Ohio HOA Insurance Requirements

Section 1: Overview — How HOA insurance is regulated in Ohio

Ohio imposes a statutory association insurance mandate on both condominiums and planned communities. The condominium mandate sits in the Ohio Condominium Property Act at Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.16, which requires the board, unless the declaration or bylaws provide otherwise, to carry liability insurance, fire and extended coverage at not less than 90% of replacement cost, and blanket fidelity coverage.¹ Planned communities are governed by the Ohio Planned Community Law, and Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.06(B) directs the owners association to maintain property, liability, directors-and-officers, and fidelity coverage, to the extent reasonably available and applicable.² Both provisions took their current form through Senate Bill 61, effective September 13, 2022.¹ These are state-specific statutes, not the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act or UCIOA, so each insurance provision must be read from its own text rather than inferred from a uniform-act model. The most important divergence is directors-and-officers coverage: it's statutorily required for planned communities but isn't mandated for condominiums, where it's declaration-driven or lender-driven.¹² For any Ohio community, the recorded declaration and, for financed units, secondary-market lender rules operate on top of the statutory floor. The detailed sections below map each obligation to its source.

Section 2: The statutory insurance framework

2A. The condominium insurance mandate

The condominium insurance section is Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.16, titled "Condominium insurance." Section 5311.14 governs repair, restoration, and the application of insurance proceeds, while § 5311.16 carries the coverage mandate.¹⁴ Because Chapter 5311 is a state-specific statute rather than the Uniform Condominium Act or UCIOA, its requirements are only those the text sets out. Unless the declaration or bylaws provide otherwise, the board must maintain, as a common expense, three coverages: (A) liability insurance for all unit owners, their tenants, and all persons lawfully in possession or control of any part of the condominium property, in an amount the board determines, for personal injury or property damage arising from or relating to the common elements; (B) fire and extended coverage insurance on all buildings and structures of the condominium property in an amount not less than 90% of the replacement cost; and (C) blanket fidelity, crime, or dishonesty coverage for any person who controls or disburses association funds.¹ The fidelity requirement, added by Senate Bill 61, defines covered persons to include a management company's principals and employees, a bookkeeper, and the president, secretary, treasurer, any other board member, or employee of the association, and sets the coverage amount at the maximum funds in the association's custody at any one time plus three months of operating expenses.¹

Several features of the uniform-act insurance model are absent from § 5311.16 and shouldn't be attributed to it. The section contains no improvements-and-betterments exclusion, no "reasonably available" qualifier — that qualifier appears in the planned-community statute, not here — and no structured deductible-allocation or owner-charge scheme.¹ Its property standard is a fixed 90%-of-replacement-cost floor rather than a full replacement-cost mandate, and its liability requirement sets no dollar minimum.¹ Directors-and-officers coverage isn't required for condominiums.

Application of proceeds and reconstruction sit in § 5311.14. Unless the declaration provides otherwise, damage to or destruction of the common elements must be promptly repaired and restored by the board, paid first from insurance proceeds, with the balance a common expense.⁴ Unit owners exercising at least 75% of the voting power (or more if the declaration requires) may elect not to restore, in which case the property is subject to a partition sale and the net sale proceeds, insurance proceeds, and other indemnity are pooled for distribution in proportion to common-element interests.⁴ Deductibles aren't allocated by statute; that allocation is left to the declaration.

2B. The planned-community statute and its insurance mandate

The Ohio Planned Community Law does impose an association insurance mandate. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.06(B) provides that, commencing no later than the first conveyance of a lot to a person other than a declarant, the owners association "shall maintain" the following "to the extent reasonably available and applicable": property insurance on the common elements; liability insurance pertaining to the common elements; directors and officers liability insurance; and blanket fidelity, crime, or dishonesty coverage on the same terms that apply to condominiums.² This mandate, like the condominium fidelity expansion, was added by Senate Bill 61 in 2022. Separately, § 5312.06(D)(16) grants the board a permissive power to "purchase insurance and fidelity bonds the directors consider appropriate and necessary," which supplements, rather than limits, the mandate in subsection (B).²

Two limits distinguish the planned-community scheme from the condominium scheme. First, the planned-community mandate is qualified by "to the extent reasonably available and applicable," a market-availability condition that § 5311.16 doesn't contain. Second, Chapter 5312 has no statutory proceeds-and-reconstruction section analogous to § 5311.14; § 5312.08 assigns reasonable maintenance, repair, and replacement of the common elements to the association and of the lot and dwelling to the owner, but doesn't direct how insurance proceeds are applied or compel a rebuild vote.²⁵ For a planned community, the reconstruction and deductible analysis therefore begins with the declaration, read against the § 5312.06(B) coverage floor.

