Tennessee Condo & Townhome Insurance — Quotes by Phone

Three questions to settle before buying a Tennessee condo policy

1
Read the master policy before you buy yours
Associations buy on a spectrum. An all-in master policy covers the original fixtures, cabinets and flooring inside your walls; a bare walls policy stops at the studs and leaves everything inward to you. The same two-bedroom unit therefore needs very different dwelling coverage depending on which one your association bought. Ask the association or the management company for the certificate and the declaration page, and bring what it says to the call. Guessing produces either a gap or coverage you are paying twice for.
2
Loss assessment is the coverage nobody reads about until the bill arrives
When damage exceeds the association’s coverage, or its deductible is large, the shortfall is divided among the owners as a special assessment. Loss assessment coverage on your own policy responds to your share. Default limits are usually small relative to what a roof, elevator or structural claim on a Nashville mid-rise can generate, and raising the limit is inexpensive. Ask what your association’s master deductible is, because that number is what gets apportioned first.
3
Your biggest exposure is water, and it probably starts upstairs
In a stacked building the routine claim is water from another unit — a supply line, a water heater, a dishwasher — coming down through your ceiling, or your own line doing it to the neighbor below. Your liability coverage is what answers for the damage you cause downstairs, and your dwelling and personal property coverage answers for your side. It is also why associations increasingly require water heater replacement on a schedule and shutoff devices, and why it is worth asking whether your carrier credits one.

Tennessee perils reach a condo too

Earthquake is excluded on a condo policy exactly as it is on a house, and a Memphis high-rise sits in the same New Madrid reach as a Memphis bungalow. Flood is excluded too, and a ground-floor or garden unit is the one that proves it. Wind and hail may carry their own deductible on the master policy as well as yours. None of this is unusual — it is simply three separate questions that the word "condo" does not answer by itself.

Townhomes are sometimes not condos at all

A townhome you own along with the land under it and the roof over it is insured as a house, on a homeowners form, even though it shares walls. A townhome inside a condominium regime, where the association owns the exterior, takes a condo form. Which one you have is determined by the recorded documents rather than the architecture, and it changes the whole policy. If you are not certain, say so on the call — it is a quick thing to check and an expensive thing to get wrong.

Improvements, loss of use, and renting the unit out

If you renovated a kitchen in a bare walls building, the new work is yours to insure, and the limit should reflect what you put in rather than what the builder did. Loss of use pays for somewhere to live while the unit is repaired, which in a building-wide claim can run months. And if you rent the unit — long term or nightly — that is not a condo owner’s policy. Long-term tenants need a landlord form, and short-term rental is a commercial exposure most personal policies exclude outright.

Bring these to the call

The association’s master policy certificate and declaration page
Whether the master policy is all-in or bare walls
The association’s master deductible
Square footage, year built, and the floor your unit is on
Any renovations you paid for, and roughly what they cost
Age of the water heater and whether there is a shutoff or leak sensor
Whether earthquake and sewer backup are endorsed
The loss assessment limit you want
Personal property value, and anything that needs a scheduled limit
How the unit is used: lived in, leased long term, or rented nightly

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Frequently asked questions

What does my Tennessee condo policy cover that the association’s does not?

Generally everything from the studs inward that the master policy does not reach, your personal property, your personal liability, loss of use while the unit is uninhabitable, and loss assessment for your share of a special assessment after a building claim. Where the line falls depends entirely on whether the master policy is all-in or bare walls.

What is loss assessment coverage?

It pays your share when the association levies a special assessment after a loss that exceeded its coverage or fell inside its deductible. Default limits are often low relative to what a large building claim produces, and raising the limit costs little.

My upstairs neighbor’s water heater flooded my unit. Whose policy pays?

Typically your own policy responds to your damage, and may then pursue the responsible party. Their liability coverage is what answers for damage they caused. This is the most common claim in a stacked building, which is why associations push water heater replacement schedules and shutoff devices.

Is my townhome a condo or a house for insurance?

It depends on the recorded documents, not the architecture. If you own the land and the roof, it is insured on a homeowners form. If an association owns the exterior and you own the interior, it takes a condo form.

Is earthquake covered on a condo policy in Memphis?

No, not on a standard form. It is excluded on condo policies the same way it is on houses, and it is available by endorsement. Ask about the master policy as well as your own, since both sides of the wall matter.

Other Tennessee coverage

Tennessee auto insurance Tennessee homeowners insurance Tennessee renters insurance ← All personal insurance

Tennessee condo and townhome insurance

Three questions to settle before buying a Tennessee condo policy

Read the master policy before you buy yours

Loss assessment is the coverage nobody reads about until the bill arrives

Your biggest exposure is water, and it probably starts upstairs