Feel Secure with The Best Condo Insurance
A condo offers you the chance to live in a certain lifestyle, often in a central location and generally in a compact space when compared to your traditional home. As with anywhere, you live you should still get some insurance to protect both your condo and belongings.
Some important things to know about condo insurance include what exactly you should get cover for and how to get the best condo insurance by using an online comparison site like MyChoice.
What Is Condo Insurance?
Condo insurance gives you coverage that is designed to protect specifically you and your belongings. Condo insurance is also designed to protect you from liability if someone is injured in your apartment.
Is Condo Insurance the Same as Homeowners Insurance?
Condo insurance is generally the same as homeowner’s insurance. The difference is that a condo is generally less expensive than a home, so you will need less coverage for the physical structure and more focus towards protecting your belongings.
Is it the Law to Have Condo Insurance in Canada?
You are not required to have condo insurance by law.
However, you may be required to have Condo insurance as part of your mortgage and you may need condo insurance if you use your apartment as collateral for a loan.
Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to have condo insurance to ensure you have some sort of protection should anything bad occur. Don’t forget that by having insurance you will have liability protection, which will protect you from being responsible for damages to the condo building, or if someone is injured in your condo.
Four Things Even Cheap Condo Insurance Should Cover
Condo insurance is designed to protect your property, you from liability, upgrades to your condo and it should cover the cost of living if your condo is unliveable.
These four features are an important part of having the best coverage and understanding these components of condo insurance is the first step towards saving money on your insurance policy. By knowing these it will allow you to find the right level of coverage, deductible amount and features that will protect you if major damage happens to your condo.
Personal Property
The first thing your condo insurance should cover is your personal property. Your personal belongings are likely to have some sentimental value so you should have coverage that protects these valuable items.
You should determine the value of your personal property before finding a condo insurance policy that offers a level of personal property coverage that is equal or above this amount. The first step is to make a list of expensive items in your condo which you can use to come up with a general idea of how much dollar coverage you need.
You should also check to see if your condo insurance policy has exemptions for certain items such expensive jewelry or fine art. These items are commonly not covered under insurance policies, so you may need special insurance for these items.
Similarly, you should check to see if your insurance provider will consider the sentimental value of your personal property. This will allow you to get additional payments for items where the personal value is more than the retail value. This is a good way to get compensation for the destruction of something such as family photos or a book collection.
Finally, the deductible amount is an important aspect of covering your personal property. You should have low enough of a deductible to still cover your property. However, a higher deductible will give you a lower insurance rate to pay at the beginning, which means you should find the balance of what you want to pay here.
Personal Liability
Personal liability is an important part of condo insurance. This coverage is designed to protect you from expenses that you may be responsible if someone is injured in your home, or if you become responsible for damages to the condo building.
Condo insurance that covers damages to the condo building is known as “loss assessment condo insurance”.
Upgrades To Your Condo
Your condo insurance should cover upgrades to your condo. This may include such things as putting in new floors or countertops. Your condo insurance should consider the increased value when calculating your coverage.
Living Expenses
Finally, you should get condo insurance that cover expenses if you are not able to live in your condo. This will cover the cost of renting a hotel and other expenses until the condo is livable. This should also cover you if a tenant in your condo can suddenly no longer make rent repayments.
Condo Insurance Vs. Renters Insurance
Many people confuse condo insurance with renters insurance.
Renters insurance is offered to people who actually rent, and it covers such things as personal property whereas condo insurance will cover personal property in addition to the condo itself.
It is important to make sure that you get condo insurance if you are a condo owner. This will allow you to get the coverage you need, and it will prevent you from having your policy declared void as the result of having the wrong type of insurance.
Condo insurance is also important if you happen to rent out the condo as this would cover you if you were to lose rent repayments if your condo becomes unliveable. A good approach would be to require your tenant to have renters insurance to cover their belongings and condo insurance to protect yourself.
What Even The Best Condo Insurance Won’t Cover
It’s important to know what your condo insurance will not cover.
You can then take steps to mitigate these risks and you may be able to find optional insurance to cover risks not covered by your primary condo insurance.
- Wear & Tear
- Flood Damage
- Water Damage From An Indoor Pipe Freezing
- Intentional Or Criminal Acts
- Damage From A Landslide Or Earthquake
- Mold Removal
- Liability From Running A Business
You should consider what your condo insurance does not cover when comparing different providers.
How To Submit A Condo Insurance Claim
The process of submitting a condo insurance claim is relatively simple, it will mostly involve you documenting the damage and what happened. Your condo insurance provider should have a hotline you can call to submit a claim, or many insurers also have apps that make the process of submitting documents simple.
You should document the damage done to your condo in the best way possible and take some photos if required. Your insurer will walk you through the process of submitting a claim which will involve everything from initially submitting documents to finding people to perform repairs.
What Does the Average Condo Insurance Typically Cost?
The cost of condo insurance is dependent upon a number of factors such as the condo’s location, value and the value of the property inside of it. Insurance rates are dependent upon the type of policy you choose and so you should make sure that your condo insurance is not well above the average.
Most Canadians can get condo insurance for between $27 and $33 per month. These rates are dependent upon how much coverage is included in the property and what risks it covers. It is common for people to pay more than this amount for their condo insurance as the result of obtaining extra coverage on their insurance.
The cost of condo insurance depends heavily upon location. For example, Toronto has a rate of $27 per month while Edmonton and Calgary have rates of $32 and $34 per month.
Condo Insurance is generally cheaper than home insurance as the result of it not requiring you to insure a more expensive structure. Home insurance in Canada costs an average of $66 per month. Ontario and Alberta have average home insurance rates $65 and $75 per month.
You can use MyChoice to get an understanding of average condo insurance rates for your specific area, which will allow you to get the most value out of your policy.
Is Condo Insurance More Expensive In Big Cities Like Toronto Or Vancouver?
Condo insurance rates are heavily dependent upon the location and value of the property. Big cities such as Toronto and Vancouver have much higher insurance rates than a more rural area.
There are a number of risk factors that increase as the result of living in a big city. Urban areas make it more likely for fires to spread and major cities generally have more burglaries and vandalism. The higher risk of a condo being damaged will result in higher condo insurance rates.
However, there are a variety of factors that affect condo insurance rates, and some smaller cities will have a combination of relatively high property values and risk factors that will result in high condo insurance rates.
Get Cheap Condo Insurance By Comparing Quotes With MyChoice
Here at MyChoice we make it quick and simple to find the best condo insurance.
We use a streamlined process to get you the best quotes that are tailored to you. To get started just enter some information about you and your condo so we can provide you with a list of the best companies to suit you.
You can use our insurance comparison tool when you are first looking for condo insurance. You can also use it to regularly look at condo insurance rates to make sure you have the best condo insurance policy possible.