Your policy starts where the association's stops.
And almost nobody knows where that line is. Depending on your association's master policy, everything from the drywall inward can be your responsibility — flooring, cabinets, fixtures, and whatever a previous owner upgraded. Guess low and you're underinsured for the part of the building you actually own. Here's how the three master policy types work, why loss assessment is the coverage that catches people, and the one document that makes all of it answerable. We shop it across 40+ carriers.
The short answer
A condo policy is an HO-6, and it can't be sized without the association's master policy declarations. Master policies come in three shapes — bare walls, single entity and all-in — and each one leaves you responsible for a different amount of the building. Your HO-6 covers that portion plus belongings, liability, loss of use and loss assessment. The two things that go wrong are building property coverage set too low because nobody read the master policy, and a loss assessment limit left at its small default when the real exposure runs into five figures.
Three kinds of master policy. Yours is one of them.
This is the single fact that determines what your policy needs to do. Everything else on this page follows from it.
The association insures the structure and essentially nothing inside your unit. Drywall, flooring, cabinets, countertops, fixtures and built-ins are yours. This needs the largest building property limit of the three, and it's the type most often underinsured.
The association covers the unit as it was originally built, but not improvements. If a previous owner replaced the kitchen or you put in hardwood, the difference between original and current is your responsibility — and nobody tracks that but you.
Sometimes called all-inclusive. The association covers original construction and improvements, leaving you with belongings, liability, loss of use and assessments. The smallest building property limit of the three — but not zero.
Ask for one document. It answers almost everything.
Request the master policy declarations page from your association or management company — not a summary, not a verbal answer, the actual declarations. It's a routine request and any competent management company can produce it in a day. That page tells us which of the three types applies, what the master policy's deductible is, and how the building is insured. From it we can size your building property coverage to what's genuinely yours instead of picking a round number and hoping. If you're buying, ask for it before closing — it's also when the association is most obliged to hand things over, and your lender is going to want the HO-6 sized against it anyway.
Six parts, and one of them is bigger than it looks.
Most of an HO-6 is familiar from a homeowners policy. The two that aren't are the two worth reading twice.
Building property
Everything inside the unit that the master policy doesn't cover — drywall, flooring, cabinets, fixtures, built-ins and upgrades. Sized off the master policy, not off a percentage of the purchase price.
Personal property
Furniture, clothing, electronics, kitchenware, everything you'd take with you. Worth carrying at replacement cost rather than actual cash value, and worth scheduling separately for jewelry, firearms, art and collectibles.
Personal liability
Injuries and property damage you're responsible for, including damage your unit causes to the ones below it. Shared walls and shared plumbing make this matter far more in a condo than the square footage suggests.
Loss assessment
Your share when the association bills owners for a shortfall or a deductible. Frequently included at a small default limit that has no relationship to what an actual assessment costs. The section below is about this one.
Loss of use
Hotel, short-term rental and the extra cost of living elsewhere while the unit is repaired. Condo repairs frequently wait on the association's contractor and the association's timeline, which makes this coverage last longer than owners expect.
Water damage
Sudden and accidental discharge from plumbing, a water heater or an appliance — the single most frequent condo claim. Slow leaks that ran for months are treated as maintenance and generally aren't covered.
A special assessment is a real bill, and it arrives already owed.
When a loss exceeds the association's coverage, or the association has to satisfy a large deductible, the shortfall is divided among unit owners. You don't get a vote on whether it applies to you.
Two questions decide how much loss assessment coverage you need.
What is the master policy's deductible? Association deductibles are frequently much larger than a personal one, and on larger properties they can be substantial. Somebody pays that before the master policy pays anything, and "somebody" often means the owners collectively.
Do the bylaws allow the deductible to be charged back to the unit where the loss started? This provision has become far more common, and it's the one that surprises people. Under it, a failed supply line in your unit can leave you personally responsible for the entire master policy deductible — not a share of it. That's a very different exposure from an assessment split fifty ways, and it's answerable only by reading the bylaws.
Most condo policies include loss assessment at a small default limit. Ask what yours is, put it next to the two answers above, and raise it if the gap is uncomfortable. Increasing this limit is generally one of the least expensive changes available on an HO-6, which is a strange thing to be true of the coverage most likely to produce a five-figure bill.
