District of Columbia HOA Insurance Requirements

The District of Columbia imposes a statutory association insurance mandate on condominiums through the D.C. Condominium Act, D.C. Code § 42-1903.10,¹ but it has no comprehensive statute governing non-condominium planned communities — their insurance runs entirely off the recorded declaration.²

Quick-Reference: District of Columbia HOA Insurance Requirements

Section 1: Overview — How HOA insurance is regulated in the District of Columbia

The District of Columbia imposes a statutory association insurance mandate on condominiums through the D.C. Condominium Act, and because the District's housing stock runs overwhelmingly condominium and cooperative rather than detached-home planned communities, the condominium framework governs most community associations, with cooperatives and any planned communities relying on their governing documents.¹ The condominium insurance obligation lives at D.C. Code § 42-1903.10, and it requires the unit owners' association to maintain property insurance and commercial general liability insurance.¹ Non-condominium planned communities have no dedicated statute and therefore no statutory insurance mandate; they rely on recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions plus corporate formalities under the DC Nonprofit Corporation Act wherever the association incorporates.² The condominium mandate descends from the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act, not the 1982 UCIOA, and it hinges on coverage being "reasonably available," with a duty to notify owners if required coverage stops being available.³ Fidelity (crime) coverage and directors-and-officers liability coverage carry no statutory mandate; the declaration or secondary-market lender requirements typically drive them instead.⁴ Nationally, the District sits with the UCA-based condominium-mandate jurisdictions, apart from comprehensive prescriptive states such as Florida and California and from CC&R-primary states, and stands out for its intensely urban, condominium-and-cooperative housing stock. The sections ahead lay out the statutory framework, how coverage gets allocated, and what's happened recently.

Section 2: The statutory insurance framework

2A: The condominium insurance mandate

The condominium insurance obligation lives at D.C. Code § 42-1903.10.¹ Unless the condominium instruments expressly say otherwise, and starting no later than the first sale of a unit to someone other than the declarant, the unit owners' association must maintain, to the extent reasonably available, two coverages: property insurance on the common elements insuring against all risks of direct physical loss commonly insured against, and liability insurance — including medical payments insurance — covering occurrences arising from using, owning, or maintaining the common elements.¹ The provision descends from Section 3-113 of the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act, and the District's courts are directed to give due regard to decisions from states that enacted the Uniform Condominium Act or similar statutes.³ That's distinct from the UCIOA (1982) Section 3-113 that Alaska, Colorado, and other UCIOA states adopted; DC never adopted UCIOA for condominiums.

The "reasonably available" qualifier is real and survives in the DC text, and it carries a notice obligation: when required property or liability coverage isn't reasonably available, the association must promptly hand-deliver or mail notice of the unavailability to every unit owner.¹ On valuation, the total amount of property insurance after deductibles apply must run no less than 90% of the insured property's replacement cost at the time the insurance is purchased and at each renewal date.¹ Where a building holds units with horizontal boundaries, the property insurance must, to the extent reasonably available, include the units — though not improvements or betterments an owner installed.¹ The liability coverage carries no statutory dollar minimum; the executive board sets the amount, subject to any figure the condominium instruments specify.¹

On proceeds and repair, the association adjusts any loss under the property policy, and proceeds go to an insurance trustee or the association — never to a mortgagee — sit in trust, and get disbursed first for repair or restoration.¹ The association must repair or replace damaged property promptly unless the condominium terminates, repair would be illegal, or 80% of unit owners vote against rebuilding; any repair cost above insurance proceeds and reserves becomes a common expense.¹ On deductibles, DC runs its own allocation rule, added by the Condominium Amendment Act (D.C. Law 20-109, effective 2014) rather than the 2008 UCIOA owner-charge provision: the bylaws specify who pays the deductible, and if the bylaws stay silent, a loss originating in the common elements makes the deductible a common expense, while a loss originating in a unit makes that unit's owner responsible for the deductible up to $5,000 — provided owners received advance notice — with the association's subrogation rights preserved.¹

2B: Planned communities and the absence of a statutory mandate

Non-condominium planned-community HOAs in the District have no dedicated statute and no statutory insurance mandate; their insurance runs entirely off the recorded declaration.² The order of precedence shifts by community type. For condominiums, the D.C. Condominium Act governs to the extent it speaks to insurance, then the declaration, then the bylaws, then the rules.¹ For planned communities, the declaration takes the lead, with no overriding insurance statute — the Condominium Act by its own terms applies only to condominiums.⁶ Where a planned-community association incorporates, the DC Nonprofit Corporation Act (D.C. Code § 29-401.01 et seq.) supplies corporate-formality scaffolding for director conduct and indemnification, but that stays distinct from any insurance mandate and doesn't require the association to purchase insurance.⁴ The practical implication is direct: for a planned community, coverage analysis starts and ends with the recorded declaration and any applicable lender requirements.

