HOA buying owners insurance?

First off, is your complex single family detached or condo/townhome?

Surprised you haven't been caught by the homeowner's mortgage company,m especially if your are attached units. The HOA is overstepping their authority by forcing insurance on the owners especially if it is not in the CCRs.

Is your townhome considered a condominium development or an HOA?

Your Association should be carrying Liability insurance, Directors and Officers insurance as a bear minimum.

Is your Association incorporated?

Yes, I believe it is common practice with condo associations.

Townhomes or any residential ownership where you share common walls and roofs would normally be considered a condo association, even though they are often called "HOAs". The primary difference between a condo association and an Homeowners or Property Owners Association is that with an HOA/POA you own the entirety of the home which is detached from others.

Condo associations usually have much more control over what you can do with your property because if something goes wrong with your unit, it can have a direct impact on other units under the same roof.

I would think that the association would also have insurance but I suppose the individual owners' policies could cover the common areas. I would check your policy and your CC&Rs.

We have 50 homes/lots arranged as 25 duplex attached residences and we're not a condominium either.

It takes all kinds. There are many different arrangements possible, I imagine. The most important things are what one's state laws require, how a developer chooses to organize the properties/units and whether that organization can be set up so that it adheres to the type of organization chosen.

The HOA I live in probably SHOULD have been organized as a condo instead of an HOA. Our life would be simpler and less complicated in many ways if that was the case. Changing it now after 30 years would be problematic. If could be done but it would be very expensive and, perhaps, impossible given the number of approvals needed from the homeowners, county government agencies, the water management district, and maybe even the mortgagees.

Good point. Tt shows that we can't assume anything about a particular community.

Whereas in Minnesota, every single common interest ownership community created after 1994 is treated the same under the law, which also covers every condominium regardless of age, and pre-1994 non-condominium associations that have opted into it (most of which have done so due to the legal protections it offers). For all intents and purposes, they are all HOAs under Minnesota law.

So yeah, it can vary based on location.