Maryland required condo unit owners to carry insurance. New York hasn't.

Maryland Senate Bill 747, signed in 2026 and effective October 1, 2027, amends the Maryland Condominium Act — amending section 11-114 and adding new section 11-114.3 — to create the first statutory mandate in Maryland law for individual unit owners to carry personal insurance. The policy must include at least $25,000 in dwelling coverage, at least $25,000 in loss assessment coverage, and coverage for the association's property insurance deductible. Unit owners must provide proof annually and on request. New York Real Property Law section 339-BB has governed condo insurance since 1964. It requires the board of managers to insure the building only if the declaration says so, and it says nothing about individual unit owners. No New York statute requires a condo buyer to carry an HO-6 policy. No New York statute caps what a board can shift to that buyer through a deductible resolution after closing.

What Maryland Senate Bill 747 requires.

Maryland Senate Bill 747 (companion: House Bill 469) amends Maryland Real Property Article section 11-114 and adds new section 11-114.3, with an effective date of October 1, 2027. The new section 11-114.3 creates three layered obligations for individual unit owners. Every unit owner, with an exception for communities consisting entirely of detached single-family homes, must maintain a personal property insurance policy meeting defined minimums.

The first minimum is dwelling coverage. The policy must carry dwelling or building property coverage equal to at least $25,000, or the total cost to repair and replace the unit and all improvements within it, whichever figure is greater. This addresses the gap that arises when a unit owner's interior finishes and improvements are not covered by the master policy and the owner has no personal policy to fall back on.

The second minimum is loss assessment coverage of at least $25,000. Loss assessment coverage pays the unit owner's share of an assessment that the board levies against all owners after a major claim exceeds the master policy limits or after a deductible reduces the net insurance payment below what the repair requires. In buildings where the master deductible has risen steeply, loss assessments have become a common mechanism for recovering the uninsured portion of large claims from the owners in whose units the damage originated.

The third element is deductible coverage. The policy must cover the association's property insurance deductible when damage originates in the unit owner's space. If damage originates in a unit, amended section 11-114 makes the unit owner responsible for the lesser of the association's deductible or $25,000. The board retains its existing authority to adopt a deductible resolution, but the unit owner's statutory exposure now has a defined ceiling rather than an open one.

The compliance mechanism is mutual disclosure. Unit owners must submit proof of insurance to the association at annual renewal and at any other time the association requests it. The association must send every owner a written annual notice of its deductible amount and of the owner's insurance responsibilities under the statute. Both parties have the deductible number before a claim occurs, not as a line in the claim letter that arrives afterward.

What New York's condo insurance statute says.

New York Real Property Law section 339-BB has been in place since the New York Condominium Act was enacted. It requires the board of managers to obtain property and casualty insurance for the condominium building, but only if the declaration requires it. If a declaration is silent on insurance, the board has no statutory obligation to insure the structure. Most New York condominium declarations do include an insurance requirement, but section 339-BB itself does not command it.

More to the point for unit owners, section 339-BB says nothing about individual coverage. No provision of the New York Condominium Act requires a unit owner to carry an HO-6 policy. No provision requires the board to disclose its master policy's deductible to an owner before or after closing. No provision caps what the board can shift to a unit owner through a deductible resolution adopted at renewal.

New York Real Property Law section 461 exempts condominium and cooperative units from the Property Condition Disclosure Act, the statute that requires sellers of most residential property to complete a disclosure form before closing. A condo purchase in New York can close without the buyer seeing the master insurance declaration, the deductible schedule, or the board's resolution on how deductibles are allocated. Bills that would have given buyers a right to financial and insurance records before signing were not scheduled for a floor vote before Albany adjourned June 18, 2026.

The deductible in dollar terms.

NYC condo and co-op boards have revised their deductible resolutions upward steadily as the property insurance market has tightened. A building that carried a $25,000 water damage deductible in 2018 may now carry a deductible of $100,000 to $250,000 for the same peril. The managing agent who negotiates the policy renewal also advises on or drafts the deductible resolution that determines how much of that exposure shifts to individual unit owners when a claim originates in their space.

Water damage is the dominant claim type in NYC multistory residential buildings. Overhead plumbing, aging supply lines, HVAC condensate systems, and terrace waterproofing failures produce frequent claims and high dollar amounts. A deductible resolution that makes the unit owner responsible for the first $250,000 of a water damage claim does not require a vote of all owners, a public meeting, or disclosure in any document a buyer typically sees before closing.

