Distinguished Blog - Community Associations
Market insights and industry news.
Distinguished Programs and Berkley Program Specialists Partner for Community Associations D&O and Crime Coverage
New York – Distinguished Programs (“Distinguished”), a national insurance program manager, announced an expanded partnership with Berkley Program Specialists (“BPS”), a leading provider in the industry, to underwrite its Community Associations Crime and D&O products. Starting Jan. 1, 2025, Distinguished will begin to consolidate their Crime, D&O, and Package coverages under one carrier. “This expanded…
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Oroville Dam Risk Highlights Importance of Flood Readiness for Property Managers
After a five-year drought throughout the state, Northern California’s surface water systems have now been pushed to the breaking point on the heels of weeks of rainfall. Nearly 190,000 people were evacuated on February 12 over fears that a damaged spillway at the nation’s tallest dam in Lake Oroville located in the Sierra Nevada foothills…
Preventing Slips and Falls in Winter Months
Slip and fall accidents account for 15% of all accidental deaths in the United States. Annually, an estimated one million Americans will have an injury related to a fall, 600,000 will be hospitalized and 17,000 deaths will occur. Studies find most injuries result from contact with outside surfaces. Property owners could be liable for injuries…
Best Way to Secure a Door Lock System
It’s a phone call no property owner wants to receive. Your tenant’s door locks did not keep a perpetrator out. The tenant has been assaulted in his or her apartment – in one of your buildings. The victim has survived a robbery along with a physical assault and the perpetrator has been caught. Now the legal…
A Bird’s-Eye View on High-Rise Window Security
A century ago, buildings that were more than a few stories high were an engineering marvel; today, multi-storied and high-rise hotels are plentiful and routinely soar to increasing heights, all the better to market the expansive views as a major marketing point. Unfortunately, unique exposures exist that can trigger general liability and umbrella liability claims—consider…
Building Your Community Association Insurance Solutions
Today we’re welcoming guest blogger Phil Masi, CIRMS, Senior Vice President at Assured Partners in Lake Mary, FL. Handling over 200 associations throughout Florida, and serving as a community association board member himself, Phil knows a thing or two about how a board selects an insurance program. Read on, and share with your boards, as Phil…
Are Your Community Association’s Crime Policy Limits Really Enough?
In a previous article, we touched upon Employee Dishonesty insurance – “protection for your money when it’s stolen by an employee.” Now we’ll take a closer look at the impact of employee theft on community associations, and how the limits on a Crime policy for many associations may come up short. Let’s first consider the…
Lax Security Results in Tragedy, Hits Bottom Line for Apartment Owners
A $10 million verdict was not what the owners of an apartment complex in Clayton County, Georgia expected to hear in connection with a 2015 shooting death of one of its residents. But that’s exactly the amount the jury rendered after it was convinced by the victim’s lawyer that the owners of the complex were…
Impact of Airbnb-Type Rentals on Condo Associations, HOAs
Many condo owners are using sites such as Airbnb, Homeaway, Vacation Rentals and VRBO as a way to monetize their assets. Yet while there are monetary benefits for condo owners in using these home-sharing sites, doing so poses significant risks to both the association and the condominium owner, including liability exposure, damage to common areas,…