Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: How much is your condo insurance?

[Cheryl Keil (cheryl.keil.wc18]

Hi Katie,

I’m writing you from Wasatch Commons Cohousing in Salt Lake City, Utah. We have 
26 residential units in 12 2-3 story buildings + Common House, workshop/garage, 
and two carports with a small storage unit for each unit owner.

Our annual premium with State Farm is approximately $40,000 a year but we carry 
a $25,000 deductible. We raised the deductible from 10k to 25k a couple of 
years ago for two reasons: 
1. To lower the premium/keep HOA fees down
2. To decrease the potential for having to open a claim against our master 
policy.  Once we picked up on the trend of insurance companies refusing 
insurance policies to HOA’s (our previous policy with American Family was 
canceled for this reason), we felt like the writing was on the wall.  I think 
even one claim against the master policy can cause a significant increase in 
future premiums, and multiple claims can result in policy cancellation.  So it 
felt like the best answer was to have a master policy in place for more 
“catastrophic” damage exceeding $25k  and have unit owners’ H06 policies pay 
for anything up to that threshold. 

The downside of this is the added expense to the unit owner for the higher 
level of coverage on their H06 policy.  And I think legally we as a HOA need to 
be able to prove that we have $25,000 readily available should that level of 
damage occur to any of the common structures like the common house or workshop. 

In the world of insurance, there are no “good” answers, unfortunately. 

Cheryl Keil 
Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 25, 2026, at 11:12 PM, Katie Henry <katie-henry [at] att.net> wrote:
> 
> Would anyone mind sharing the cost of your condo insurance? We have 36 units 
> and a common house clustered into twelve single-story buildings plus separate 
> garage structures and a carport on five acres. New construction (two years 
> old); buildings are fully sprinkled; no elevators; no risk factors like a 
> workshop with power tools or a pool.
> 
> Our premiums are $58,000/year with State Farm plus a $10,000 deductible per 
> building. The premiums only cover the building exteriors. Homeowners are 
> responsible for drywall in. I know rates are going up, but this seems 
> staggeringly expensive to me. Does anyone else have premiums in this ballpark?
> 
> Thanks!
> Katie Henry
> Heartwood Commons - Tulsa
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