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Coverwatch is a flat-fee planned unit development insurance broker for PUD associations keeping units warrantable. Owners hold their homes and lots while the association owns the common elements, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac judge the community as a PUD project whose rules drive what it must carry.
Trusted by 60+ carrier partners
$41,500 saved annually
“Kevin was great. He walked our board through all three quotes, answered every question, and made the whole thing easy. We saved $41,500 on the renewal.”
68-unit coastal condo, Fort Lauderdale
Board President, 3-building property
Coverage that keeps units financeable
A PUD association's coverage has to satisfy the secondary-market PUD standards or units stop qualifying for conforming loans. We confirm the common-element property and liability coverage meet the applicable Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac requirements, and place the fidelity bond the governing documents call for, so a lender's PUD review does not stall a sale over an insurance gap.
Not a cut of the master premium
The common-element master policy is a real line in the association budget, and a commission broker earns more as it climbs. A flat fee removes that conflict and keeps the review focused on insuring the common elements to value and meeting lender requirements, which is what the membership expects the board to do.
PUD questionnaires and evidence handled
Every sale or refinance in a PUD triggers a lender questionnaire and an evidence-of-insurance request tied to the PUD classification. Coverwatch turns these around on the closing's timeline and confirms where the association's common-element coverage ends and the owner's homeowners policy begins, so financing keeps moving.
Planned unit development insurance covers the common elements the association owns: a master property policy on shared structures, general liability, directors and officers, and a fidelity bond. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set PUD project requirements that the coverage must satisfy for units to remain financeable.
Owners insure their own homes and lots.
Updated
Planned unit development insurance is the coverage a PUD homeowners association buys for the property and exposures it owns in common, while each owner holds their own home and the lot beneath it in fee simple. The association insures the common elements, such as clubhouses, private roads, and shared open space, and carries the liability and governance coverage the community requires. Because lenders classify the community as a PUD project, the secondary-market rules for that classification shape what the association must insure.
In a PUD each owner holds their home and lot outright and insures it with a standard homeowners policy, while the association owns and insures the common elements. The property line the association draws sits at the edge of the common area, so the master policy covers shared structures and land rather than any residence.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac classify the community as a PUD project and apply their own insurance standards, which differ from condominium project rules. Whether the association's coverage satisfies the applicable PUD requirements decides whether units in the development stay financeable through the secondary market.
A PUD can contain detached homes, attached townhomes, or a mix, and larger developments layer a master association over sub-associations. The mix of construction and the association structure change the common-element property exposure and how liability and fidelity coverage have to be arranged across the tiers.
One platform for a different insurance experience, from quote to claim.
Send the recorded declaration, the plat, the governing documents, and the schedule of common elements. We confirm which structures and land the association owns, whether the community is a single or layered PUD, and check the current coverage against the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac PUD project standards that lenders apply to the units.
Coverage matched to planned unit development exposures.
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Covers the shared structures and land the association owns at replacement cost, meeting the property standard lenders apply to PUD projects.
Common-area injuries are the most frequent claim, and the association maintains the private roads, trails, and amenities where they happen.
PUD boards enforce covenants on fee-simple homes, which invites architectural and enforcement suits. D&O defends the volunteers.
The governing documents and lenders drive the bond for a PUD, protecting the association's dues and reserves against theft by a board member or manager.
Older common-element buildings carry code-upgrade gaps the master property limit alone will not cover after a loss.
Gates, pumps, and clubhouse systems fail without warning and sit outside standard property coverage.
Recommended once an amenity injury or enforcement class action could exceed the primary limit, or a lender requires it.
Standard once the association staffs its amenities or hires maintenance crews directly.
Needed in layered PUDs so common-element coverage and liability are arranged cleanly across the master and sub-associations.
Optional for association-owned buildings in seismic regions. It buys back the earth-movement peril excluded by the master property policy.
Need coverage not listed here? Let's talk about your specific exposures.
Real exposures your broker should understand and have a plan for.
A lender reviews the community as a PUD project and finds the association's common-element property or liability coverage falls short of the applicable Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac standard. Buyers cannot obtain conforming loans, sales stall, and values soften until the board corrects the coverage.
The clubhouse, gatehouse, or maintenance building the association owns is insured on a stale replacement-cost value. A fire or storm triggers a coinsurance penalty, and ordinance-or-law upgrades push the rebuild past the limit. Because the property schedule is easy to overlook in a PUD, the gap often surfaces only after the loss.
The association denies a home addition, a fence, or a landscaping change, or enforces a covenant selectively, and gets sued by an owner who holds the home in fee simple. These disputes are frequent in PUDs, where the board regulates privately owned homes, and without D&O the volunteer directors defend them personally.
