Are HO-6 and Master Policy the Same?
No. The master policy covers the building and common areas. Your HO-6 covers your unit's interior, belongings, and liability.
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Where the HOA's policy ends and yours begins
The HOA's master policy answers to the building. The roof, the hallways, the lobby, the pipes buried in the walls before they reach your unit. Your HO-6 answers to you. What's inside your unit's walls, your flooring, cabinets, and any upgrades you made, plus your furniture and your liability if someone gets hurt inside. How much of the interior your HO-6 needs to cover depends on whether your HOA's policy is bare walls or all-in, and your condo association can tell you which it carries. If you don't know, your HO-6 limit could leave a gap or duplicate coverage you're already paying for through HOA dues. Your declarations page shows what you currently carry.
Find out before a claim does
A master policy that's bare walls and an HO-6 set too low leaves the gap to you. Compare policies now and match your unit coverage to what your HOA actually carries.
What loss assessment covers and why it matters
When the building has a loss that the master policy doesn't fully cover, or the HOA's deductible is large, the association can bill every owner a share of the cost. That bill is called a special assessment, and it can follow a roof replacement, a fire in a common area, or a liability judgment the master policy didn't fully pay. Loss assessment coverage is a part of your HO-6 that reimburses you for your share of that bill, up to the limit you carry. Most HO-6 policies include some loss assessment coverage by default, often a modest amount like a few thousand dollars, but a serious loss can produce an assessment far larger than that. Raising the limit usually costs little, and it's worth checking against what your HOA's reserve study or claims history suggests could happen.
Water from a neighbor's unit is one of the most common disputes in a condo building, and who pays depends on where the water started and why. If a pipe bursts inside the unit above you, the master policy generally handles damage to the building structure, and your HO-6 handles your flooring, belongings, and any interior finishes you own. If the water came from a common-area pipe or the roof, the master policy is more likely to be the first line of coverage for everyone affected. When the upstairs owner was negligent, such as ignoring a known leak, their HO-6 liability coverage can come into play too. The building's claims process and your HOA's governing documents usually spell out the order these claims get handled in, which is worth asking about before anything happens.
Townhome insurance works differently depending on how the property is structured. Some townhomes are part of an HOA with a master policy much like a condo, in which case an HO-6 still applies. Others are standalone properties with no shared walls covered by any association policy, and in that case the owner typically needs a standard homeowners policy (HO-3) that covers the entire structure, not just the interior. The deciding factor is whether an HOA master policy insures the exterior walls and roof of the unit. If it does, HO-6 is the right fit. If the owner alone is responsible for the whole structure, HO-6 would leave the exterior uninsured. The HOA's bylaws or the property's condo declaration will say which arrangement applies.
How much HO-6 coverage does a unit actually need
The right dwelling limit on an HO-6 comes from what it would cost to rebuild your unit's interior, not from what you paid for the condo or what it would sell for. If a fire gutted your unit down to the studs, your HO-6 dwelling coverage needs to pay for new drywall, flooring, cabinets, countertops, and any upgrades you added since buying. A unit with original builder-grade finishes needs less than one where the owner put in hardwood floors and a renovated kitchen. People who bought a resale unit with upgrades already in place often carry too little, because they insure based on the purchase price instead of what those finishes would cost to replace.
Personal property coverage works the same way but for belongings instead of the structure. Furniture, electronics, clothing, and anything that would need replacing after a total loss should add up to a real number, not a guess. Walking through each room and estimating replacement cost, room by room, gives a figure worth checking against the personal property limit on the declarations page. Underinsuring here is common because people forget how much a full household actually costs to replace at today's prices, not what they paid years ago.
Liability coverage is the third piece, and it protects the owner if someone is hurt inside the unit or if the owner is found responsible for damage to someone else's property. A guest could slip on a wet floor. A dog could bite a visitor. A kitchen fire could spread to a neighboring unit. Any of these can lead to a liability claim, and the HO-6's liability limit is what stands behind it. Most policies default to a baseline liability limit, but a condo owner with significant savings or assets to protect may want to carry more than the default, since a lawsuit does not stop at the policy limit if the damages are higher.
Getting all three numbers right, dwelling, personal property, and liability, means looking at the unit's actual finishes, the real cost of replacing what's inside it, and what there is to protect if something goes wrong. The HOA can confirm what the master policy already covers, which narrows down what the HO-6 needs to fill in. None of these figures are fixed amounts that apply to every unit in the building, even ones that look alike from the outside.
Before you compare
Ask your HOA whether the master policy is bare walls or all-in, and check your HO-6's loss assessment limit against that answer. That one call can show whether your current coverage actually matches your unit.
