The question to put to the broker, in these words

“State our wind and hail deductible in dollars, per unit, at current insured values, and confirm in writing whether it exceeds $50,000 per unit.”

That is the whole conversation, and most Kansas boards have never had it. Boards know their percentage. They rarely know the allocation basis, and the allocation basis is what a lender's project review will look at.

Two follow-ups are worth asking at the same time. Whether the policy limit equals 100 percent of current estimated replacement cost — construction costs in the Kansas City and Wichita markets have moved, and a limit set three renewals ago may no longer meet the standard. And whether the roof is settled on a replacement-cost or actual-cash-value basis, because an aged roof on an ACV schedule pays out depreciated regardless of what the deductible says.

The HO-6 requirement, and what a board can and cannot do about it

Where the master policy uses per-unit deductibles, individual owners must carry HO-6 coverage. An association cannot buy it for them and generally cannot compel a specific limit unless the declaration says so.

What it can do is tell owners the number. Publish, once a year: the master policy's per-unit wind and hail deductible in dollars, whether the association charges the deductible back to affected owners or absorbs it as a common expense, and the recommended HO-6 loss-assessment limit that follows. Kansas owners commonly hold whatever HO-6 limit was cheapest at closing, which is frequently a fraction of the exposure.

If the declaration is silent on chargeback, say so plainly. That silence usually means the association absorbs the deductible as a common expense and funds it by assessment across everyone — which is a materially different answer from the one most owners assume.

The squeeze, stated honestly

A Kansas association now faces a genuine three-way constraint, and there is no configuration that satisfies all of it cheaply. Premium affordability pushes toward a higher deductible. Financeability caps the deductible at $50,000 per unit. Reserve adequacy — rising to 15 percent of assessment income on January 4, 2027 — competes for the same dollars.

Something has to give, and in most Kansas communities it will be the assessment. A board that models this before the 2027 budget is adopted, rather than discovering it at renewal, can show owners that the increase is being driven by an insurance market and a mortgage underwriter rather than by anything the board chose.

A board's options before its next renewal

Get the deductible allocation in writing. Get replacement cost re-estimated. Ask the carrier whether a lower deductible is available at all, and at what premium, so the board can put a real number in front of owners instead of an abstraction. And minute the decision either way — Kansas directors are held to “the degree of care and loyalty to the association required of a trustee” under K.S.A. 58-4609, and an insurance decision taken with the trade-offs recorded is a defensible one.⁴

What to watch next

Watch for Kansas projects becoming ineligible on insurance grounds alone. That is the failure mode this standard creates in a hail state, and it will show up first in the Wichita and Kansas City metros where deductibles have moved furthest.

Watch the 2027 renewal season. Two consecutive severe Kansas seasons, a claims total that doubled in two years, and a hard cap on the deductible that carriers have been using to price around it, all arrive in the same quarter.