What Is the Difference Between HO-3 and HO-6?
HO-3 insures a standalone house, land to roof. HO-6 insures a condo or co-op unit, covering what's inside your walls.
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What the HOA Policy Covers
The HOA's master policy typically covers the building's structure, roof, and common areas like hallways and the lobby. Your HO-6 picks up from there. Check your HOA's governing documents or master policy declarations to see exactly where its coverage stops.
Walls-In Coverage Explained
Walls-in means your HO-6 covers what the master policy leaves out. That includes built-in cabinets, flooring, fixtures, and anything you installed or own inside your unit. If your HOA's policy is bare-walls, you need more of this coverage than if it insures standard fixtures.
Loss Assessment Coverage
When a shared loss exceeds the HOA's master policy or hits its deductible, the HOA can bill unit owners through a special assessment. Loss assessment coverage on your HO-6 reimburses your share. Check your policy's limit against your HOA's deductible to see if it's enough.
Water From a Neighbor's Unit
If water travels from a neighbor's unit into yours, your HO-6 typically covers the damage to your interior and belongings. If their negligence caused it, their liability coverage may also apply. Your insurer and theirs sort out responsibility between themselves.
Find Out If Your Unit Is Actually Covered
A bare-walls master policy and a loss assessment limit that doesn't match your HOA's deductible can leave real gaps. Compare HO-6 policies to see what it costs to close them.
How Much HO-6 Coverage Does a Unit Need
Most HO-6 policies start with a dwelling coverage number that's too low for what it would actually cost to rebuild the inside of a unit. That figure should reflect the cost to replace cabinets, flooring, built-ins, and any upgrades made since buying, not the unit's market value or purchase price. A unit that sold for $300,000 might only need $60,000 or $80,000 in dwelling coverage if the HOA's master policy insures standard fixtures. If the master policy is bare-walls, that number needs to be much higher, since it falls to the HO-6 to rebuild everything past the unfinished structure.
Personal property coverage works the same way other home insurance does. It should match the value of furniture, electronics, and belongings inside the unit, and a room-by-room estimate is more reliable than a guess. Loss of use coverage matters more in a condo than people expect, since a bad enough water or fire loss can make a unit unlivable for months while repairs happen, and that coverage pays for temporary housing during that stretch.
Liability coverage on an HO-6 protects against claims from people hurt inside the unit or in cases where something originating in the unit damages someone else's property. This matters more in a condo building than a standalone house, since units share walls, floors, and plumbing lines with neighbors. A pipe that bursts in one unit can send water into two or three others below it, and liability coverage is what responds if the unit owner is found responsible for that damage.
Townhomes split into two different insurance situations depending on how the property is structured. A townhome that's part of an HOA with a master policy covering the exterior and shared structure works like a condo, and an HO-6 fits it the same way. A townhome owned outright with no shared walls insured by an association, where the owner is responsible for the entire structure including the roof and exterior walls, needs an HO-3 instead, the same policy type that covers a standalone house. The deciding factor isn't whether the building is attached to others, it's whether an HOA master policy insures the physical structure or whether that responsibility falls entirely on the owner.
How a Condo Claim Actually Gets Paid Out
When a pipe bursts or a small fire breaks out in a condo, two policies can end up involved in the same claim. The HOA's master policy may respond to damage affecting the building's structure, and the HO-6 responds to everything inside the unit that the master policy doesn't reach. Most of the time these claims settle separately, with each insurer paying its own share based on where the damage falls. The unit owner usually has to start the process by filing with their own HO-6 insurer first, even if the damage clearly began somewhere else in the building.
Disputes happen most often at the boundary itself. One insurer may argue that drywall and flooring belong to the master policy, while the HOA's insurer argues those finishes are the unit owner's responsibility under the governing documents. This is exactly why knowing whether the master policy is bare-walls or includes standard fixtures matters before a claim happens, not after. A unit owner who checks this ahead of time knows which insurer to call first and what to expect them to cover.
The deductible adds another layer. Both the HO-6 and the master policy carry their own deductibles, and the owner may be responsible for both in the same incident. Some HOAs pass their master policy deductible down to the unit owner when the owner caused the damage, through a deductible reimbursement clause in the governing documents. Checking whether this clause exists is worth doing before a claim, since it changes how much a unit owner actually pays out of pocket after a loss that starts in their own unit.
Claims involving a neighbor work differently depending on fault. If a neighbor's negligence caused the damage, like leaving a washing machine hose unattended, their HO-6 liability coverage may pay for the damage to the unit below. If the cause was something in the building itself, like a shared pipe failing inside a wall, the master policy is more likely to respond instead. Sorting out which applies is typically handled between the insurers directly, and a unit owner's own HO-6 can often pay out first and let the insurers settle the rest afterward.
Before You Compare
Pull your HOA's master policy declarations and find the deductible and whether coverage is bare-walls or includes fixtures. That's what tells you how much HO-6 and loss assessment coverage your unit actually needs.
