HO-6 vs. the Master Policy: What Condo Insurance Covers on the Space Coast

Two numbers decide what a Space Coast condo really costs you after a hurricane, and they live in two different documents that almost nobody reads before closing. The first is the deductible on the association's master policy — the amount the building pays out of pocket before its insurer pays anything, set by a board you have not met yet. The second is the loss assessment limit on your own HO-6 policy, which Florida law sets at a floor of $2,000. When the first number is large and the second one is $2,000, the difference does not disappear. It arrives as your share, and it is enforceable against your unit. That gap is a real number sitting behind a monthly fee that looks fixed, and your side of it is not capped by anything you have signed. Pricing it takes about two phone calls.

This is education, not insurance or legal advice — quote your own policy with a licensed Florida agent and read the building's documents with a community-association attorney. But if you are shopping condos in Cape Canaveral, Satellite Beach, or anywhere else on the barrier island, this is the part of the carrying cost the listing will never show you. Here is how the two policies divide the building, what each one leaves to the other, and how to check both against a specific unit.

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Who insures what: the line is written in Florida law

In Florida the walls-in question is not left entirely to the building's declaration. Section 718.111(11) of the Florida Statutes sets a baseline split for condominiums, and it is the reason two buildings a mile apart on A1A divide the risk the same way even when their documents read differently.

On the association's side, the master policy must provide primary coverage for "all portions of the condominium property as originally installed or replacement of like kind and quality, in accordance with the original plans and specifications," plus alterations or additions made to the condominium property or association property. That is the shell, the structure, and the building as it was built.

On your side, the same statute tells the association's policy what it must leave out. The policy "must exclude all personal property within the unit or limited common elements, and floor, wall, and ceiling coverings, electrical fixtures, appliances, water heaters, water filters, built-in cabinets and countertops, and window treatments" located within the boundaries of the unit and serving only that unit. Everything on that list is yours to insure.

The item	Who insures it under Fla. Stat. 718.111(11)
The building as originally installed — structure, shell, common elements	The association's master policy, as primary coverage
Floor, wall and ceiling coverings inside your unit	You — excluded from the master policy
Electrical fixtures, appliances, water heaters, water filters	You — excluded from the master policy
Built-in cabinets and countertops	You — excluded from the master policy
Window treatments serving only your unit	You — excluded from the master policy
Your furniture, clothing, electronics and everything else you moved in	You — personal property is excluded from the master policy

There is a second half to that statute worth reading twice. Unit owners are "responsible for the cost of reconstruction of any portions of the condominium property for which the unit owner is required to carry property insurance," and those costs are enforceable as an assessment. In plain terms: if you underinsure your side of the line, the building can still get the work done, and then bill you for it in a form you cannot easily argue with. Read the full text at the Florida Senate's copy of Fla. Stat. 718.111, then read your building's declaration, which can be more specific about where the line falls in that particular building.

What an HO-6 is, and what it is sized for

The Florida Department of Financial Services describes the condominium unit-owners form plainly: an HO-6 is the policy "which provides some coverage for the structure but primarily covers the personal property and liability of the insured." That phrase — some coverage for the structure — is the whole design. An HO-6 is not a small homeowners policy. It is a policy built to cover the interior half of a line somebody else drew.

The public numbers make the scale concrete. On the Citizens Property Insurance HO-6 coverage worksheet, Coverage A (the dwelling portion you are responsible for) starts at a minimum of $1,000 and is included in the policy; Coverage C (personal property) runs from a minimum of $6,000 to a maximum of $200,000, with Coverages A and C combined required to stay under $700,000, except in Miami-Dade and Monroe, where the combined limit is $1,000,000. Coverage A is written for all causes of loss with certain exclusions; Coverage C is named-peril. Ordinance or Law coverage comes in at 25 percent of Coverage A, with a 50 percent option available.

Citizens is the state's insurer of last resort, so its worksheet is a floor rather than a market survey. Private carriers write broader HO-6 forms with higher limits. What the Citizens numbers are good for is calibration: they show you the shape of the product before an agent quotes you a version of it.

The master-policy deductible is the pass-through nobody prices

Here is where the two policies collide. The association's board sets the master policy's deductibles, and Florida law constrains that choice only in general terms: the deductibles "must be consistent with industry standards and prevailing practice for communities of similar size and age, and having similar construction and facilities in the locale where the condominium property is situated." A coastal building carrying a percentage hurricane deductible on a multi-million-dollar insured value is inside that standard. It is also a very large number to divide among a finite list of units.

