What Is Walls-In Insurance Coverage for a Condo?

Anyone who owns a condo or is thinking about buying a condo should get familiar with walls-in insurance. Confusingly, there are two different definitions for this term, but they both revolve around condo insurance. This article will walk you through both types of walls-in insurance so you can easily figure out what insurance documents mean when they use this phrase. 

When you see the term walls-in insurance, it can mean one of two things depending on the context: 

You can use context clues to figure out which type of walls-in insurance an agent, policy document, or website is referring to. If you’re talking about insurance that you yourself are looking to buy, that’s the first definition. If you’re talking about which parts of the property your HOA insures, it’s the second definition. 

Each type of walls-in insurance covers different parts of your condo. Here are the explanations of what exactly is covered in each type. 

An HO-6 insurance policy, aka walls-in insurance, covers everything in your individual condo unit from the walls inward. That includes all your personal property – your furniture, clothes, electronics, etc – and may or may not include appliances such as your dishwasher, fridge, and washer/dryer. 

HO-6 insurance also includes liability coverage, which means it pays for medical and legal expenses should a guest get injured inside your condo. It doesn’t cover liability for injuries that take place in common spaces, such as a parking lot or swimming pool. Those areas are the HOA’s responsibility to insure. 

There are three different types of master policy for condo associations: bare walls-in, walls-in, and all-in. Bare walls-in covers the least, all-in covers the most, and walls-in is somewhere in the middle. 

You as a condo owner have no control over which type of master policy your HOA purchases, but it’s still important information for you to know. When you know what your HOA covers and doesn’t cover, you can adjust your own HO-6 insurance to fill in the gaps. If you don’t already have a copy of your HOA’s insurance policy documents, you should be able to get one easily by contacting your association’s administration. 

If you’re purchasing a single condo unit, you’ll want to take out an HO-6 insurance policy, which is a type of homeowners insurance designed specifically for condos. An HO-6 policy insures your property inside your condo and your personal liability but doesn’t cover the structure of the building, such as the framing or roof. The building itself falls under your HOA’s insurance. 

Walls-in insurance for condo owners costs around $300 to $1,000 per year or $25 to $85 per month on average in the United States. That gives you a ballpark range, but the actual cost of condo insurance varies widely in different states and for different individuals. 

Your condo insurance rates will be based on lots of factors specific to you, such as where you live, the size of your condo, the value of your belongings, your insurance history, your credit score, and more. 

As a general rule, the more coverage you need, the more expensive your insurance will be. So, if you own a lot of expensive items that require additional coverage or if you need a high liability coverage limit because you have a dog who might bite someone, you can expect your condo insurance to cost more than average.