Why hail shows up on your bill even though the roof isn't yours.
The roof, the siding and the grounds belong to the association, so a hail claim is theirs to file. But the association's deductible, and the gap between what its policy pays and what the repair costs, don't vanish — they become an assessment. How the master policy settles a roof claim therefore has a direct effect on what every owner is billed, which is why it's worth knowing whether your association carries the coverage it thinks it does. Northwest Arkansas gets damaging hail often enough that this isn't hypothetical, and a property with several buildings can generate a large claim from one storm.
Three things an HO-6 isn't for.
Each is solvable — just not with this policy.
The building itself
Roof, exterior walls, structure, hallways, elevators, parking, pool and grounds. You contribute to insuring them through dues, but you don't insure them and you can't file on them. What you can do is carry enough loss assessment for the day the association's coverage isn't enough.
Flood
Rising water and surface flooding are excluded from an HO-6 exactly as they are from a homeowners policy, and that's true on an upper floor too — water finds ground-floor units, stairwells and parking levels. Flood is a separate policy, and the association's flood coverage doesn't extend to your interior.
Renting it out
An HO-6 assumes you live there. Long-term tenants need a landlord form; short-term and nightly rentals need something written for it, and many associations prohibit them outright. Tell us before you list it, not after a guest's claim asks who was occupying the unit.
A lot of new buildings, and a lot of first-time owners.
Condo and townhome inventory across Bentonville, Rogers, Bella Vista, Fayetteville and Springdale has grown quickly, and it's brought two groups who both benefit from reading the master policy: first-time buyers for whom the condo is the entry point into ownership, and people relocating from bigger metros who owned a condo somewhere the rules worked differently. Associations here range from a handful of townhomes with an informal board to multi-building properties with professional management, and the master policies vary just as widely. There is no local default — the only way to know is to read the declarations.
Two practical notes. If you're financing, the lender will require the HO-6 at closing and will want it sized against the master policy, so start that conversation before the week of closing rather than during it. And the obligations of an association are set by its recorded declaration and bylaws, which is where the deductible chargeback question gets answered. Those documents are yours to read as an owner, and they're worth twenty minutes once.
Where we earn it.
The quiet mistakes on condo policies are building property coverage picked as a round number instead of read off the master policy, a loss assessment limit still sitting at its factory default, personal property written at actual cash value when replacement cost was available, and liability sized for the unit rather than for the two units underneath it. We ask for the master policy declarations before quoting and actually read them, tell you which of the three types your association carries, set the building property limit against that, raise loss assessment to something proportional to the deductible you're exposed to, and check whether an umbrella belongs above the liability. We don't adjust your claim and can't overrule an adjuster — but we build the policy to respond, and we compare it across our 40+ carrier markets rather than one company's appetite.
Priced to the unit and the master policy behind it.
Condo premiums vary too widely for a single meaningful figure, and they're typically well below what the same household would pay to insure a detached house, because the association is insuring the structure. Price turns on the master policy type and how much building property you therefore need, the unit's size, age and location, your personal property and liability limits, the loss assessment limit, your deductible, whether you occupy it, prior claims, and whether you bundle it with auto. That's why we price it to the unit rather than post a number. This isn't a quote or a guarantee. Send the master policy declarations and we'll build the real figure with you across our markets.
What usually sits next to it.
Condo and HO-6 insurance questions.
What does condo insurance actually cover?
A condo policy, written on an HO-6 form, covers the part of the building you are responsible for, your belongings, your liability, and somewhere to live if the unit is uninhabitable. The part people underestimate is the first one. Depending on your association's master policy, everything from the drywall inward can be yours, including flooring, cabinets, countertops, built-ins, fixtures and any improvements a previous owner made.
A condo policy also carries loss assessment coverage for your share of a bill the association passes on to owners. What none of it covers is the building itself, the roof, the grounds and the shared areas, because those belong to the association.
What is a bare walls master policy, and how do I find out which one my association has?
Master policies generally fall into three shapes. Bare walls means the association insures the structure and essentially nothing inside your unit, so drywall, flooring, cabinets and fixtures are yours. Single entity, sometimes called original specifications, means the association covers the unit as originally built but not upgrades, so a kitchen someone replaced is your responsibility. All-in, sometimes called all-inclusive, means the association covers the original construction and the improvements, leaving you with belongings and liability.
