Mistakes in condominium insurance are rarely spectacular: they do not come from a single bad decision but from small omissions adding up – and they typically come to light at claim time, when it is already too late. I have collected the ten most frequent ones, and set the antidote beside each. Go through the list with your own building in mind – if three or four points leave you unsure, a review is overdue.
- The mistakes fall into three families: the value mistakes (an outdated sum insured), the substance mistakes (missing cover, the wrong limit) and the process mistakes (a forgotten renewal date, disorderly documentation).
- What they share: none of them surfaces on its own – only at claim time, or in a deliberate review.
- In every case the antidote is a system, not luck: the renewal routine, an archive, decisions based on substance.
The value mistakes
1. An outdated sum insured – construction costs have run away and the sum has stayed put: at claim time proportional settlement looms. Antidote: indexation and value maintenance. 2. Indexation rejected year after year – a few per cent “saved” each year, which grows into a gap in cover within a few years. 3. Unreported investments – solar panels, a renovation, an extension left outside the sum: the newly added value is uncovered (raising the sum insured).
The substance mistakes
4. Missing liability cover or a low limit – in a busy building with an old façade this is the most dangerous gap of all (why). 5. A premium-driven decision without substance – choosing the “cheapest” without comparing limits and exclusions (the trap). 6. A deductible that does not fit the building's profile – many small claims against a high deductible, or the reverse: wasted premium (deductible logic). 7. Not knowing what the water damage cover actually contains – the costs of tracing and accessing the leak, and the rules on old pipework, produce surprises at claim time (the water damage article).
The process mistakes
8. The forgotten renewal date – the cancellation deadline slips by and the building is stuck in a poor policy (the switching article); or the other way round: a premium falls due unpaid, and the cover itself is at risk. 9. Disorderly documentation – at claim time there are no photos, no maintenance log, no policy to hand: claims handling slows down and the building's position weakens (the archive article). 10. The “nobody's responsibility” state – when the property manager or the management company changes, the insurance is left without an owner (the handover list).
The shared antidote
None of the ten mistakes stems primarily from a lack of knowledge – they stem from a lack of system. The antidote kit is familiar: a quarter-hour renewal routine once a year, a well-kept file, decisions based on substance, and a market check every few years. And if question marks have been piling up as you read: the review is for exactly that – free of charge, and at the end the building knows where it stands.
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