2C: The declaration, corporate law, and the federal and market overlay

For condominiums, D.C. Code § 42-1903.10 opens with "unless the condominium instruments expressly provide otherwise," so the declaration can vary many insurance defaults; the section may also be varied or waived for a condominium where every unit is restricted to nonresidential use.¹ For planned communities, the declaration is the sole source. Fidelity and D&O coverage carry no statutory mandate. The Condominium Act empowers the association to provide for indemnification of officers and board members and to maintain liability insurance for directors or officers, but it never commands that such insurance be purchased; the DC Nonprofit Corporation Act likewise permits, and in defined circumstances requires, indemnification of directors and officers, but doesn't mandate insurance.⁴ The federal and secondary-market overlay operates as a separate layer. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA condominium project approval, and the National Flood Insurance Program impose insurance conditions on associations whose units are financed conventionally or through FHA, including planned communities that have no statutory floor, and these lender and federal requirements frequently exceed any DC-law floor, driving fidelity, flood, and property coverage decisions.⁵ Finally, the District market shapes real coverage decisions: riverine and urban flooding along the Potomac and Anacostia rivers and from intense rainfall, plus remnants of Atlantic tropical systems and aging urban building stock, all inform coverage choices without becoming statutory mandates.⁷ The District's Special Flood Hazard Area runs A zone only; it carries no direct coastal windstorm exposure and no wildfire exposure.⁷

Section 3: Coverage allocation and compliance obligations

A: Association coverage obligations

For condominiums, the master policy has to carry property insurance on the common elements against all risks of direct physical loss and general liability insurance covering common-element occurrences, both to the extent reasonably available, under D.C. Code § 42-1903.10.¹ This is mandatory but may be varied where the condominium instruments expressly provide otherwise. For planned communities, the association carries whatever the declaration requires; no statutory floor exists.²

B: Coverage allocation between association and owners

The condominium master property policy covers common elements and, where units have horizontal boundaries, the units themselves, but it need not cover owner-installed improvements and betterments, so interior upgrades and personal property stay the owner's responsibility — this applies to condominiums under D.C. Code § 42-1903.10.¹ Each unit owner must, to the extent reasonably available, carry unit owner's insurance with dwelling property coverage of at least $10,000 and personal liability coverage of at least $300,000, amounts the executive board may increase.¹ For planned communities, the split between association and owner coverage runs contractual, set by the declaration rather than statute.

C: Deductibles, proceeds, and repair-or-replace

By default under the Condominium Act, a deductible for a loss originating in the common elements counts as a common expense, while a deductible for a loss originating in a unit falls on that unit's owner up to $5,000 when the bylaws stay silent and owners received advance notice — condominiums, D.C. Code § 42-1903.10.¹ Proceeds sit in trust and apply first to repair, and the association must rebuild unless 80% of owners vote otherwise; any shortfall between proceeds plus reserves and the cost of repair becomes a common expense borne by all owners through assessments.¹ For planned communities, deductible and proceeds treatment runs contractual under the CC&Rs.

D: Fidelity, D&O, and disclosure

Fidelity and D&O coverage stay declaration- or lender-driven rather than statutory for both condominiums and planned communities; the Condominium Act permits, but doesn't require, the association to maintain D&O liability insurance.⁴ On disclosure, once any policy is obtained, the association's officer must promptly furnish written notice of procurement, changes, or termination to each unit owner, and the insurer must issue certificates or memoranda of insurance to the association and, on written request, to any unit owner, mortgagee, or beneficiary under a deed of trust — condominiums, D.C. Code § 42-1903.10.¹ The insurer can't cancel or refuse to renew until 30 days after mailing notice to the association and covered parties.¹ For planned communities, any disclosure of insurance information runs contractual under the declaration or corporate under the DC Nonprofit Corporation Act. The error readers make most often: assuming the master policy covers the unit interior or owner improvements. Under the DC condominium statute, the association insures the common elements and the structural units but not owner-installed betterments or personal property.¹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A: Recent bills

