The main responsibility of board members is to make tough decisions most of the time, and their decisions have a tremendous impact on tenants and others.

Board members are often sued along with the association itself or separately because of actions they have taken or fail in their capacity as board members.

While carrying tasks appointed to a board member there is a possibility of getting injured. These injuries in most cases are minor but there is always a possibility of one of those injuries becoming a large expense to the association.

The second reason is that many of the services providers like landscapers, roofers, electricians, painters, etc. will provide the association with a certificate of insurance months ago, and now because of lack of payment, the coverage has lapsed.

In case of any service providers or their employees suffer from an injury while performing the under contracted services they can turn around and suit the association for medical expenses. The workers' comp policy provides peace of mind in case of a service provider has been uninsured most likely the policy will respond.

Florida Statutes FS718.111 (11) a. requires all residential condominium buildings to have an up-to-date appraisal for replacement cost valuation that can be used to obtain the correct property insurance policy.

As a board of an association exercising your fiduciary responsibility to the tenants is your responsibility to comply with this law ($5,000 fine) and if the building is 30 or 40 years old, please include an inspection on the building and ever overlook the repairs or alterations that are reflected on the inspection report.

Many board members are under the pretense that by using a property management company they are relieved of responsibility in case the owner’s information is compromised.  Even though there is some truth to that assumption, the association will be responsible to comply with the Florida Statute to actions that the association is responsible for, like notifying the residents of the breach.

There are specific Cyber liability policies designed for condo associations that can provide needed coverage. We can help you budget for this coverage gap.

If you are using a management company please make sure that you are getting a certificate of insurance adding the association as a “named additional insured “.