To find out which one applies, ask the association or the management company for the master policy declarations page. Not a summary and not a verbal answer, the actual declarations. It is a routine request and any competent management company can produce it.
What is loss assessment coverage and how much do I need?
When a loss exceeds what the association's policy pays, or when the association has a large deductible to satisfy, the shortfall is divided among the unit owners as a special assessment. Loss assessment coverage on your own policy pays your share. The problem is that many condo policies include only a small default limit, often around one thousand dollars, while a real assessment after a serious fire or a hail event across several buildings can run into five figures per unit.
Two numbers decide how much you should carry. Ask what the master policy's deductible is, and ask whether the bylaws allow that deductible to be charged back to the owner of the unit where the loss started. Set the limit against those answers rather than accepting whatever the policy came with.
Do I need condo insurance if my HOA already has a policy?
Yes, and the association's policy is the reason you need yours sized correctly rather than the reason you can skip it. The master policy insures the association's property and the association's liability. It does not insure your belongings, your liability, your additional living expenses, the finishes inside your unit under most master policy types, or your share of an assessment.
A lender will also require an HO-6 at closing and will usually want it sized against the master policy. Even an owner with no mortgage carries real exposure, because a water loss originating in your unit can damage two units below you and the claim comes to your liability coverage.
Does condo insurance cover water damage to my neighbor's unit?
This is the most common condo claim there is, and the answer depends on how the loss happened. If a supply line, a water heater or an appliance in your unit fails and water reaches the units below, your liability coverage is what responds to their damage, assuming you are legally responsible. Your own unit's damage is handled by your policy's building property and personal property coverage.
Sudden and accidental discharge is generally covered, while a slow leak that went on for months is generally treated as maintenance and is not. Because the units are stacked, one failure frequently becomes three claims, which is why liability limits on a condo deserve more attention than the size of the unit suggests.
How do I get a condo insurance quote in Northwest Arkansas?
Start a personal quote online or call (479) 286-1066, and if you can, bring the master policy declarations page with you. That single document tells us which type of master policy the association carries, what its deductible is and how the building is insured, and it is what lets us size your building property coverage to what is actually yours instead of guessing.
Otherwise we need the unit address, the square footage and the year built, a sense of what has been upgraded inside it and by whom, whether you live there full time or rent it out, and your current declarations page if you have one. If you are buying, send it to us before closing so the lender requirement does not become a last-minute problem.
If our coverage explainers are useful, mark Cribb Insurance as a preferred source so more Northwest Arkansas condo owners can find our local, plain-English guides.
Send us the master policy. We'll do the rest.
Get the declarations page from your association or management company and send it over with the unit details. We'll tell you which of the three master policy types you're under, size your building property coverage to the actual gap instead of a round number, set loss assessment against the deductible you're really exposed to, and compare it across our markets. If you're buying, send it before closing and the lender requirement takes care of itself.
Cribb Insurance Group Inc. is an independent insurance agency licensed in Arkansas. This page describes condominium unit owners (HO-6) insurance in general, industry-standard terms for informational purposes only. It is not a policy, not an offer of insurance, and not a guarantee of coverage, availability, eligibility, or price.
Building property, personal property, personal liability, medical payments, loss of use and loss assessment coverages, along with limits, deductibles, covered causes of loss, and exclusions, are set by the carrier, vary by state and by policy and over time, are subject to the carrier's underwriting approval and eligibility, and apply only as written in the policy actually issued to you. Flood, earthquake, wear and tear, gradual leakage and rental or business use of the unit are commonly excluded or require separate coverage.
Descriptions of bare walls, single entity and all-in master policies are general industry terms used to explain common structures. They are not definitions of your association's coverage, they are not used uniformly by every association or carrier, and the terms of the master policy actually in force control. What your unit owners policy must cover depends on that master policy and on your association's recorded declaration and bylaws, including any provision allowing a master policy deductible to be assessed to a unit owner. Cribb Insurance Group does not interpret association governing documents and is not a party to them; review them yourself and consult your own attorney about their effect. Any cost or coverage descriptions are general and illustrative, not a quote, and not a guarantee; your premium and coverage are determined at quote and by the policy issued.
Last reviewed July 2026.