Does a Georgia condo policy cover flood damage?

A standard Georgia condo policy, the HO-6 policy that covers a unit's interior, personal property, and liability, does not cover flood damage. Flood is a named exclusion on the standard form, meaning water that rises from ground level, from a river, lake, storm surge, or heavy rain runoff, is not a covered peril, even though wind-driven rain entering through a broken window or roof damage usually is.

Georgia's flood exposure is not limited to the coast. Inland counties see flash flooding after heavy rain, particularly near creeks, rivers, and low-lying drainage basins in metro Atlanta and north Georgia. Coastal exposure near Savannah adds storm surge risk from tropical systems. A condo building can sit outside any mapped flood zone and still take on water during an unusually heavy rain event, and the standard HO-6 policy will not respond to that loss.

FEMA, the federal agency that maps flood risk and administers the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), designates high-risk areas as Special Flood Hazard Areas. A federally backed mortgage, meaning a loan backed by an agency such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, or VA, on a unit located inside a mapped Special Flood Hazard Area requires flood insurance as a condition of the loan. That requirement comes from federal lending rules tied to the flood zone designation, not from the condo association or from Georgia law.

Flood coverage for a condo unit's contents is available two ways: through the NFIP, the federal program, or through a private flood insurance policy written by an insurer outside the NFIP. Coverage applies to personal property and, depending on the policy, unit interior finishes. It does not replace the building coverage carried under the association's master policy, the policy the association holds on the shared structure and common areas.

For example, a unit owner on a lower floor of a Savannah-area condo building near a tidal creek finds that a storm surge event floods the unit's flooring and drywall. The HO-6 policy denies the claim as a flood exclusion. A separate NFIP or private flood policy, if one had been in place, would respond to the contents and applicable interior damage instead.

Flood coverage options are detailed on the flood insurance page. Condo-specific coverage structure is covered on the Georgia condo insurance page and the condo insurance overview. Related: whether Georgia law requires unit owners to carry their own insurance and which carriers write Georgia condo coverage through Olive Cover. A coverage review can confirm whether a specific unit sits in a mapped flood zone, available on the coverage review page.