Who pays the insurance deductible?

by rannum1234 » Sun Sep 19, 2010 03:52 pm

If a condo is damaged and the Association's insurance adjuster determines that the Association's policy will cover the damage, why does the owner have to pay the deductible?

Total Comments: 5

Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 09:43 pm Post Subject:

I'm guessing this is not a liability claim. As such, the owner _is_ part of the association. So it's the owners policy that is paying for 1st party damage. Someone needs to pay the deductible and since it appears your property is being repaired, the association is having you pay the deductible. I'm kind of guessing here as you did not provide much info. If this is the case, I don't know that I agree with it. Perhaps the deductible should be paid from the Associations bank account. But you are healing with an HOA.... a step above the devil. They never want to pay for anything out of their own pockets.

Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 05:17 pm Post Subject:

If you have an HO6 policy or similar, that policy may cover the associtions deductible up to a certain amount and subject to any deductible you may have. Most HOA's deductibles are between $2,500 to 5K. If you deductible is less then that and you have coverage for it.... call your insurance company.

Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 06:57 am Post Subject:

I'm sure you'd agree that the deductibles are way too high!
Over here, I'm a little bit confused as to what an individual's deductible will be worth in comparison with the HOA's deductible.

Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 02:05 pm Post Subject:

I'm sure you'd agree that the deductibles are way too high!



Not even part of the discussion, Steven.

Although, as tcope wrote, we cannot tell exactly what caused the damage, I'm willing to bet that the OP has some personal involvement, such as causing a fire, or overflowing a bathtub.

When a person "owns" a condo, they really only own the right to occupy, not the structure itself. The Association has that property interest. So they have coverage for structural damage and common area liabilities. If an occupant damages the structure, the HOA's policy will pay for the damages, minus the deductible, and they have the legal right to recover that from an at-fault party, if there is one.

Like tcope wrote, there must be some kind of first-party action behind this post, not a general liability claim. If the OP is not directly involved, other than it was his unit that was damaged, then I agree also with tcope that unless there is something hidden in the CC&Rs that obligates an owner to indemnify the HOA for its deductible, the OP should not be liable for the deductible.

It's not a question of $2500 or $5000, it's a question of who is responsible to pay it. If I'm not at fault, why would I even think about paying it? But if the CC&Rs require me to pay it, that's a different story, and I have to live with the agreement I accepted (whether I knew about it or not -- same discussion as the person who failed to read their insurance policy to see what's excluded).

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