Florida's hurricane deductible works differently from the deductible on your car. The Department of Financial Services explains that hurricane deductibles are "typically 2, 5 or 10 percent of the amount of insurance covering the dwelling at the time of loss" — a percentage, not a flat figure. The hurricane period starts when the National Hurricane Center issues a hurricane warning for any part of Florida and ends 72 hours after the last watch or warning for any part of Florida is terminated. You pay only one hurricane deductible per calendar year, provided you stay with the same insurance company or company group for the second and subsequent hurricanes that year. Move to a carrier outside that group during the same calendar year and the credit does not travel with you.

A percentage deductible is not a number you can carry in your head. Florida requires the actual dollar value to be shown on the declarations page. Read it there.

Now the part that turns the association's deductible into your bill. Florida requires every residential condominium unit-owner policy to carry loss assessment coverage — "at least $2,000 in property loss assessment coverage for all assessments made as a result of the same direct loss," with a deductible of no more than $250 per direct property loss, and no deductible at all if one has already been applied to other property loss you sustained from the same event. That coverage is what responds when the building passes its deductible or an uninsured shortfall through to owners.

Flood is a third policy, and the island makes it the expensive one

Neither the master policy nor your HO-6 handles flood. The Florida Department of Financial Services states it without hedging: "Flood damage is not covered by your Homeowners' insurance policy... If you need flood coverage you must purchase a flood insurance policy." FEMA's own condominium materials say the same from the building side — "A standard property insurance policy typically doesn't cover flood damage."

For condominiums, the federal program splits along a familiar line. The NFIP's Residential Condominium Building Association Policy (RCBAP) "may only be purchased by a condominium owners' association" and is used to insure buildings where 75 percent or more of the floor area is residential. It covers the building. FEMA is explicit that it does not cover your things: "Personal Property coverage, also known as contents coverage, is not included with residential condominium building property coverage." FEMA's guidance to associations adds the practical limit — an RCBAP can pay up to $250,000 in building loss payments for any one unit — and tells boards to encourage individual owners to buy their own contents or building coverage.

So a fully covered barrier-island unit can involve four policies: the association's master property policy, the association's RCBAP, your HO-6, and your own flood policy for contents and the interior items the RCBAP leaves out. Pull the zone for the address at the FEMA Flood Map Service Center before you budget any of it. For the layered version of this math on a specific market, our Cocoa Beach condo insurance and flood cost guide walks the stack line by line, and Space Coast flood zones explained covers what AE, VE and X mean for a premium.

Cape Canaveral: two condo eras, one 2021 flood map, and a discount that changes on October 1

Cape Canaveral is a condo-led city — most of what sells here is a condo — and the for-sale stock falls into two recognizable eras. There are the space-race era low-rise and mid-rise buildings that went up as the city grew after its 1963 incorporation, and there is a newer wave of mid-2000s riverside buildings on the Banana River side. For an insurance conversation, that split matters more than the finishes. The older cohort is the one most likely to sit inside Florida's milestone-inspection population, and buildings in that population are the ones where structural findings, reserve funding and loss assessments start pointing at each other. The Cape Canaveral guide breaks down where each era sits in the city.

The flood picture here is unusually well documented, and the city publishes it. The City of Cape Canaveral states that the current FEMA flood map for the city "was issued on January, 29, 2021," that the new maps "have increased the size of the City's Special Flood Hazard Area," and that the new 500-year flood event risk area "covers most, but not all, of the City of Cape Canaveral." A 500-year designation is not a high-risk zone, and it is also not a promise. It is a mapped acknowledgment that water reaches further than the older maps said.

Satellite Beach: a single-family town with a condo layer, and a 25-year question

Satellite Beach is the opposite composition. It is a single-family town first — mid-century block-and-stucco houses from the late 1950s through the 1970s — with a real condo and townhome layer on top, ocean-side and river-side, plus the townhomes inside Montecito. If you are buying the house, the HO-6 conversation does not apply to you at all and the wind-mitigation conversation does; start with the wind mitigation inspection credit instead. If you are buying into one of the buildings, one statutory detail changes your timeline.