A board treasurer or manager with access to the association's accounts diverts assessment and reserve funds over time before an audit catches it. A PUD is not subject to the Fannie Mae fidelity mandate that condos face, so a board can overlook the bond entirely, and an undersized or missing bond leaves the community to absorb the loss and special-assess owners to rebuild reserves.
In a PUD with a master association over sub-associations, an ambiguity about which tier insures a shared road, amenity, or structure leaves it covered by neither policy. A loss to that element becomes a dispute between the associations, and a lender's PUD review can flag the gap when a unit in one of the sub-associations goes to finance.
The licenses, endorsements, and proofs buyers and regulators want to see before they let you on the job.
The ownership structure and secondary-market rules that decide what a planned unit development association must insure to keep its units financeable.
In a PUD each owner holds their home and lot in fee simple and insures it, while the association owns and insures the common elements. The association's property line sits at the edge of the common area, not on any residence.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac classify the community as a PUD project and apply their own insurance standards, which differ from and are generally less extensive than condominium project requirements, with most PUDs exempt from full project review.
When a PUD's legal documents provide for a master policy on the common elements, it must be written at full replacement cost to satisfy the GSE standard; otherwise individual owner policies apply. Coverage that falls short where a master policy is required can make units non-warrantable.
Unlike condo and co-op projects, PUDs are not subject to the Fannie Mae fidelity mandate. The bond is still prudent and often required by the CC&Rs to protect the assessments and reserves the association holds.
A PUD can contain detached homes, attached townhomes, or a mix. The defining feature is fee-simple ownership of homes with association-owned common elements, and the construction mix shapes the common-element exposure.
Larger PUDs layer a master association over sub-associations, each owning different common elements. Coverage must be arranged so no shared element falls between the tiers, a gap lender PUD reviews often surface.
The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac uniform PUD Rider attaches to the security instrument and binds the borrower to the association's declaration and assessments. It is a lending document and carries no insurance coverage of its own.
In a planned unit development, each owner holds their home and the lot beneath it in fee simple and insures it with a standard homeowners policy. The association owns only the common elements and insures those. In a condominium, owners hold units within a building the association insures on a master policy. That means a PUD association's property coverage sits on clubhouses, roads, and shared amenities rather than residences, and lenders apply their PUD project rules instead of condominium project rules when they review the community.
They classify the community as a PUD project and apply insurance standards to keep units financeable. The association is generally expected to carry replacement-cost property coverage on the common elements and adequate liability limits. The PUD rules do not impose the fidelity requirement that condo and co-op projects face, and they involve far less project review overall. If the association's coverage does not meet the applicable PUD property and liability standard, units in the development can become non-warrantable, which blocks conforming loans and affects resale.
No. In a PUD the homes and the lots belong to the owners, who insure them individually with standard homeowners policies. The association insures only the common elements it owns, such as a clubhouse, private roads, open space, and shared amenities, along with its liability and governance exposures. This is similar to a detached single-family HOA, with the distinction that the PUD label is a lender and secondary-market classification that carries its own project insurance standards the association's coverage has to satisfy.
Yes. A planned unit development can contain detached homes, attached townhomes, or a mix, and the PUD structure is defined by the ownership arrangement rather than the architecture. What matters for insurance is that owners hold their homes and lots in fee simple while the association owns the common elements. Where units are attached, the recorded documents still determine who insures the structures and shared walls, but the community is administered and financed under PUD rules, which shapes the association's common-element coverage and the lender review.
Larger developments often layer a master association over several sub-associations, and each tier can own different common elements. The insurance has to be arranged so every shared road, amenity, and structure is clearly covered by one association's policy, with no element left between the tiers. Ambiguity about which association insures a given element is a common source of disputes and coverage gaps, and a lender's PUD review can surface it when a unit goes to finance, so mapping coverage to the ownership tiers is important.
Fannie Mae treats a project as a PUD when unit owners hold their homes and lots in fee simple and a mandatory owners association holds title to the common elements. Attached or detached construction does not matter. That classification routes the project through PUD project standards rather than condo rules.
It is the evidence-of-insurance document a lender requests to confirm the association's common-element property and liability coverage before closing a loan in the project. The association's broker issues it from the master policy, so request it through the management company or broker of record.
The PUD Rider is a mortgage document, not an insurance policy. The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac uniform Form 3150 attaches to the security instrument and binds the borrower to the association's declaration and assessments. Title policies address PUDs separately through an ALTA planned unit development endorsement.
If a lender's PUD project review finds the common-element property or liability coverage falls short of the applicable Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac standard, units in the community can become non-warrantable. Buyers then cannot obtain conforming loans, pending sales stall, and values can soften until the board corrects the coverage. Because every sale and refinance triggers this review, keeping the program aligned with the PUD standards, and turning around the questionnaires quickly, is what keeps the community financeable.
