any tree damage in common areas will be taken care of by the HOA insurance. This includes trees and shrubs in front of houses. Any shrubs or trees in private areas such as fenced in yards are not covered by the association insurance and should be covered by the individual homeowner’s insurance.
As with all storm damage, repairs may take time as the insurance company assess damage and determines the best method of repairing common areas.
Insurance that covers only the interior of a townhouse and belongings, often referred to as “Renter’s Insurance” is not adequate townhouse insurance coverage. Townhouse insurance policy must cover the building and exterior also. Below is an excerpt from the HOA Declarations and Covenants describing homeowner insurance requirements.
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Helpful Homeowner Insurance Information
Homeowners should review their policy with their agent or provider and the language regarding storm damage. For instance hurricane Irma would be defined as a named storm and classified as a hurricane of course as being opposed to a non-named “traditional” summer rain storm. So if an owner does not have hurricane or named storm coverage they are probably not going to be covered. The other aspect is if they do have the coverage they need to refer to the deductible because it usually, in this case is either 2 or 3% for named storms of the insured value of the unit. So for instance if you have a unit insured for $200,000.00 the deductible would be $ 4,000.00 on a 2% deductible, meaning their insurance would not be covering any loss of $ 4,000.00 or less.
HOA Declaration of Covenants Describing Owner Insurance Requirements
In the “DECLARATION OF COVENANTS, CONDITIONS, EASEMENTS, AND RESTRICTIONS FOR WICKHAM PARK” Article XIV, Section 2. Reads:
“Section 2. Individual Insurance. By virtue of taking title to a Residential Property, each Owner covenants and agrees with all other Owners, and with the Association, that each Owner shall carry blanket all-risk casualty insurance on the Residential Property(s) and structures constructed thereon meeting the same requirements as set forth in Section 1 of this article for insurance on the Common Property. Each owner further covenants and agrees that in the event of partial loss or damage resulting in less than total destruction of structures comprising its Residential Property, the Owner shall proceed promptly to repair or to reconstruct the damaged structure in a manner consistent with the original construction or such other plans and specifications as are approved in accordance with this Declaration. The owner shall pay any costs of repair or reconstruction which is not covered by insurance proceeds. In the event that the structure is totally destroyed, the Owner may decide not to rebuild or reconstruct, in which case, the Owner shall clear the Residential Property of all debris and return it to substantially the natural state in which it existed prior to the beginning of construction and thereafter the Owner shall continue to maintain the Residential Property in a neat and attractive condition consistent with the Community-Wide Standard.”