Florida's milestone inspection requirement, at Fla. Stat. 553.899, applies to buildings "three habitable stories or more in height" under condominium or cooperative ownership. The statewide trigger is an inspection by December 31 of the year the building reaches 30 years of age, based on the date of the certificate of occupancy, and every 10 years after that. But the statute also gives the local building department room to move it up: the local enforcement agency may determine that "local circumstances, including environmental conditions such as proximity to salt water" require the inspection by December 31 of the year the building reaches 25 years of age instead. The Florida DBPR states the same two-track rule on its condominium inspections page.

Read that carefully, because the version repeated most often on the internet is out of date. The original 2022 law tied the 25-year trigger to a flat three-mile coastal line. The framework has been amended since, and today 25 years is a local determination, made by the local enforcement agency, not an automatic consequence of being near the ocean. A Satellite Beach building could be on the 30-year clock or the 25-year clock, and the place to get that answer is the city's building department. When a local agency does make the determination, it must give the association written notice by certified mail, and phase one of the inspection must be completed within 180 days of that notice.

"Near salt water" is a reason a building department can move your deadline. It is not proof that yours already did. Ask the building official, in writing, for the specific address.

The insurance connection is direct. A milestone inspection that finds substantial structural deterioration leads to repairs; repairs need funding; funding that reserves do not cover arrives as a special assessment. Our milestone inspection guide covers phase one versus phase two, and Florida condo reserves and special assessments covers the reserve side and how the funding rules have changed. Your loss assessment coverage responds to certain assessments tied to a covered property loss — it is not a general-purpose fund for a structural repair program. That distinction is worth asking your agent to spell out for the exact policy you are buying. The Satellite Beach guide has the rest of the local homework, including seawalls and dock condition on the Grand Canal side.

How to price the whole stack on a specific unit

This is the order I work in, and it fits inside a normal inspection period.

• Get the declaration and find the line. Florida sets the baseline split, and the building's declaration tells you how it applies here. You are looking for where the association's responsibility stops and yours starts.
• Read the master policy declarations page, not the summary. You want the deductibles, especially the hurricane deductible, and the insured value they are calculated against. Ask how many units share it.
• Ask about the building's flood coverage. Does the association carry an RCBAP? What does it cover, and what does it leave to owners? FEMA's condominium materials are clear that contents are not included.
• Quote your HO-6 with the loss assessment limit named out loud. Confirm the limit, ask what the highest available limit is, and ask the agent to show you the actual dollar value of your hurricane deductible on the declarations page — Florida requires it to be displayed there.
• Quote flood separately, and ask about the CRS discount. In Cape Canaveral, ask specifically whether the quote reflects the city's current CRS class and how the October 1, 2026 change applies.
• Look up the building itself. The Brevard County Property Appraiser is where you confirm year built and building characteristics, which is what tells you whether the milestone clock has started.
• Call the local building official. For a building three habitable stories or taller, ask whether the city has made a 25-year determination and whether this building has been noticed or has a completed report on file. Cape Canaveral's Building Division handles that for city addresses; for Satellite Beach, ask the City of Satellite Beach building department.
• Add it up as one monthly number. Association fee plus HO-6 plus flood plus a realistic monthly set-aside for assessment risk. That total is what you are signing up for.

For the wider picture on what carrying a Space Coast home costs beyond the condo case, start with the real cost of owning a home on the Space Coast and what homeowners insurance really costs here. Regional market context comes from the Space Coast Association of REALTORS®, and the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation is the authority on how property coverage is regulated and priced in the state.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between my HO-6 and the condo association's master policy?

The master policy is the association's insurance on the building, and you pay your share of it inside your monthly fee rather than as a separate bill. Your HO-6 is the policy you buy yourself. Under Florida Statute 718.111(11) the master policy provides primary coverage for all portions of the condominium property as originally installed, and it must exclude your personal property plus the floor, wall and ceiling coverings, electrical fixtures, appliances, water heaters, water filters, built-in cabinets and countertops, and window treatments inside your unit. Everything on that excluded list is what your HO-6 needs to cover.

What does Florida law require my condo association's insurance to cover?

Florida Statute 718.111(11) requires every condominium association to have adequate property insurance and says the association's policy must provide primary coverage for all portions of the condominium property as originally installed or replacement of like kind and quality in accordance with the original plans and specifications, plus alterations or additions made to the condominium property or association property. The same statute requires the policy to exclude personal property inside units and the interior items each unit owner is responsible for. Your building's declaration can add detail, so read both.

