It is that time again, where homeowners need to submit the Declaration Page of your insurance renewal for 2020. This is required by the Declaration (CC&R), section 5.2, which requires “cost-to-replace” insurance on your property.
Owners and/or your insurance agent can email or fax these to the Office. Email address is office@gpmcha.org, and our fax number is 972-692-7714
We still have a large number of homeowners who have not provided us with their current insurance information. We need a copy of your insurance renewal each and every year.
Just telling us it renewed is insufficient and does not fulfill your requirement to provide proof of cost to replace insurance.
We will be sending out postcards like the one shown within the next week or so. We have fined those who do not provide the required information and will do so again, as a violation of the CC&R.
These fines can be expensive and can result in a lien on your property if left unpaid.
This is easily avoided by providing us a copy of the Declaration page showing the coverage year.
Please remember to bring in your Homeowners Insurance renewal Declaration page for 2017 to the Office so we can add a copy of it to your member records. It is a requirement of the CC&R and protects both you and the HOA.
We have had several questions recently about “Master Policy”, something that apparently Condominiums carry, wherein they insure the structures and the homeowner/tenant insures the contents. I have had several insurance agents argue this point as they believe this is a Condo association, which it is definitely not. We are a Subdivision HOA.
One homeowner said that it looked like the Declaration (C&R) eluded to a Master Policy in this paragraph:
5.1 Association Insurance. The Association shall have the authority to and shall obtain or cause to be obtained insurance for all insurable improvements which the Association is obligated to maintain, whether or not located on the Common Property. This insurance shall provide, at a minimum, fire and extended coverage, including vandalism and malicious mischief, and shall be in an amount sufficient to cover the full replacement cost of any repair or reconstruction in the event of damage or destruction from any such hazard. Alternatively, the Board may purchase “all-risk” coverage in like amounts.
At first glance, this seems to say that any “improvement” the Association is “obligated to maintain” might just include the individual townhouses. It does use phraseology that might make one think so, but this is not the case. Farther down the Declaration a bit this point is clarified:
5.2 Individual Insurance. By virtue of taking title to a Lot, each Owner acknowledges that the Association has no obligation to provide any insurance for any portion of any Lot, and each Owner covenants and agrees with all other Owners and with the Association that each Owner shall carry property insurance on his Lot and all structures constructed thereon and a liability policy covering damage or injury occurring on the Lot.
I do hope that anyone who has not provided proper proof of insurance does so soon.
We still do not have proof of cost-to-replace insurance (Renters or Condo insurance is not sufficient) on a number of properties, despite having sent several notices and warning letters.
We will continue to impose fines (which are classified as Assessments) on those homeowners who either cannot or will not provide the required proof they have the mandatory coverage specified in our Declaration. As a reminder, all assessment fines left unpaid are added to member accounts and will result in an Assessment Lien on your property.
While we are reluctant to place significant fines against homeowners, they must understand that as homeowners in this HOA, they must have proper home insurance and demonstrate that they do. Fines can be assessed at $250 per week and $1000 per month for any violation of our Declaration (see Fines and Enforcement Policy).
As most of our homeowners are now aware, the HOA’s Declaration (CC&R) requires proof that you have a “cost to replace” policy on your home. This level of insurance has been a requirement of our Declaration since this subdivision came into being in 1970 or 1971. To date, about 75% of our 416 homeowners have responded and provided the documents requested. We did sent out Warning letters on January 2nd to those who have not provided requisite documentation and giving them 15 days within which to provide it. Last week, we started sending out certified letters to some of these individuals indicating they will be fined, per our Fines and Enforcement Policy, for not providing this information as required by our Declaration. Some throw out these Warning notices, which does not change the fact that they were sent out.
Just to be clear, Renters Insurance and Condominium Insurance does not meet the requirements. Actual cash value insurance is also inadequate. Homeowners must have full replacement coverage for the dwelling itself.
We will be sending out another group of certified Fine letters to the those homeowners who have still not provided the documents which have been requested more than 3 times.
It’s been over 45 days since we sent out notices to all homeowners asking for proof of cost-to-replace insurance on all properties within the Association, which is a requirement in our Declaration of CC&R. To date, we have received less that 50% response to this request, which is unacceptable.
We are sending out a secondary notice to those who have not yet provided the required proof of insurance. Just so you know, a few homeowners have no insurance at all. This is why we are asking for proof, to make sure that insurance is in place to protect both you and your neighbors.