I think my HOA may be running a scam...

[fieryred33143]

My condo is owned by myself and my mother. She placed herself as the primary because it was easier that way (given my age and credit at the time.)

She received a letter from our community, not the HOA company, explaining that a new Florida law requires homeowners to cover the inside of their property. I don''t know how it is in other states but inside insurance is optional. My mom asked if it would be ok for her to just add this property to the insurance she already has for her home and they told her no. It had to be through them and if we didn''t get the insurance, we were going to be fined $1,000.

Thing is that I called four HOA attorneys that have all said they haven''t heard of this law. Two of the attorneys have the same association company as we do and they did not receive this letter. Naturally, they have all asked if we could go in with the letter for a "consultation." I called our mortgage company to ask as well. Typically when we are required to cover certain insurance, the mortgage will automatically place a company on the account and we either replace or keep the company. When I called them, they had no idea what we were talking about. I''ve been on hold with the HOA for the past 45 minutes but can''t get through (they are short staffed w/ the holidays and everything).

I don''t know...but something doesn''t sound right to me.

 

[fieryred33143]

I just got through to my HOA and they said this insurance is *not* mandatory.

HMMM fishy indeed

 

[JSM]

Definitely fishy! Are you going to report it?

 

[fieryred33143]

Yes. I''m waiting for the property manager to get back from lunch so that I can ask where she got her information from. It may just be that they would prefer if we all had that insurance but that''s not my problem

.

 

[AmberGretchen]

yeah that sounds really fishy - glad you were finally able to get a hold of someone in the office. I hope they can fix this for you so you don''t have any more hassle and hopefully they won''t try (intentionally or otherwise) to scam others...

 

[fieryred33143]

So I just talked to the property manager. She says that she received a letter from the governor via email. She “doesn’t know why the HOA attorneys don’t know about this” or “why the association company don’t know about this either.” And of course she has an agent that she is working with to get everyone the policy they need and even tried to tell me “well its really cheap, its only $300 for the entire year”

I even told her that the mortgage company had no idea about this requirement and she had nothing to say. I told her that I want the Florida Statute and/or the “letter” that was sent to her by the governor.

 

[steph72276]

Yeah, sounds fishy like she is getting some kind of kickback from the insurance company...hmmm.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Hmmm.... We once lived in a building that did require insurance not for your unit itself but that you have a liability policy in the event that something that occurred in your unit inadvertantly caused damage to another unit. The association was named as an additional insured on the policy. There were two events (one where one person's bathub overflowed and caused damage to the unit below and one where a kitchen fire caused damage to the unit next door) that led up to this. I recall this being a requirement of the condo board, not a "law" (keep in mind I'm also in Illinois). As for where you get the insurance from though, I don't believe that can be dictated as long as the policy meets the coverage limits, etc., that are required.

 

[neatfreak]

Sounds to me like SHE might be getting scammed. Maybe she doesn''t know any better and truly thinks it''s a requirement.

 

[WishfulThinking]

Date: 12/30/2008 3:15:23 PM
Author: neatfreak
Sounds to me like SHE might be getting scammed. Maybe she doesn''t know any better and truly thinks it''s a requirement.

That''s what I was thinking. Is it possible that the letter from the "governor" is a scam? Why would the governor even be sending letters to individual property managers? That doesn''t sound like the gov. office''s job to me, but I could be wrong. You should definitely check that out.

 

[fieryred33143]

Ok finally figured it all out.

There is a new law requiring the hazard insurance to have special assessment coverage of no less than $2,000. We have a group placed insurance and each unit has coverage in excess of $3,000 (depending on size may be more). So we are all covered.

She read it as inside insurance and was having everyone place this inside insurance coverage. And it kind of is but it kind of isn''t. They want you to have enough coverage in your existing policy to cover any damages that may occur (hurricanes and such) in excess of the outside property.

So I''m giving her the benefit of doubt and hoping that she didn''t just force others to get into an additional policy when they didn''t have to. If others didn''t take the time to do the research, then that isn''t her fault but I do know that our insurance is sending out a letter to everyone letting them know that we are all covered so I''m sure those that did pay for the extra insurance will get it handled.

Man that was a doozy. It took 2 hours of calling people back and forth to figure out what to do next!

 

[Dogmom]

Sorry! Simultanious posting! Glad you got it straightened out.

 

[fieryred33143]

Date: 12/30/2008 3:03:00 PM
Author: Dee*Jay
Hmmm.... We once lived in a building that did require insurance not for your unit itself but that you have a liability policy in the event that something that occurred in your unit inadvertantly caused damage to another unit. The association was named as an additional insured on the policy. There were two events (one where one person''s bathub overflowed and caused damage to the unit below and one where a kitchen fire caused damage to the unit next door) that led up to this. I recall this being a requirement of the condo board, not a ''law'' (keep in mind I''m also in Illinois). As for where you get the insurance from though, I don''t believe that can be dictated as long as the policy meets the coverage limits, etc., that are required.

That is what is taking place now. They need to add the association into the account. I''m still curious about the $1,000 fine but I''m hoping no one is affected by that.

Thanks dogmom!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Associations do have the right to impose fines but $1,000 seems INCREDILY severe to me. I don''t know if there are dollar limits on the level of fines that they can impose, but YIKES!