Florida Condo Insurance

If you own a condo in Florida, you need your own insurance policy, even though your homeowners association (HOA) carries a master policy on the building. The HOA’s policy covers common areas, the building exterior, and shared systems, but it does not protect your personal belongings, interior upgrades, or personal liability. That’s where an HO-6 policy comes in, and understanding what it covers is essential for every Florida condo owner.

What Does HO-6 Condo Insurance Cover?

• Dwelling coverage (walls-in): Protects the interior structure of your unit from the drywall inward, including paint, flooring, built-in fixtures, cabinets, countertops, and any improvements or upgrades you’ve made.
• Personal property: Covers your furniture, electronics, clothing, and other belongings against damage, loss, or theft.
• Loss of use: Reimburses additional living expenses like hotel stays and meals if your unit becomes uninhabitable due to a covered loss.
• Personal liability: Covers legal and medical expenses if someone is injured in your unit or you accidentally damage another person’s property.
• Loss assessment: Protects you when the HOA issues a special assessment to cover shared-area damage that exceeds the master policy’s limits.

Understanding Your HOA’s Master Policy

The type of master policy your HOA carries directly affects how much HO-6 coverage you need. There are three main types:

Even with the most comprehensive all-in master policy, you still need HO-6 insurance for personal property coverage, liability protection, and loss of use benefits. No master policy covers your belongings.

Florida’s New Condo Laws: What You Need to Know

Florida has enacted significant condo legislation in response to the 2021 Surfside building collapse. These laws directly impact insurance costs and requirements:

HB 913 (Effective July 1, 2025)

• HOAs must maintain property insurance covering the full replacement cost of the buildings, based on professional appraisals updated at least every three years.
• Buildings of three or more habitable stories had to complete a Structural Integrity Reserve Study by December 31, 2025. That deadline has passed, so ask your board for the finished SIRS rather than for a schedule.
• A board holding a milestone inspection that identified required repairs may pause reserve funding for up to two consecutive budget years and put the money toward those repairs instead.
• Associations must keep milestone inspection reports and SIRS reports for at least 15 years, so there is no good reason a board cannot produce one on request.
• Repairs flagged in a phase two milestone inspection have to begin within 365 days of the report.
• A non-compliant building is harder to insure, and the exposure reaches the board personally.

Milestone Inspections (Florida Statute 553.899)

• The requirement began with SB 4-D after the 2021 Surfside collapse and now sits in Florida Statute 553.899. It applies to buildings of three habitable stories or more.
• A milestone inspection is due by December 31 of the year the building turns 30.
• The automatic 25-year rule for buildings near salt water is gone. A local enforcement agency may still require the inspection at 25 years based on local conditions such as proximity to salt water, so the age that applies to your building depends on your city or county.
• These inspections are a direct cause of the special assessments and HOA fee increases that have swept Florida condos, which is why your loss assessment limit matters more now than it did five years ago.

How Much Does Condo Insurance Cost in Florida?

A Florida HO-6 averages roughly $1,080 a year as of 2026, against about $570 nationally. The statewide number hides most of the story, because the spread between counties is wider than the average is large:

• Miami-Dade County: roughly $2,800/year on average, and coastal high-rise units quote well above that
• Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale: roughly $1,800/year on average
• Tampa: roughly $740/year
• Inland cities such as Tallahassee and Jacksonville: commonly $700 to $1,000/year
• Treat all of these as midpoints. Building age, milestone-inspection status, your wind deductible and your personal property limit each move the number by hundreds.

Factors driving higher costs include hurricane risk, the shrinking insurance market (carriers exiting Florida), post-Surfside regulations, and rising construction costs.

Hurricane Deductibles for Condos

Florida condo owners face the same hurricane deductible structure as homeowners. Under Florida Statute 627.701, insurers writing personal lines residential policies have to offer you $500, 2 percent, 5 percent and 10 percent of the dwelling limit as hurricane deductible options, with exceptions for higher-value homes. The deductible is triggered by a hurricane as defined in Florida Statute 627.4025, which runs from the time the National Hurricane Center issues a hurricane watch or warning covering any part of Florida. The statute applies the deductible on an annual basis to all covered hurricane losses in the calendar year, so you pay it once no matter how many storms hit.

Essential Endorsements to Add

• Increased loss assessment coverage: Default limits of $1,000–$2,000 are often far too low. Increase this significantly, especially if your association has high deductibles.
• Water backup coverage: Covers damage from sewers or drains backing up into your unit. Not included in standard policies. Critical for ground-floor units.
• Flood insurance: Standard HO-6 policies exclude flood damage entirely. A separate flood policy is strongly recommended for all Florida condo owners.
• Replacement cost on contents: Pays to replace belongings at current prices rather than depreciated value.

Tips to Lower Your Condo Insurance Costs

• Compare quotes from at least 3 insurers: rates can vary by hundreds of dollars annually.
• Ask about a multi-policy discount for condo and auto with the same carrier. The size of it varies by carrier, so compare the bundled total against two separate best-priced policies rather than assuming the bundle wins.
• Increase your deductible if you have emergency savings to cover it.
• Install deadbolt locks, smoke detectors, and wind-resistant features for premium discounts.
• Maintain good credit: Florida insurers use credit-based scores for pricing.
• Verify your HOA has completed all required structural inspections (HB 913 compliance). Non-compliant buildings can become uninsurable.