A planned unit development insurance broker shops your program across our 60+ carrier partners and places it as one package on a flat fee rather than commission. For a PUD association that means the common-element master property, general liability, D&O, and a fidelity bond, arranged to keep units warrantable under the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac PUD rules. We service the account all year too: renewals, certificates, and the lender questionnaires each sale triggers, so the board isn’t chasing paperwork.
Renewal increase cut to 8%
The renewal for our condo policy came in 28% higher with worse coverage. Coverwatch found the errors in our appraisal and got the increase down to 8%. They explained everything in plain English so the board knew what we were buying.
$10k+ saved on GL
Coverwatch is one of those – why didn't I think of that companies. I hate the last minute take-it-or-leave-it quotes that our insurance agents always did. Coverwatch leveraged AI to put out a much more detailed RFQ that actually listened to the nuances of our business. And more importantly, it got to more carriers and actually made them bid more aggressively for our business. We saved over $10,000 on our general policy alone, and it was a much much better policy with broader coverage. And I actually knew what I was getting for once. Their side-by-side analysis stopped all the guessing of whether the carrier was reputable and what was included. And the brokers fees aren't buried somewhere in the legal language, so there's no surprises. I gave them all our insurance business and have been banging down their door to include health insurance also. Hopefully soon. Can't recommend Coverwatch enough, and I do wish I had thought of it.
Bound in 72 hours
We were three days from a partnership deadline, and insurance was the last thing standing. I had four brokers working on it - Coverwatch went from our first call to fully bound in 72 hours, at the best price of the four. But what actually made them our broker for good was the quote email: it listed the exact risks that were covered so I understood how the policies function, and what each would cost to close. Since then they've acted as our risk management team, not just our policy vendor - proactive, same-day, and straight with us about every tradeoff. Swift turn around with thoughtful suggestion to a change of requirement in less than 24 hours.
34% below renewal
Coverwatch came in 34% below the renewal we were quoted, and every line got better at the same time. Our E&O deductible dropped 80% and our coverage improved significantly. They function as our risk management team, not just our broker.
Closed an enterprise deal
As a Fintech startup, it's very hard to find affordable insurance that has the coverage we need for our complex business. Kevin helped us navigate the complexity and cross-compare General Liability Insurance that I was unable to do on my own through all these online business insurance vendors. He was able to quickly get us affordable insurance to protect our business so that we could sign a new enterprise client.
Global program placed
Coverwatch took the time to deeply understand our international business before quoting anything: how we operate, where the real exposures are, what our clients expect from us. Then they helped us design a risk plan, with professional liability, crime and cyber working together, and placed coverage that genuinely meets all of our worldwide needs with strong carriers. Responsive, thorough, and truly advisory.
Bound when others passed
Roofing is one of the hardest classes in insurance, and other markets would not touch us. Coverwatch got both our liability and our workers comp bound, on terms that actually cover the work my crews do. Responsive, straight-talking, and relentless. They got it done when nobody else would.
17% lower total premium
Coverwatch caught that our liquor liability didn't cover our off-site catering. They fixed it and still cut our total premium 17%. Easy to work with from start to finish.
Cyber, bound fast
Coverwatch got our cyber coverage right: the limits our customers actually ask about, at a sensible price, bound fast. They took the time to understand what we do, answered every question in plain English, and have been clear and responsive ever since. Simple, quick, and done properly the first time.
One coordinated renewal
Two brokers told us they couldn't help because we're roofers. Coverwatch took the time to understand what our crews actually do, found an insurer that would take us, and put all our policies on one renewal. Straight with us the whole way.
Five stores, one program
Each of our five stores had its own policy. Coverwatch was able to put everything on one program, made sure refrigeration and spoilage were covered at every store, and made adding a new location simple.
A fair price for a new business
Starting a small product business, I found the insurance market overwhelming and most quotes were priced way above what made sense for my size. Coverwatch gave me a fair price based on where I actually am as a new business, communicated clearly, and made the whole process quick and easy. Highly recommend for anyone just starting out.
Covered in days
Fast, fairly priced, and none of the runaround. Coverwatch had us covered in days, explained exactly what we were buying, and they answer in plain English whenever we ask anything. No chasing, no surprises, no jargon. That is all we wanted from a broker, and it is exactly what we got.
46% lower premiums
Kevin and Coverwatch helped us reduce our premiums by 46% and improved our insurance coverage.
Fastest broker we’ve used
Coverwatch is the fastest and most responsive insurance broker I've worked with. They understood our needs and designed an insurance package that was affordable and covered exactly what our business needed.
Send us your policy and a licensed advisor benchmarks your planned unit development insurance across 60+ carrier partners, showing the gaps and the savings. If your program is already solid, we'll tell you.
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