Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Master policy struggles?

[Lauren Lake (laurenlake161]

Hi Cheryl,

The main change we made was to establish a policy requiring event insurance
for certain activities, such as children's events or events open to the
public, as these were not covered under our master policy.

We also created an alcohol policy. This policy covers the secure storage of
alcohol in the common house and includes a "bring your own beverage" (BYOB)
rule to avoid "serving" alcohol at potlucks and parties.

We did not need to make any changes to our CC&Rs or involve lawyers for
these policy adjustments. Our broker guided us on specific application
items that could lead to a denial of coverage, and we then developed
policies to address those concerns.

I suspect that the recommendations you might receive will be highly
specific to each insurer. Having a broker with lots of experience with
reasons for denials was invaluable.

Lauren

On Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 6:11 AM Cheryl Keil <cheryl.keil.wc18 [at] gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks everyone for the feedback!
>
> Lauren,
>
> Can you comment on what policies did you have to change? Did you have to
> get lawyers involved to make any changes to your CC&R’s?
> We had one insurer decline us because they thought we allowed bbq grills
> on decks (not sure where they got that info; nobody here has this).
>
> I guess I’m just wondering how much administrative and/or legal “stuff”
> you had to do to show insurers that you have policies in place to decrease
> risk.
>
>
> Cheryl Keil
> 801-946-5164
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Oct 21, 2025, at 9:28 PM, Lauren Lake via Cohousing-L <
> cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Cheryl,
> >
> > We work through a broker that specializes in HOAs. They’ve been able to
> get
> > us quotes. They know which questions on the application can be
> problematic,
> > and we’ve changed a few of our policies to cover those concerns.
> >
> > That said, every year we await the renewal decision with trepidation.
> >
> > Lauren Lake
> > Green Grove Cohousing
> >
> >> On Tue, Oct 21, 2025 at 7:29 PM Cheryl Keil via Cohousing-L <
> >> cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi everyone,
> >>
> >> This is Cheryl from Wasatch Commons in Salt Lake City, Utah with an
> >> insurance question.
> >>
> >> We are having a hard time finding insurers who will quote us on a master
> >> policy because we’re an HOA (strike 1) and a cohousing community (strike
> >> 2+). Insurers find the self managing/self maintaining aspect of
> cohousing
> >> risky, blah blah blah
> >>
> >> So….I just wanted to reach out and see:
> >> - Are other cohousing communities experiencing the same thing?
> >> -  Which insurer is your current policy with?
> >>
> >> Any additional feedback is very much appreciated!
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Cheryl
> >>
> >> Cheryl Keil
> >> Sent from my iPhone
> >> _________________________________________________________________
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> >>
> >>
> >>
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>