"Always" is a very finite term. HOA's differ greatly. Check each one individually to understand exactly what the fees cover.

With regards to insurance, shop around. Your HOA may cover the building but not your contents. If another tennant has a fire and your contents are damaged by smoke, water or fire and they don't have insurance you may be out of luck unless you have your own policy.

The HOA fees differ from place to place. If I were you, I would not assume that the HOA include home insurance. Play it safe and ask the Realtor to find out EXACTLY what the HOA includes. Hey, you never know......some good news may even come out of it. You may find out that it includes insurance, water and basic cable!
:-)

Condo associations typically have a master fire policy that covers the building that you would live in and the insurance also covers common structures and the policy usually have higher deductibles then you would normally have on a home. In the event of a claim you and your neighbors may pay a loss assessment fee which is your portion of the deductible amount. The insurance for the association goes up for everyone when a condo has a claim since it is a master policy covering all of the homes.

You will still need to purchase your own insurance for everything in the condo including the walls, cabinets, furniture and personal possessions to name a few. They cover the outside, you cover the inside. A condo policy or an HO-8 also give you liability and medical protection for guests to your home in the event they are hurt and/or sue you. An HO-8 is different from a renters insurance policy or HO-4 in that a renters policy covers the property owners building in the event of fire, but it is third party liability since you don't own it.

Final note. My wife says pay someone to maintain your home for the amount of the dues and you come out the same. The question is do you want to be responsible for the building and maintanence of it or do you want the association to worry about that.

You need to find out if the condo has a "master policy" - If so, then yes, a portion of your dues will go towards the insurance. To reiterate everyone else, you still need to get a condo policy that would cover your contents, wall and floor material. Make sure your condo assoc. gives you a detailed listing of what they cover and what they don't.

Something else you want to include on your condo/home policy if you live in an association community with a pool is "loss assessment" coverage. Basically, if someone drowns in the pool, the association will assess the home/condo owners for that type of claim. It is cheap to add on, so add that if there is a pool.

There are some condo associations that are starting to transfer the burden of insurance to the individual owners. You need to read the condo docs for the association you are interested in. Keep in mind that condos can make changes, and you want to have all the updates to the documents, especially in some of the older buildings.

Nadine Mauro
Regency Realty Services
561-414-0864
NadineMauroRE@yahoo.com

Search the MLS like an agent: http://www.FloridaHouseSeller.ListingBook.com

Check out this website http://community.lawyers.com:80/forums/t/17994.aspx
Not sure that it will answer your question but it may provide informative reading for condo assoc info.
This is not an official website so take from it what you will....

Good morning Scott:
Yes, your condo association dues do include your insurance. You will still have to carry your personal contents insurance only. If I can be of any other help, please feel free to contact me anytime. I would be happy to help you look around at different options.

Sincerely,
Judy Calufetti
EWM Realty 954-646-1437

Typically, your HOA fees will cover the insurance on the condo but you will only be getting "Structural" insurance. You will still need to obtain a seperate insurance policy to cover the following items on the inside of your condo:

Walls, cabinets, counter tops, floors (carpet, hardwood, tile, etc), light fixtures, personal property, etc.

If there is a fire or flood and you don't have additional coverage, the HOA insurance policy will rebuild the structure but all you will have is an empty box.