Earthquake Insurance

Not automatically. Earthquake policies are built around the dwelling, personal property and loss of use. Detached structures, hardscape, pools, retaining walls and exterior features are commonly limited or excluded unless specifically added, and the treatment differs between CEA and private forms. What is covered, and to what limit, appears on the declarations page rather than being safe to assume.

Differently, because you do not own the building. Your association’s master policy covers the structure, and where the association carries earthquake coverage, its deductible is typically assessed back to individual owners. A condo earthquake policy is built around that: loss assessment coverage for your share of the association’s deductible and uncovered damage, plus your personal property and loss of use. The CEA writes condo coverage as a companion to a condo unit policy with a participating insurer. Your CC&Rs and the association’s master policy declarations decide how much of the loss reaches you, so read both before setting limits.

There is no rate card, because the premium is built from the specific property. What moves it most: the age and construction of the home, whether it sits on a slab or a raised foundation, soil type and fault proximity at the address, the dwelling limit, and above all the deductible percentage. A 5 percent deductible costs considerably more than a 25 percent deductible on the same home. Rather than quote a range that would not survive contact with your address, we can price the same home at several deductible levels so you can see the trade directly.

There is no moratorium on buying CEA coverage, which is the most common misconception in California earthquake insurance. A CEA policy can be bought anywhere in the state, at any time, by anyone whose home insurer participates. The Department of Insurance has had to correct insurers who described a purchase moratorium that does not exist.

What does apply is narrower. A new policy does not cover earthquakes that are seismically related to a prior event for 360 hours, which is 15 days, after it is written. That is an aftershock provision, not a bar on buying, and the distinction matters if you are deciding whether to act after a headline quake.

Because earthquake losses arrive region-wide rather than one house at a time. In an ordinary fire, one home is affected. In a significant quake, tens of thousands of claims land at once, and the percentage deductible is part of what keeps the coverage available at all. It is calculated against your dwelling limit, so 15 percent on a $600,000 limit is $90,000. That number is why the coverage is built for a structure-threatening event rather than for cosmetic cracking, and it is the first figure to compare when weighing options.

Yes, by up to 25 percent on a CEA policy, and it can do more than lower the premium. The CEA offers a hazard reduction discount once a code-compliant brace-and-bolt retrofit is complete. For a pre-1980 home on a raised foundation, a verified retrofit can also move you out of the restricted 15 to 25 percent deductible band and into the lower ones, which changes what you would pay after a quake rather than only what you pay each year.

Separately, the state’s Earthquake Brace + Bolt programme provides grants of up to $3,000 toward the retrofit itself, with a supplemental grant of up to $7,000 for income-eligible households. The work has to meet the programme standard and be documented before either benefit applies, so keep the paperwork. Private carriers assess retrofits too, though the credit is set by each carrier rather than by a published schedule.

Often yes, and for some homes the private market is the only way to get there. CEA deductibles run 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 percent of the dwelling limit, so 5 percent is the floor.

The more important point is eligibility rather than preference. Not every home may choose the lower CEA bands. Homes insured above $1,000,000, and pre-1980 homes on raised foundations without a verified retrofit, are restricted to 15, 20 or 25 percent. Private carriers do not typically apply that same restriction, and will often write a lower deductible even on a higher-value property. For an older hillside home, or a home above the CEA threshold, that difference can decide which market you use.

On a $700,000 dwelling limit, moving from 15 percent to 5 percent changes your out-of-pocket exposure from $105,000 to $35,000. Whether the premium difference is worth paying depends on what you could actually fund after a major quake, which is the question worth answering first.

A private market writes California earthquake coverage independently of the CEA, led by carriers such as GeoVera and Palomar. These are standalone policies, so they do not require your homeowners policy to sit anywhere in particular. They generally offer a wider range of deductibles, including options below the CEA floor, and they are typically willing to write lower deductibles on higher-value homes where the CEA restricts them. Some private earthquake capacity is written on a surplus lines basis, which means a non-admitted carrier and a different set of consumer protections. That trade is worth understanding before you choose, and we can walk through what it means for your situation.

Not necessarily, and this is the decision most Californians never realise they have. The California Earthquake Authority does not sell standalone policies. To buy a CEA policy you must already hold your homeowners, condo, renters or mobile-home policy with a CEA participating insurer, and both policies must sit with that same carrier. Most California home insurers are CEA members, so for most owners this is the default path. If yours is not a member, the CEA is simply unavailable, and the private market is your route rather than a fallback.