Where to buy HOA insurance and how much??

I am a recent new president of a small HOA (239 homes. We have no buildings or common property and low dues and money <$35k.

We want to put up a few radar speed signs on a bad street and the city requires us to have insurance to put the signs on city property.

Our insurance quotes so far are $4-5k which is about half of what we take in yearly.

Where can I find a flexible (and reasonable) insurance company that will take on a small HOA like ours?

Greg

Good luck with that.

I can offer my experience here in Texas. It seems that General Liability and Officers and Directors Insurance is basically a monopoly only written by a couple of companies. Our association has 233 homes, our common property consists of a small park with playground, and we have an agreement with a municipal utility district to use the area around a detention pond as long as we provide landscaping. Our combined insurance runs around $4000 per year with $1,000.000 coverage.

I've called around trying to get bids but it seems to be a closed shop, I called a company in Austin and they told me that they were unable to write that kind of insurance in the Houston area because the companies that provide the insurance will only sell it through designated Houston brokers. I would imagine it's the same elsewhere in the country. HOA's need to have insurance and need to cover their directors because of the litigious nature of things in this country. I can't imagine anyone volunteering to act as a director if they did not have some kind of liability coverage provided for them

If you use a management company, you might want to have them solicit bids for you, or you might want to try and contact the directors of any HOA's in your vicinity and ask who they use.

We used Travelers insurance. Which is one of the few that carry HOA insurance. We were 107 homes. It covered our board, clubhouse, and pool. We paid over 2500 a year for it. We were able to work with them to make monthly payments instead of a lump payment. However, that meant we paid a bit more in processing fees to do that. If you can afford it, a large 1 yearly payment will save some money.

Please be aware that some insurance companies will insist on "Bundling". So you may end up with some coverages you don't want or need to get the whole package. We had to have insurance for a HOA vehicle. We did not own a vehicle. The insurance said we had to have it as part of the bundle deal. There was a bit of benefit. If a HOA member did have an accident while doing HOA business, this insurance would kick in to pick up the difference in the personal insurance pay out.

Nationwide insurance & Erie Insurance will offer quotes.....so pretty much any company that offers general liability (Umbrella) policies and "errors & Omissions" coverage could set your HOA up for coverage.

There's nothing special about "HOA insurance"