CONDO INSURANCE LAWYER MASSACHUSETTS
Strategic legal counsel on condominium insurance — for boards, managers, lenders, and insurers.
Condominium insurance is complicated by design. The master policy that covers the building is governed by state law, lender requirements, the association's own documents, and decades of interpretation about what counts as common area and what counts as unit. The HO-6 policies individual unit owners carry have to work alongside the master. The wrong combination can affect mortgage eligibility, sales, claim outcomes, and the financial health of every unit owner in the building.
WHY CONDO INSURANCE IS DIFFERENT
There is no one-size-fits-all condominium policy.
Every condominium building is different. The master deed defines what counts as common area, what counts as limited common area, and what counts as part of an individual unit. Those definitions vary from building to building — even between buildings on the same street — and they determine which policy is supposed to respond when something goes wrong.
Layered on top of those definitions are the requirements of the secondary mortgage market — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, and VA — which dictate what insurance a building must carry for buyers to obtain conforming or government-backed mortgages. Layered on top of those are individual lender overlays, which can be stricter still. And on top of those, the requirements of the association's own documents — which sometimes haven't been amended in twenty years and no longer match what the law or the lenders actually require.
The result: every condominium needs an up-to-date master policy tailored to the building, the documents, and the lending environment. The wrong policy doesn't usually cause a problem on day one. It causes a problem the first time there's a claim — or the first time a unit owner tries to refinance and the building doesn't qualify.
CONDO INSURANCE SERVICES
Where legal counsel intersects with the insurance program.
Master Policy Review
Reviewing existing master policies against the association's governing documents, Massachusetts statutory requirements, and current secondary market and lender requirements. Identifying coverage gaps and overlaps. Recommending changes before the renewal cycle.
HO-6 & Unit Owner Coordination
Counseling boards on what they should be requiring of unit owners' HO-6 policies, what's enforceable as a requirement under the documents, and how to communicate insurance expectations to unit owners and prospective buyers.
Lender & Secondary Market Compliance
Reviewing the building's insurance program against secondary market and lender requirements — including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, and VA — and flagging gaps that will cause mortgage applications to be declined, before a sale falls through and a unit owner discovers it the hard way.
Claims & Coverage Disputes
Representing associations and managers in claims and coverage disputes — pursuing valid claims, defending against denials, and resolving coverage disagreements between the master policy and unit owner HO-6 policies.
Fidelity Bond & Crime Coverage
Advising on fidelity bond limits and structures appropriate for the association's funds under management. Many associations are dangerously underinsured here, and most don't know it until something goes wrong.
Documents-Driven Coverage Decisions
Many insurance decisions are ultimately documents decisions. We work with boards on document amendments that clean up ambiguous bare-walls vs. all-in coverage language, modernize unit owner insurance requirements, and align the documents with how the master policy actually responds.
WHO WE WORK WITH
Condominium associations of 30 units or more, property management companies, developers, lenders evaluating condo loan portfolios, and insurance professionals who need expert legal input on condominium-specific exposures. Stephen has worked on condominium insurance issues at the national policy level for decades; that depth is the reason this page exists.
WHY STEPHEN — INSURANCE & POLICY EXPERIENCE
Condominium insurance is one of the areas where national experience matters most.
Lender requirements, secondary market rules, and insurance market dynamics for condominiums are national, not local. Stephen has worked on these issues at the national level for decades — through the College of Community Association Lawyers, the CAI National Amicus Committee, and most recently as tri-chair of the post-Surfside Building Inspection Task Force, whose recommendations addressed insurance and lender disclosure as central pillars.
Boards and managers often discover that their insurance program no longer matches lender requirements only when a unit owner's mortgage falls through. We work to prevent that — by getting the master policy, the documents, and the disclosures aligned before a problem arises.
FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What's the difference between the master policy and an HO-6?
The master policy is the association's policy and covers the building and the common areas (with the exact scope set by the master deed). The HO-6 is the individual unit owner's policy and covers what falls outside the master — typically interior finishes, personal property, and liability inside the unit. The two have to be coordinated; gaps and overlaps between them are one of the most common sources of claim disputes.
Why does Fannie Mae care about my building's insurance?
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the buyers of the vast majority of conforming residential mortgages in the United States. If your building's master policy doesn't meet their requirements, lenders may decline to write conforming mortgages on units in the building — which depresses sale prices, makes refinancing harder, and can flag the building as ineligible for purchase by buyers using conventional financing. The same applies in different ways to FHA and VA loans.
Bare-walls vs all-in: which one is my building?
That answer is in the master deed and the master policy declarations. "Bare-walls" (also called "original specs") generally means the master policy covers only the structural elements and finishes as originally installed, with unit owners responsible for everything else. "All-in" means the master policy covers more of the unit's components. Many buildings have language that's ambiguous between the two — and that ambiguity is where claim disputes start. We help boards clean it up.
Does the master policy cover unit owner personal property?
No. Personal property — furniture, electronics, clothing, valuables — is always the unit owner's responsibility, covered by their HO-6 policy. The master policy never covers it, regardless of which structural coverage approach (bare-walls or all-in) the building uses.
How often should an association review its insurance program?
At minimum annually, in advance of renewal. Major triggers for an out-of-cycle review include: a change in lender requirements, a significant claim, a document amendment, the addition or removal of building amenities, or any indication that unit owners are having trouble obtaining or refinancing mortgages on the building.
REQUEST A CONSULTATION
Have an insurance question that doesn't have an obvious answer? Let's talk.
Whether you're a board reviewing your renewal, a property manager evaluating coverage across a portfolio, or a lender assessing a condominium loan, we'd be glad to hear about the situation.