A state working group proposes a surcharge on every Massachusetts condo insurance policy
A state working group proposes a surcharge on every Massachusetts condo insurance policy
2026-09-10 · Massachusetts · Regulation · Proposed — not yet introduced
Proposed. A Massachusetts working group has recommended funding a foundation-remediation programme with a surcharge on homeowners insurance policies — and its revenue arithmetic expressly includes condominium policies. Nothing has been enacted; implementing legislation has been filed.
The Crumbling Concrete Stakeholder Working Group Final Report was submitted to the Legislature on 31 March 2026, convened by the Secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities under section 105 of Chapter 9 of the Acts of 2025. The group had 17 members: impacted homeowners, community advocates, state agencies and regulators, legislators, and experts in insurance, mortgage lending, construction materials and municipal administration.1
The problem
Concrete foundations containing the mineral pyrrhotite deteriorate over decades. 43 Massachusetts cities and towns are affected, concentrated in central and western Massachusetts and along the Connecticut and New Hampshire borders. Full foundation replacement runs $150,000 to $250,000 per home — a figure that becomes catastrophic when the failing foundation sits under a multi-unit condominium building rather than a single-family house.
The money, and where it would come from
- Funding target: $20 to $30 million per year for 5 to 10 years
- A homeowners insurance surcharge of $6 to $12 per policy per year (Connecticut's comparable model is $12)
- A $6 per cubic yard fee on concrete aggregate, estimated at roughly $19.5 million a year
- Plus bond authorisation, appropriations and federal funds
The surcharge base is the detail for this audience: the report's revenue math uses roughly 1.7 million policies including condominium and homeowners policies, excluding renters. Every Massachusetts condominium unit owner would pay into it.
The two delivery vehicles
The group recommended a choice between them rather than both:
- A captive insurer — the Massachusetts Foundations Solutions Indemnity Company, modelled on Connecticut's equivalent, potentially operational within one year of enabling legislation
- A replacement programme — the Massachusetts Concrete Foundation Replacement Program, run through MassHousing, MHP or CEDAC, needing 12 to 24 months to launch
An implementing bill has been filed: S.3091 (Sen. Peter Durant), creating a Crumbling Concrete Assistance Fund with a $6 fee on homeowner and condominium insurance policies and a $6 per cubic yard ready-mix surcharge on residential and commercial projects.2
The prevention half, which matters more to associations
The recommendations that would reduce future exposure are the ones an association developer or a board undertaking foundation work should note:
- Mandatory aggregate source licensing and pyrrhotite testing
- Mandatory concrete batch ticket submission and retention for foundations
- Core-testing reimbursement
- Pyrrhotite continuing education for real estate professionals and home inspectors
- Integrating MassDOT aggregate licensing into the state building code
Batch ticket retention is the quietly important one. A batch ticket identifies the aggregate source for a specific concrete pour. An association that holds batch tickets for its foundations can establish, decades later, whether the concrete came from a suspect source — and an association that does not holds a very expensive unknown.
What a condominium association in an affected area should do
The exposure is qualitatively different from a single-family one, and the difference is worth spelling out.
The foundation is a common element. Remediation is an association project funded by all owners, not a homeowner's own decision. A $200,000-plus figure per building, in a small association, is a special assessment that some owners cannot pay — which produces liens, delinquencies, and a budget crisis on top of a structural one.
Insurance almost certainly does not respond. Deterioration of building materials over time is the paradigm case of an excluded cause under a property policy. The reason a state fund is being proposed at all is that the private market does not cover this.
It is a disclosure problem too. A known or suspected pyrrhotite condition affects marketability of every unit in the building, and a board that learns of one has questions to answer about what it tells buyers.
Practical steps: find out whether your municipality is among the 43; establish, if possible, where the foundation concrete came from; if there are visible map-cracking patterns in foundation walls, get an engineering assessment rather than a contractor's opinion; and do not commission core testing without understanding what a positive result obliges the board to disclose — a question for counsel before the sample is taken.
Where this stands, honestly
A working group has reported. A bill has been filed. Nothing has been enacted, formal sessions of the 194th General Court ended on 31 July 2026, and the 195th convenes in January 2027.
The surcharge is the part most likely to be contested. A $6 to $12 annual charge on 1.7 million policies is not large per policy, but it is a new insurance assessment in a state where condominium and homeowners premiums are already rising, and it asks every policyholder in Massachusetts to fund a problem concentrated in 43 municipalities. Connecticut's precedent is the strongest argument for it.
What to watch next
Whether S.3091 or a successor is refiled and moved in the 195th General Court, and whether the surcharge survives at $6, $12, or at all. If it is enacted, the operational change for condominium owners is a line item on the master policy or the unit policy — small, annual, and easy to miss until someone asks what it is.
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