Your Condo Association's Master Policy Was Non-Renewed: The Florida Unit Owner's Guide (2026)

By Ricardo Alonso, Founder, Atesa Risk Advisors · August 29, 2026

Key Takeaways

• July 1, 2025: the date Florida's HB 913 (chapter 2025-175) took effect — trade-press reporting confirms it bars Citizens, the state-backed insurer, from issuing or renewing a policy for a condo association or an individual unit owner until the association completes its required structural inspections [1][2].
• December 31, 2025: the catch-up deadline for the structural integrity reserve study (SIRS) for most associations that existed before July 1, 2022 — a deadline that has now passed, which is why 2026 renewals are where non-compliance surfaces [1].
• 3 habitable stories: the height at which a Florida condo building owes a milestone inspection, due by December 31 of the year it turns 30 and every 10 years after — the schedule rolls forward permanently [4].
• 36 months: the maximum age of the replacement-cost appraisal a Florida association must base its insurance on under FS 718.111(11)(a) [3].
• $2,000: the minimum loss assessment coverage on a Florida HO-6 — a floor the law sets, and it responds to assessments tied to a covered loss, which an insurance-premium assessment generally is not [5].
• 0: the number of dollars your HO-6 contributes toward rebuilding the roof, exterior walls, or common elements if the association is uninsured — the walls-in boundary in FS 718.111(11)(f) does not move when the master policy lapses [3].

Getting a master-policy non-renewal notice does not mean your building is uninsurable, and it does not mean you should panic-sell. It means the association has a fixed window to replace its property program, usually at a higher price or with different terms, and you as a unit owner have a short list of things to check: why the non-renewal happened, whether your building is behind on state-mandated inspections, what your own HO-6 does and does not cover, and how a replacement policy — or a failure to find one — would reach your mortgage, your assessments, and your ability to sell.

Why Florida Master Policies Are Being Non-Renewed in 2026

A master policy is the property insurance a Florida condominium association buys on the building itself — roof, exterior walls, and most of what sits outside your unit's interior finishes. Under FS 718.111(11)(a), the association must carry adequate property insurance based on the building's replacement cost, determined by an appraisal no more than 36 months old [3].

Carriers non-renew master policies for familiar reasons — roof age, open claims, wind exposure, capacity pullbacks. But the 2026 renewal cycle added a structural one: documentation of the post-Surfside inspection regime.

Two documents drive it. A milestone inspection is the engineer's structural check required by FS 553.899 for buildings three habitable stories or taller, due by December 31 of the year the building turns 30 and every 10 years afterward — a schedule that now rolls forward permanently rather than ending at any fixed date [4]. A SIRS — structural integrity reserve study — is the companion study under FS 718.112(2)(g) that tells the association what its structural components will cost to repair or replace and forces reserves to be funded for them [6].

The catch-up deadlines for existing buildings have now passed — December 31, 2024 originally, extended to December 31, 2025 for most associations by HB 913, the condo bill signed June 23, 2025 [1]. Reporting through the bill's passage indicated a large share of eligible buildings statewide had still not complied [2]. Underwriters read a missing SIRS the way they read an old roof: deferred risk. Associations that cannot produce current inspection and reserve documentation are seeing non-renewals, reduced terms, or both.

There is a second, sharper edge for unit owners specifically. Under HB 913 as reported by trade press, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation — the state-backed insurer of last resort — cannot issue or renew a policy for a condominium unit owner or an association unless the association has completed both the milestone inspection and the SIRS [1][2]. Your board's paperwork problem can reach your own HO-6 renewal if you are insured with Citizens.

What "Non-Renewed" Actually Means, and the Timeline That Follows

Non-renewal is not cancellation. Cancellation ends a policy mid-term and is tightly restricted; non-renewal means the carrier will honor the policy to its expiration date and then decline to continue it. Florida law requires the carrier to give a residential property policyholder advance written notice of non-renewal — months, not days — so a board that acts on the notice immediately has real time to remarket the account.

That window is the whole ballgame for owners. During it, the building remains fully insured. The risk is what happens at the end of it: the association replaces the policy (usually at a higher premium, sometimes through the surplus lines market — non-admitted carriers that price risks the standard market declines), replaces it with less coverage, or fails to replace it at all.