Under Maryland's new law, the same scenario produces a categorically different result. The owner would be required to carry at least $25,000 in loss assessment coverage. The board could still adopt a deductible resolution, but the owner's exposure has a hard $25,000 statutory cap. The annual disclosure requirement means the association's deductible is a known number, in writing, before the incident. The unit owner who receives the claim letter has already seen the deductible figure in their annual insurance notice from the board.

Why the insurance gap is also a buyer disclosure gap.

The problem that Maryland's law addresses is not primarily about insurance premiums. Most New York condo buyers carry some form of HO-6 coverage because their mortgage lender requires it for interior improvements and personal property. The problem is that the coverage is disconnected from the specific contingent liability the buyer is assuming when they close on a unit in a building with a large master deductible.

A buyer who does not know the master policy's deductible cannot calculate the financial exposure they are taking on. A buyer who does not know that the board adopted a deductible resolution that shifts the first $150,000 of any water damage claim to the unit of origin has no reason to ask about that resolution before signing a purchase contract. A buyer whose purchase contract was prepared without any financial disclosure obligation has no structural prompt to ask any of these questions.

Maryland's mandatory insurance requirement changes the information dynamic because it creates a mandatory disclosure chain. When every unit owner must carry coverage for the association's deductible, the association must annually communicate its deductible amount in writing. A buyer purchasing a unit in such a building will encounter a governing structure in which the deductible has been disclosed every year, in writing, to every owner. That structure does not exist in New York. It would require a combination of a mandatory insurance statute and a seller disclosure law, and New York has enacted neither for condo units.

The managing agent's position in the gap.

The managing agent occupies the center of the insurance process for most NYC condo buildings. They relay the policy renewal to the board, communicate with the broker, present the deductible decision for board approval, and draft or implement the deductible resolution. When a claim occurs, they coordinate adjuster access, submit documentation, and allocate the deductible charge to the unit owner's account.

Maryland's new law adds one more function to that list: the association must annually notify every unit owner of its deductible amount and of their insurance responsibilities under the statute. In practice, that notice will move through the managing agent's office.

In New York, none of these functions requires a license. Senate Bill S.71, which would require managing agents of New York condominiums and co-ops to register with the Department of State and demonstrate minimum competency, has not received a committee hearing in nine consecutive legislative sessions. The person who determines what your building's deductible is, advises on the resolution that allocates it to individual unit owners, and manages the claim process when you incur it is not required to hold any state license and is subject to no professional discipline if the deductible was set without disclosure and the unit owner had no notice of it until after a loss.

Bottom line.

Maryland's legislature turned the deductible resolution, which has become a standard cost-shifting practice in multistory residential buildings across the country, into a bounded structure with a statutory minimum, a cap, and an annual disclosure obligation on both sides. The mandate falls on unit owners, who must carry a policy they often carry anyway. The structural change is that the deductible number becomes a known quantity, in writing, before the flood. New York has not moved section 339-BB since 1964. The bills that would have given condo and co-op buyers a right to financial and insurance records before contract signing were not scheduled for a floor vote when Albany adjourned June 18, 2026. Maryland's new requirement takes effect October 1, 2027. New York's legislative session opens January 2027.

Primary sources

Maryland Senate Bill 747 (2026 session) — mandatory unit-owner insurance, loss assessment coverage, deductible disclosure requirement
Maryland House Bill 469 (2026 session) — companion bill; same provisions
Maryland Real Property Article §§ 11-114 (amended) and 11-114.3 (new): deductible cap and unit-owner insurance mandate; SB 747 / HB 469 effective October 1, 2027
New York Real Property Law § 339-BB: building-level condo insurance; silent on unit-owner coverage
New York Real Property Law § 461: Property Condition Disclosure Act exemption for condos and co-ops
Albany adjourned June 18, 2026 without a floor vote on four co-op reform bills — CCNYC, June 18, 2026

Companion resources: New York's condo insurance law sets no floor. Fannie Mae just set one. · Your board can shift a $250,000 deductible to your unit. New York sets no limit. · Maryland's 2025 reserve plans and independent elections law · No mandatory financial disclosure to buyers · Managing agent licensure gap · S.71: the managing-agent licensure bill · Write to your state representative