B: Recent appellate rulings

No published District of Columbia Court of Appeals opinion issued between July 2023 and July 2026 specifically addresses condominium or homeowners association insurance obligations, master-policy coverage allocation, deductible disputes, or insurance proceeds and rebuild questions under D.C. Code § 42-1903.10.⁹ The appellate authority most directly touching condominium insurance proceeds remains Jahanbein v. Ndidi Condominium Unit Owners Association, 85 A.3d 824 (D.C. 2014). There, after water pipes burst in a unit of the seven-unit Ndidi Condominium in January 2009, causing damage a contractor calculated to exceed $15,000, a unit owner sued for breach of fiduciary duty over the association's handling of insurance proceeds. The Court of Appeals addressed the arbitrability of the dispute and held that "[n]othing in the Bylaws assures us that the unit owners are direct parties to each other's agreements with the Condo Association."¹⁰

C: Active legislative debates

The principal active proposal touching association insurance remains B26-0495, which the Council's housing committee heard on March 30, 2026 amid organized opposition from condominium owners concerned about the higher deductible pass-through and mandatory subrogation waiver.⁸

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

The District sits within one of three broad categories of association insurance regulation. First are condominium-statute jurisdictions on the UCA or UCIOA model with a statutory condominium insurance mandate keyed to Section 3-113, where DC sits on the UCA-based version. Second are comprehensive non-uniform prescriptive states, notably Florida (Chapter 718) and California (Davis-Stirling). Third are CC&R-primary states such as Alabama and Arkansas. The District stands out as an intensely urban, condominium-and-cooperative jurisdiction whose highest court is the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which has no separate intermediate appellate court and sits outside the federal system.⁹ For a multi-state operator entering DC, condominium obligations track the UCA Section 3-113 pattern, cooperatives follow their own proprietary leases and any applicable cooperative provisions, and urban flood exposure is a market factor specific to the District.⁷ The District most recently amended its Condominium Act insurance provisions in 2014, and no further insurance-specific amendment has been enacted since.¹

HOA Weekly updates its District of Columbia Insurance Requirements coverage quarterly, tracking the Council, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and shifts in the property-insurance market. Federal frameworks — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, NFIP, and FHA fair-housing accommodation rules — apply to DC associations regardless of the District framework, and a fuller treatment of those rules will follow once that coverage is built out.

1. D.C. Code § 42-1903.10, Insurance obtained by association; notice to unit owners (D.C. Law Library, Council of the District of Columbia) ↩
2. D.C. Code § 42-1901.01, Applicability of chapter (the Condominium Act applies to condominiums created in the District; there is no comparable comprehensive statute for non-condominium planned communities, which rely on recorded declarations and, where incorporated, the DC Nonprofit Corporation Act) ↩
3. D.C. Code § 42-1901.08, Interpretation of chapter (District courts shall give due regard to judicial decisions in states that have enacted the Uniform Condominium Act or similar statutes); reasonably-available qualifier and notice-of-unavailability duty appear at D.C. Code § 42-1903.10(b), (c), and (d) ↩
4. D.C. Code § 42-1903.08(a)(13), Power to provide for indemnification of officers and to maintain liability insurance for directors or officers (permissive, not mandatory); D.C. Code § 29-406.51 (permissible indemnification) and § 29-406.52 (mandatory indemnification of a director or officer successful in defense; neither section mandates insurance) ↩
5. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-4-02, Fidelity/Crime Insurance Requirements for Project Developments (required for condo/co-op projects over 20 units; lender requirement, not DC statute); Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-3-06, Flood Insurance Requirements for All Property Types; FHA Condominium Project Approval Required Documents (HUD; hazard, liability, flood, and fidelity insurance conditions) ↩
6. D.C. Code § 42-1901.01 (Condominium Act chapter applies to condominiums; it does not extend a comprehensive insurance scheme to non-condominium planned communities) ↩
7. District Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE), Flood Risk Management (DOEE coordinates DC's NFIP participation; federal law requires flood insurance for high-risk-zone properties with federally backed financing); Resources for the Future, An Overview of the National Flood Insurance Program in Washington, DC (the District's SFHA is A zone only; riverine, coastal-storm-driven, and pluvial flooding along the Potomac and Anacostia) ↩
8. Council of the District of Columbia, B26-0495, Condominium Insurance Amendment Act of 2025 (official LIMS legislation page; introduced Nov. 20, 2025, referred to the Committee on Housing, public hearing held March 30, 2026, pending as of July 18, 2026) ↩
9. District of Columbia Court of Appeals, Opinions and Memoranda of Judgments (the District's highest court; review of published opinions July 2023–July 2026 located no insurance-specific condominium/HOA opinion under D.C. Code § 42-1903.10) ↩
10. Jahanbein v. Ndidi Condominium Unit Owners Association, Inc., 85 A.3d 824 (D.C. 2014) (District of Columbia Court of Appeals) ↩