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

For condominiums, § 5311.16 applies "unless otherwise provided by the declaration or bylaws," so the declaration can vary the statutory coverages; for planned communities, § 5312.06(B) contains no such opener, though its "reasonably available and applicable" qualifier performs a related function.¹² In both community types the recorded declaration remains the operational rulebook, routinely setting higher limits, specific endorsements, and named-insured language.

Fidelity coverage is statutory in both chapters. Directors-and-officers coverage is statutory only for planned communities; for condominiums it's declaration-driven or lender-driven.¹² Where an association is incorporated as a nonprofit, the Ohio Nonprofit Corporation Law is relevant to director conduct and indemnification but isn't an insurance mandate: Ohio Rev. Code § 1702.12(E)(7) provides that a corporation "may purchase and maintain insurance" for its directors, officers, employees, agents, and volunteers, which is permissive authority, not a requirement.³

A separate layer of lender and federal requirements applies to units financed in the conventional or FHA markets, and it frequently exceeds the state floor. The Fannie Mae Selling Guide requires master property coverage on a replacement-cost basis and requires fidelity/crime coverage "for all condo and co-op projects," subject to defined exceptions including projects of 20 units or less and projects that would need fidelity/crime coverage of $5,000 or less.⁹⁶ Where a state imposes its own statutory fidelity requirement, Fannie Mae accepts that requirement in place of its own, which is directly relevant to Ohio associations under §§ 5311.16 and 5312.06.⁶ The Freddie Mac Seller/Servicer Guide requires property, liability, and fidelity or employee-dishonesty coverage for condominium and cooperative projects.⁷ FHA condominium project approval, governed by HUD Handbook 4000.1, conditions approval on master hazard insurance, liability insurance, fidelity coverage, and flood insurance where applicable.⁸ These apply to planned-community and condominium associations alike and, in practice, drive fidelity, flood, and property coverage decisions. Ohio's market context shapes the rest: severe convective storms (wind, hail, and tornadoes), winter and lake-effect perils near Lake Erie, and riverine and urban flood exposure that brings the National Flood Insurance Program into play in Special Flood Hazard Areas. These are cost and availability factors, not statutory mandates.

Section 3: Coverage allocation and compliance obligations

A. Association coverage obligations

For condominiums, the master program must carry, unless the declaration or bylaws provide otherwise, board-determined liability insurance, fire and extended coverage at not less than 90% of replacement cost on all buildings and structures, and blanket fidelity coverage.¹ For planned communities, the association must maintain property insurance on the common elements, common-element liability insurance, directors-and-officers coverage, and fidelity coverage, to the extent reasonably available and applicable.² Both mandates are statutory; the condominium mandate may be varied by the declaration, while the planned-community mandate is qualified by market availability.

B. Coverage allocation between association and owners

The condominium master policy insures the buildings, structures, and common elements; it doesn't, by statute, insure a unit owner's personal property, and owners typically carry an individual HO-6 unit policy for contents, interior finishes, and improvements and betterments.¹ The most common reader error is assuming the master policy covers the unit interior or owner improvements; it doesn't, and many Ohio boards have amended declarations to shift exterior components — windows, doors, decks, siding — to owners, widening the HO-6 gap. In a planned community, owners generally own their lots and dwellings, the association insures the common elements, and § 5312.08 assigns lot and dwelling repair to the owner.⁵ Loss-assessment coverage on an owner's policy backstops the owner's share of association-level losses.

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

Neither chapter allocates the master-policy deductible; allocation is a matter of the declaration, and boards commonly assign a deductible caused by a unit-level loss to the responsible owner where the documents allow.¹ For condominiums, § 5311.14 requires prompt repair and restoration of the common elements funded first from insurance proceeds, with the balance a common expense, and permits a 75% vote against restoration followed by a partition sale.⁴ Chapter 5312 has no parallel proceeds scheme, so a planned community's rebuild and proceeds rules come from its declaration.⁵ Owner loss-assessment exposure is real in both: uninsured repair costs and deductibles become common expenses recoverable by assessment.