Five Ways a Master-Policy Non-Renewal Reaches Your Unit

1. Your HO-6 does not stretch to fill the gap. A Florida HO-6 — the unit owner's policy — insures from the unfinished interior surfaces inward: drywall finishes, flooring, cabinets, appliances, your personal property, your liability. That boundary comes from FS 718.111(11)(f), and it is fixed by statute, so if the association's coverage lapses, nothing in your policy steps up to insure the roof or the structure [3]. Our walls-in guide to what an HO-6 covers walks the boundary line item by line item.

2. Your own insurability can be affected. If your unit policy is with Citizens, the eligibility bar described above applies at your renewal, based on your association's compliance status [1][2]. Private carriers are not bound by that statute, but many ask about the association's insurance and inspection status on new business, and a building with no master policy is a placement most standard personal-lines underwriters will decline.

3. Your mortgage documents require the building to be insured. Condo loan agreements require acceptable insurance on both the unit and the project. If the master policy lapses, the lender can buy force-placed insurance — coverage the lender purchases to protect its own collateral interest and bills to the borrower. It is typically far more expensive than association coverage, and it protects the lender's interest, with little or none of the protection your own policy gives you. A lapse can also put the loan in technical default. Owners rarely see this coming, because the non-renewal notice goes to the association while the lender learns of the lapse from its insurance-tracking service.

4. Sales and refinances in the building can stall. Conventional financing depends on the project — the whole condominium — meeting insurance eligibility standards, including adequate replacement-cost coverage and deductible limits. A building with lapsed or thin master coverage generally fails project review, which pushes buyers to cash or portfolio loans and shrinks the pool of people who can purchase your unit. We covered the mechanics in our post on the master-policy standards condo buildings must meet to keep units sellable.

5. The replacement policy is usually the real bill. The most common outcome of a non-renewal is a replacement placement at a materially higher premium, and associations without budget room pass that through as a special assessment. Note what your loss assessment coverage does here: under FS 627.714, every Florida HO-6 includes at least $2,000 of loss assessment coverage — that figure is a statutory floor, and you can generally buy more — but it responds to assessments resulting from a covered loss, such as hurricane damage [5]. An assessment levied to pay a bigger insurance premium is an operating cost, and no HO-6 endorsement pays it. Our guide to how much loss assessment coverage you can buy in Florida covers what the coverage does and does not respond to.

What You Can Do in the First 30 Days

1. Get the facts of the notice. Ask the board or manager for the non-renewal letter: which carrier, which coverage (property, wind, liability — they are often separate placements), the expiration date, and the stated reason.
2. Ask two compliance questions in writing. Has the building's milestone inspection been completed and filed? Is the SIRS done and are the structural reserves being funded? These are the questions the replacement underwriter will ask, and Florida's condominium statute gives owners the right to inspect official association records, which include insurance policies and inspection reports [6].
3. Attend the next board meeting. Boards remarketing a distressed account make coverage decisions — higher deductibles, lower limits, dropped perils — that owners otherwise discover only at claim time.
4. Review your own HO-6 with your agent. Confirm your contents and betterments limits, and buy up loss assessment coverage while the account is quiet. If a storm later hits an underinsured building, the assessment that follows a covered loss is exactly what that coverage exists for.
5. Document your unit's condition. Photos and receipts for upgrades. After a loss in an underinsured building, the unit/master boundary gets contested, and documentation wins those arguments.
6. If you're mid-sale or mid-refinance, tell your lender's closer early. A late project-eligibility surprise kills deals; the same fact disclosed early usually just reroutes the financing.
7. If you're with Citizens, ask your agent to check eligibility now rather than at your renewal date, so a compliance problem in the building doesn't become a lapsed HO-6 [2].

"Every year I see a version of the same pattern: the association that treats a non-renewal notice as a work plan with a deadline comes out with a placement it can live with, and the association that sits on the letter until the last month takes whatever the market will still give it. Owners who ask early questions change which of those buildings they live in." — Ricardo Alonso, Founder, Atesa Risk Advisors

If the Association Cannot Find Full Replacement Coverage

Florida's statute does not treat association insurance as optional — FS 718.111(11)(a) requires adequate property insurance, and a board that lets the building run bare is exposed on its fiduciary duty, which is why boards in this position lean hard on their D&O policy (directors and officers liability — the coverage that defends board members' decisions) while they work the problem [3]. In practice, hard-to-place buildings get placed: through surplus lines carriers, through layered programs where several carriers each take a slice, or through Citizens' commercial-residential program once the building's compliance documents are in order. Each of those routes has terms an owner should understand, because deductibles and exclusions on the master program flow directly into what owners absorb after a storm.