What is loss assessment coverage, and is $2,000 enough?

Loss assessment coverage is the part of your HO-6 that responds when the association passes a covered loss through to owners, including its deductible. Florida Statute 627.714 requires unit-owner policies to include at least $2,000 in property loss assessment coverage for all assessments made as a result of the same direct loss, with a deductible of no more than $250, and no deductible at all if one has already been applied to other property loss you sustained from the same event. Whether $2,000 is enough depends entirely on the master policy's deductible and how many units share it. Citizens caps loss assessment at $2,000 on its HO-6 with no option to increase it, while private carriers often sell higher limits, so ask your agent what the highest available limit is before you buy.

Does my HO-6 cover flood damage in Cape Canaveral or Satellite Beach?

No. The Florida Department of Financial Services states that flood damage is not covered by your homeowners insurance policy and that if you need flood coverage you must purchase a flood insurance policy. FEMA says the same thing from the building side, that a standard property insurance policy typically does not cover flood damage. Many condo associations carry an NFIP Residential Condominium Building Association Policy on the structure, which only an association can buy, but FEMA is explicit that contents coverage is not included in it. That means a barrier-island unit can involve four policies: the master property policy, the association's flood policy, your HO-6, and your own flood policy for contents.

How does the hurricane deductible work on a Florida condo policy?

Florida hurricane deductibles are typically 2, 5 or 10 percent of the amount of insurance covering the dwelling at the time of loss rather than a flat dollar figure, and the law requires the actual dollar value to be displayed on your declarations page. The hurricane period begins when the National Hurricane Center issues a hurricane warning for any part of Florida and ends 72 hours after the last watch or warning for any part of Florida is terminated. You pay only one hurricane deductible per calendar year as long as you stay with the same insurance company or company group for later hurricanes that year. If you move to an unrelated carrier mid-year, the credit does not follow you.

Do Cape Canaveral condo owners get a flood insurance discount?

Yes, through FEMA's Community Rating System. The City of Cape Canaveral states that it is currently a CRS Class 8 community and that all flood insurance premiums are reduced by 10 percent for all policyholders within the Special Flood Hazard Area. After a FEMA on-site evaluation on August 26, 2025, the city announced that FEMA has recommended it advance to a Class 6 rating, and that beginning October 1, 2026 residents will be eligible for a 20 percent discount on flood insurance premiums. Ask your agent whether a specific quote reflects the current discount, and confirm the city's current class on its flood protection page, because CRS ratings are verified on a cycle.

Does a Satellite Beach condo building have to do its milestone inspection at 25 years or 30?

It depends on a local decision, and you have to ask. Florida Statute 553.899 applies to buildings three habitable stories or more in height under condominium or cooperative ownership, and sets the statewide trigger at December 31 of the year the building reaches 30 years of age, then every 10 years. The local enforcement agency may determine that local circumstances, including environmental conditions such as proximity to salt water, require the inspection at 25 years of age instead. The flat three-mile coastal rule people still quote came from the original 2022 law and is not how the statute reads now. Ask the city building department whether a determination has been made for the specific building.

What should I ask for before I buy a Space Coast condo?

Ask in writing for the declaration, the master policy declarations page showing its deductibles and the insured value they are calculated against, the current budget with reserve balances, the last 12 months of board minutes, the milestone inspection report and Structural Integrity Reserve Study if the building is three habitable stories or taller, and the assessment history. Then quote your HO-6 with the loss assessment limit named and your flood policy separately, and confirm the building's year built with the Brevard County Property Appraiser. Do all of it inside your inspection period so you can renegotiate or walk away if the numbers do not work.

Keep reading

Data last verified: August 2026. Insurance and statutory points summarized from Fla. Stat. 718.111(11), 627.714, 627.701 and 553.899; the Florida Department of Financial Services homeowners insurance overview and hurricane deductible consumer guide; the Citizens Property Insurance HO-6 Condominium Unit Owners coverage worksheet (08/26); FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program's condominium coverage materials; the Florida DBPR condominium inspections page; and the City of Cape Canaveral's flood protection page and Community Rating System announcement. Statutes, CRS ratings, carrier availability and policy forms change — confirm current specifics with a licensed Florida insurance agent, a community-association attorney, the local building official, and the relevant authority for your property.