Low-cost condo insurance for about $40/month

Personal and specialty property coverages

At Square One, you decide how much protection you need for your most common personal property, which includes appliances, electronics, furniture and clothing. When it comes to specialty property, traditional condo policies include $6,000 of coverage for silverware. Don’t own any silverware?

With Square One, you choose what specialty property you want to insure so you only pay for what you need. Choose from the following categories of specialty property:

• Bicycles, sporting equipment, and firearms: This optional coverage protects firearms of any description, and any personal and portable equipment used for athletic or recreational activities, including cycling, equestrian, fishing, golf, hang-gliding, hockey, paragliding, shooting, skating, skiing, snowboarding, surfing and windsurfing.
• Business property: This optional coverage protects any property that you use as part of your trade, profession or occupation. If used for both business and personal purposes, it must be insured as business property. Note that this coverage does not protect business operations/exposures in any other way.
• China, silverware and furs: This optional coverage protects any porcelain ware, plates, cups, saucers that are used on special occasions; eating and serving utensils made of silver that are also used on special occasions; figurines made of porcelain or ceramic material; and, furs and fur-trimmed garments.
• Fine arts, collectibles and oriental rugs: This optional coverage protects visual art, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, limited edition prints, and other pieces that cannot be easily replaced. It also protects any items collected as a hobby, for display, or as an investment, whose value may appreciate, including sports card collections, first edition books, and coin collections. And finally, it protects hand-woven or hand-knotted rugs or carpets made in Asia.
• Jewelry and watches: This optional coverage protects objects designed for the adornment of the body, including necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, watches and precious stones.
• Musical instruments: This optional coverage protects devices designed to make musical sounds, including guitars, pianos and saxophones.
• Watercraft: This optional coverage protects commercially manufactured boats, canoes and kayaks. Any watercraft must be no more than 20 feet in length and, if motorized, must have no more than 25 horsepower in total. It also protects related property like accessories, equipment and trailers.
• Personal property: This mandatory coverage protects all the other "moveable" property you own. This includes appliances, household goods, electronics, furniture and clothing in your home, garage and storage unit. This coverage does not protect any specialty property, which includes: bicycles, sporting equipment and firearms; business property; china, silverware and furs; fine arts, collectibles and oriental rugs; jewelry and watches; landscaping, fences and gardening equipment; musical instruments; and watercraft.

Other coverages

There are a few other coverages that are essential to any insurance policy, including liability protection.

• Additional living expenses: This mandatory coverage protects against increases in living expenses you incur because your home can't be lived in. This could be a result of damage to your home from an insured loss or an order to evacuate your home as a result of a sudden and accidental event.
• Identity theft resolution and expense reimbursement services: Protects against expenses incurred to restore your personal credit file after your identity has been stolen.
• Personal and premises liability: This coverage protects against amounts you are legally responsible to pay for unintentional injury to someone or damage to their property arising from the ownership or use of your home.

Policy deductibles

A policy deductible is the amount you must pay before your condo insurance policy will respond. For example, if your $2,500 laptop is stolen and the claim is subject to a $1,000 deductible, you must pay the first $1,000 and your policy will cover the remaining $1,500. The higher the deductible you select, the lower the premium you pay on your insurance.

Listed below are the various deductibles that may apply. It’s important to note that only one deductible applies per claim even if payments are made under multiple policy coverages. The type of loss will determine the deductible that applies.

• Sewer backup: This deductible applies to each insured loss resulting from a sewer backup. If this deductible applies, you may be presented with a couple options.
• Standard: This deductible applies to each insured loss not specifically mentioned earlier. For example, the sewer backup deductible, not the standard deductible, applies to each insured loss resulting from a sewer backup.

At Square One, you get a comprehensive (or open perils) policy. That means you're protected against all types of losses except for those specifically excluded in the policy. The most common policy exclusions include loss or damage due to earthquake, flood, terrorism and war. In the case of flood, you may have the option to obtain flood insurance through FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurance provider.

Where other providers require you to specifically add and pay extra for critical protection you need, we include it automatically. For example, your Square One policy automatically includes:

For complete details on what is and isn’t covered under your condo insurance policy, please refer to your policy wordings or speak with one of our licensed agents by calling 1.855.331.6933. You can also download sample policy wordings by visiting the next tab.

Policy wordings

If you need a law degree to understand your insurance policy, something's wrong. At Square One, we're changing that with our modern, common sense approach.

To start, we've worked hard to write all policy documents in plain language. According to our customers, our policy documents are the easiest to read in the industry. Next, we personalize your policy documents to what you've bought. That means you'll know exactly what you've insured, the limits and deductibles you've selected, and the premiums you've paid. Finally, you'll understand what specific terms, conditions and exclusions apply.

If you'd like to review the policy wordings before you buy, please feel free to download the sample policy wordings. Please note that every effort is made to keep the sample wordings up-to-date, but your actual policy documents (and wordings) may differ. In cases where differences exist, your actual policy documents will prevail.

Download sample policy wordings

Making a claim

You buy insurance for peace-of-mind, so if you do need to make a claim we believe it should be simple and stress-free. That's why all Square One customers are protected by our commitment to handling claims fairly:

• 24/7 emergency claim line so we're there whenever you need us
• For emergency claims you're guaranteed a response within 2 hours
• For all claims, you'll work with a single claims adjuster
• Quickly track each stage of your claim online
• We guarantee that all claims are dealt with fairly, transparently and quickly
• You're treated with respect and kept informed at every stage of your claim