One statute worth knowing as you read your association's replacement program: the association's obligation to insure the building does not extend to flood. Association flood coverage is permissive under chapter 718 — a board may buy it and budget for it at its discretion — so a building can be fully compliant on wind and property and carry no flood at all [3].

This is where an independent broker changes the math for a unit owner: at Atesa we read the association's declarations and the replacement program's terms alongside your HO-6, so your deductible strategy, loss assessment limit, and contents coverage are sized against the specific building you live in — and if your board is the one remarketing a non-renewed account, our condo and HOA insurance practice places association master programs across Northeast Florida and can quote the account directly.

If the building's underlying problem is compliance rather than capacity, the path back to the standard market runs through the inspections themselves — our SIRS compliance guide for board members lays out that sequence.

FAQ: Master-Policy Non-Renewal for Florida Unit Owners

How much warning does the association get before the master policy ends? Florida law requires advance written notice of non-renewal for residential property policies — a window measured in months. The letter goes to the association, so ask the board for the date; your personal countdown starts when theirs does.

Can my association legally go without insurance? FS 718.111(11)(a) requires the association to carry adequate property insurance based on replacement cost [3]. A board that fails to place coverage is out of compliance with the statute and exposed to owner claims — which is why buildings in this position nearly always end up placed, even if expensively.

Will my HO-6 cover building damage if the association is uninsured? No. The HO-6 insures from the unit's unfinished interior surfaces inward, and the statutory boundary in FS 718.111(11)(f) does not shift because the master policy lapsed [3].

Can Citizens refuse my unit-owner policy because the board missed its SIRS? Under HB 913 as reported at signing, Citizens cannot issue or renew a policy for a unit owner or association unless the association has completed its milestone inspection and SIRS [1][2]. Ask your agent to verify your building's status before your renewal.

Will loss assessment coverage pay my share of a premium-driven special assessment? Generally no. Loss assessment coverage under FS 627.714 responds to assessments resulting from a covered loss [5]. An assessment to fund a bigger premium is an operating expense.

Can I sell my unit while the master policy is in limbo? You can, but conventional financing depends on project-level insurance eligibility, so expect buyer financing friction until the replacement placement is bound. Cash buyers are unaffected by lender rules, though many will reprice.

What is the difference between a milestone inspection and a SIRS? The milestone inspection (FS 553.899) is an engineer's structural condition assessment for buildings three habitable stories or taller, on a rolling 30-year-then-every-10 schedule [4]. The SIRS (FS 718.112(2)(g)) is the reserve study that prices the structural components and requires reserves to be funded for them [6].

Will the replacement master policy cost more? Usually. Non-renewed accounts often remarket into surplus lines or layered placements at higher rates, and the difference typically reaches owners through the budget or a special assessment. Compliance documents in hand are the fastest way back to competitive markets.

Does the association have to carry flood insurance on the building? No — chapter 718 treats association flood coverage as permissive, a board-discretion purchase, so confirm separately whether your building carries it and whether you need a unit flood policy of your own [3].

Sources

[1] Insurance Journal — DeSantis Signs Law Giving Condo Owners Some Relief, But Questions Remain (June 24, 2025) [2] Insurance Journal — Florida Bill Barring Citizens Coverage for Noncompliant Condos Passes Committee (March 13, 2025) [3] Florida Statutes § 718.111 — The association (Online Sunshine) [4] Florida Statutes § 553.899 — Mandatory structural inspections for condominium and cooperative buildings (Online Sunshine) [5] Florida Statutes § 627.714 — Residential condominium unit owner coverage; loss assessment coverage required (Online Sunshine) [6] Florida Statutes § 718.112 — Bylaws (Online Sunshine)

Educational disclaimer: This article is general educational information about insurance and is not insurance advice, a quote, or an offer of coverage. Rates, discounts, deadlines, and requirements change and vary by property; confirm current figures with primary sources and a licensed agent before relying on them. Coverage is subject to the terms of your policy. For a personalized review, contact Atesa Risk Advisors, an independent, RamseyTrusted brokerage licensed in Florida (2-20 General Lines).

Ricardo Alonso is the Founder of Atesa Risk Advisors, a Florida independent insurance agency. Licensed 2-20 General Lines Agent and 2-15 Health & Life Agent, with a Master of Liberal Arts in Finance from Harvard University and a background in construction. He places HO-6 and association master programs for condo owners and boards across Northeast Florida.