Is a declarations page the same as a certificate of insurance?

No. A declarations page is issued by the insurer as part of the policy and shows actual coverage limits and deductibles. A certificate of insurance is a summary document, often prepared by an agent, that confirms a policy exists but frequently omits deductibles and sublimits and carries language stating it confers no rights. Most associations require the declarations page for that reason.

How do I get a copy of my declarations page?

Every insurer sends one at issue and at each renewal, usually by email and in the online account portal. If you cannot find it, request it from your agent or download it from your insurer's website. It is generally available within minutes, and it is the same document your mortgage lender asks for.

What does a condo association check on a declarations page?

Typically six things: that the named insured matches the owner of record, that the property address matches the unit, that the policy period covers the current date, that the policy form is the one required (usually HO-6), that required coverage limits such as Coverage A and loss assessment meet the declaration's minimums, and that wind or hurricane coverage is present rather than excluded.

Fundamentals

What Is a Declarations Page?

Q: What is a declarations page?

A declarations page, often called a dec page, is the summary page at the front of an insurance policy. It states who is insured, what property is covered, the coverage limits and deductibles, the policy period, and the premium. It is the page an insurer issues at every new policy and every renewal, and it is the standard proof of coverage a condominium association asks for.

A declarations page — a "dec page" — is the summary page at the front of an insurance policy. It states who is insured, what property is covered, the coverage limits and deductibles, the policy period, and the premium. Insurers issue a new one at every renewal, which is why it is the standard proof of coverage a condominium association asks unit owners for.

Last updated 2026-08-01 · General information, not insurance or legal advice

What appears on a declarations page

Layout varies by carrier, but the same elements appear on essentially every dec page. These are the fields that matter when the page is being used as proof of coverage.

Standard declarations page fields
Field	What it tells you	Why it matters to an association
Named insured	Who the policy covers	Must match the owner of record. A mismatch usually means a sale, a trust, or a renter's policy submitted by mistake.
Insured location	The street address and unit number	The single most common source of bad matches — unit numbers repeat across buildings in the same association.
Policy number	The carrier's identifier	Lets you tell a renewal apart from a replacement policy with a new carrier.
Policy period	Effective and expiration dates	Drives everything. The expiration date is what a compliance system counts down to.
Policy form	HO-6, HO-4, DP-3, wind-only, etc.	An owner-occupied unit needs an HO-6. An HO-4 is a renter's policy and does not satisfy an owner requirement.
Coverage limits	Coverage A, C, E, loss assessment, and others	Checked against the minimums in the association's declaration.
Deductibles	All-other-peril and hurricane deductibles	Many declarations cap the hurricane deductible as a percentage of Coverage A.
Endorsements & exclusions	Form numbers modifying the base policy	Where wind exclusions and water-damage limitations hide. Easy to miss by eye.
Mortgagee / additional interest	Lender and other interested parties	Some associations require being listed here.

What the coverage letters mean

On an HO-6 condominium unit-owner policy, coverage is broken into lettered parts. The letters are standard across carriers, which is what makes automated comparison possible.

Coverage A — Dwelling: The part of the unit the owner is responsible for. On a condo policy this is typically the interior — the "walls-in" improvements, betterments, floor and wall coverings, cabinets, and fixtures — rather than the building structure, which the association's master policy covers.
Coverage B — Other Structures: Often minimal or absent on a condo policy, since there are rarely detached structures.
Coverage C — Personal Property: The owner's contents: furniture, electronics, clothing, and belongings.
Coverage D — Loss of Use: Additional living expenses if the unit becomes uninhabitable. Relevant after a named storm.
Coverage E — Personal Liability: Liability if someone is injured in the unit or the owner is responsible for damage to another unit. Frequently carries an association-set minimum.
Coverage F — Medical Payments: Small no-fault medical coverage for guests injured in the unit.
Loss Assessment: A separate limit — not one of the letters — that covers the owner's share when the association levies a special assessment after a covered loss. In Florida this is one of the most consequential lines on the page and one of the most commonly underinsured.

Declarations page vs. certificate of insurance vs. binder

Short answer

They are three different documents. A declarations page is issued by the insurer as part of the policy and shows real limits and deductibles. A certificate of insurance is a summary that confirms a policy exists but often omits deductibles and sublimits and states that it confers no rights. A binder is temporary proof of coverage before the policy is issued. Associations should ask for the declarations page.

Document	Issued by	Shows limits?	Shows deductibles?	Good as proof?
Declarations page	Insurer	Yes	Yes	Yes — the standard
Certificate of insurance (COI / ACORD 25 or 27)	Agent or broker	Usually	Often not	Weak — commonly disclaims that it confers no rights
Binder	Agent, on carrier authority	Yes	Sometimes	Temporary only — expires, usually in 30–90 days
Evidence of property insurance (ACORD 27/28)	Agent or broker	Yes	Sometimes	Usually acceptable to lenders; less detail than a dec page

A binder is not a policy

Accepting a binder as final proof is a common and quiet failure. Binders expire. If an association marks a unit compliant off a binder and never collects the dec page, the unit can sit "compliant" in the records while the policy was never actually issued. Treat a binder as a short-dated placeholder with a hard follow-up date.

The six things an association checks

Named insured matches the owner of record. Catches sales, trusts, and renter policies submitted by mistake.
Address and unit number match the unit. Catches the wrong-unit submissions that are endemic in multi-building associations.
Policy period covers today. An expired dec page is the single most common submission problem.
Policy form is HO-6 (for an owner-occupied unit), not HO-4 or a landlord form.
Required limits are met — usually Coverage A, personal liability, and loss assessment against the declaration's minimums.
Wind or hurricane coverage is present, or a separate wind-only policy is on file alongside a wind-excluded HO-6.

That last one trips up more Florida associations than any other. See HO-6 vs. HO-4 vs. wind-only for how a wind-excluded policy plus a separate wind policy can satisfy a requirement that neither one satisfies alone.

How an owner gets a copy

Owners often assume this is difficult. It generally takes under five minutes:

Email. The carrier sends one at issue and at every renewal. Searching the inbox for the carrier name and "declarations" usually finds it.
Insurer's website. Nearly every carrier has it in the online account under documents or policy details.
The agent. A one-line request; agents send these constantly.
The mortgage lender. If there is a mortgage, the servicer already has a copy on file.

Reduce the friction

The most reliable request an association can make is the simplest one: "forward us the email your insurer sent." Owners do not have to find a portal, save a file, or scan anything — and the forwarded email carries the correct document by construction.

Common problems with submitted dec pages

Problem	What it looks like	Fix
Expired page	Policy period ended months ago	Request the current renewal — the owner usually has coverage, just an old file
Wrong document	A bill, a quote, a COI, or an auto policy	Ask specifically for the page titled "Declarations"
Wrong unit	Right building, wrong unit number	Match on street address and unit number, never unit number alone
HO-4 instead of HO-6	Renter's policy submitted by an owner who rents the unit out	Owner needs an HO-6 (or DP-3); the renter's HO-4 is separate
Wind excluded	An exclusion buried in the endorsement list	Look for a companion wind-only policy; if none, the unit is not covered for the peril that matters most in Florida
Scanned photo	A phone picture of a printout, skewed and low contrast	Readable by OCR or vision models, but verify the extracted dates by eye

Stop reading dec pages by hand

condo.insure reads each declaration page automatically, pulls the insurer, policy number, expiration date and coverage limits, checks them against your association's requirements, and flags what needs attention.

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