D. Fidelity, D&O, and disclosure

Fidelity coverage is statutory for both community types, sized at the maximum funds in custody plus three months of operating expenses.¹² Directors-and-officers coverage is statutory only for planned communities; for condominiums it's a declaration or lender decision.² On disclosure, Ohio's statutory insurance-disclosure duty is narrow: § 5311.26 requires a condominium developer's disclosure statement to state the amount of insurance and the basis or formula used to arrive at it, but this applies to developer sales, not existing-owner resales.¹⁰ Neither chapter imposes a general statutory duty to furnish a certificate of insurance or master-policy access to owners, purchasers, or mortgagees; certificate delivery is instead driven by lender and title-company practice at closing.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills (July 2024 – July 2026)

No bill enacted or pending in the past 24 months amends Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.16 or § 5312.06 or otherwise changes association insurance obligations. The substantive changes to both insurance sections were made by Senate Bill 61 of the 134th General Assembly, effective September 13, 2022, which predates this window.¹² House Bill 226 of the 136th General Assembly, the pending condominium and planned-community "super lien" measure, addresses assessment lien priority under §§ 5311.18 and 5312.12, not insurance.¹¹ The most material recent pressure on Ohio association insurance is market-driven rather than statutory: Ohio homeowners insurance rates rose 36.4% on average from 2019 through 2024 according to a January 2025 S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis, and carriers have moved condominium master policies toward percentage-based wind and hail deductibles of 1% to 2% of insured value, shifting the first tranche of storm cost onto association reserves and owner assessments.¹²

B. Recent appellate rulings (July 2023 – July 2026)

C. Active legislative debates

Legislative attention in the 136th General Assembly centers on assessment lien priority and reserve-study and political-sign proposals rather than insurance; no active proposal amends the § 5311.16 or § 5312.06 insurance provisions.¹¹

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Ohio sits between the broad categories of association insurance regulation. It isn't a state that adopted the Uniform Condominium Act or UCIOA Section 3-113 machinery, nor is it a purely CC&R-primary state such as Alabama or Arkansas, nor a comprehensive prescriptive regime on the scale of Florida (Chapter 718) or California (Davis-Stirling). Instead, Ohio runs two state-specific statutes that each carry a real insurance mandate: the Condominium Property Act sets a prescriptive 90%-replacement-cost property floor plus liability and fidelity coverage and a proceeds-and-rebuild scheme, while the Planned Community Law requires property, liability, directors-and-officers, and fidelity coverage subject to a market-availability qualifier. For a multi-state operator entering Ohio, condominium obligations follow § 5311.16 and § 5311.14, planned-community obligations follow § 5312.06(B), directors-and-officers coverage is mandatory for HOAs but not condominiums, and wind, hail, and winter exposure are Ohio-specific cost factors. Ohio last amended both insurance provisions through Senate Bill 61 in 2022 and hasn't moved to change them since.

HOA Weekly updates this Ohio Insurance Requirements page quarterly as the General Assembly and the Ohio Supreme Court act and as the property-insurance market shifts. Federal frameworks, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, NFIP, and FHA fair-housing accommodation rules, also apply to Ohio associations regardless of the state framework, with fuller treatment to follow once that coverage is built out.

1. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.16, Condominium insurance (eff. Sept. 13, 2022, S.B. 61, 134th Gen. Assembly) ↩
2. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.06, Powers and duties of owner's association (eff. Sept. 13, 2022, S.B. 61, 134th Gen. Assembly) ↩
3. Ohio Rev. Code § 1702.12(E)(7), Authority of nonprofit corporation ↩
4. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.14, Repair or restoration of damages - sale ↩
5. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.08, Common elements; maintenance, repair and replacement ↩
6. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-4-02, Fidelity/Crime Insurance Requirements for Project Developments ↩
7. Freddie Mac Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide § 8202.1, Property Insurance ↩
8. HUD, FHA Condominium Project Approval Required Documentation List (HUD Handbook 4000.1, § II.C) ↩
9. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-3-03, Master Property Insurance Requirements for Project Developments ↩
10. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.26, Written statement of material circumstances or features affecting condominium development ↩
11. Ohio House Bill 226, 136th General Assembly (assessment lien priority) ↩
12. Dayton Daily News, "Ohio home insurance rates soar due to storms, inflation" (citing S&P Global, Jan. 2025) ↩
13. Porter v. Hammond N. Condominium Assn., 2025-Ohio-2210 (1st Dist. June 25, 2025) ↩
14. Blue Water Condominium Assn., Inc. v. Motorists Mut. Ins. Co., 2025-Ohio-772 (6th Dist. Mar. 7, 2025) ↩