Guide to Earthquake Insurance

Table of Content

• Auto Insurance
• Liberty Mutual: Best for Renters
• Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Earthquakes?
• Is Earthquake Covered By Homeowners Insurance?
• How Much Earthquake Insurance Do I need?

Some earthquake insurance providers, like the California Earthquake Authority, will sell earthquake insurance after a recent earthquake. You will not be covered for losses incurred before the policy start date and related aftershocks within a certain period (e.g., 15 days after the earthquake occurrence). Lessons learned from the aftermath of disasters have revealed, time and again, that you can effectively manage risk and recover faster after a disaster if you have insurance. However, the increase in insurance premiums has made coverage hard to get in many areas, contributing to the decrease of insurance covering seismic claims.

You don’t have to worry if the insurer will pay out if you file a claim for earthquake damage. California residents usually purchase earthquake insurance through the CEA , which is the most trusted source for earthquake protection. Covered perils are named events that are specifically listed in your homeowners policy that may cause damage to your home or your personal belongings and which you could have not foreseen. Home insurance protects homeowners from damage to their homes and property from covered perils. To save you some time, we’ve put together a list of the best earthquake policies by looking at their unique coverage options, financial strength, and ratings by rating sites such as AM Best and JD Power.

Auto Insurance

The construction type of your home plays a major role in home insurance, not just for the earthquake component. Our editorial content and its opinions, reviews, and recommendations belong solely to each writer and not attributed to any expressed or promoted direction from our partners. Occasionally, our content may be reviewed by our partners singularly for the purpose of fact-checking, compliance, or avoidance of misleading information.

Making sure your home is covered for an earthquake is actually very simple in North Carolina. Unlike damage caused by flood, homeowners insurance, and renters insurance policies can be endorsed to provide coverage for earthquakes. Additional living expenses coverage helps pay if you need to rent a place while your home gets repaired. It also covers additional items, including food, moving, and storage expenses, and other essential tasks like doing your laundry. Limits for this portion of earthquake insurance usually range anywhere from $1,500 to $100,000 and never require a deductible. By California law, your homeowners insurance company is required to offer you earthquake insurance when you purchase your policy and then once every other year.

Liberty Mutual: Best for Renters

Renters earthquake insurance covers a tenant, except this policy would replace items damaged in an earthquake. Insurance policies, regardless if it is homeowners or business insurance, wouldn’t cover for damages caused by an earthquake. Separate insurance coverage or policy is required in order to be eligible for earthquake insurance. You can also choose to ask for an endorsement to include earthquake insurance in your insurance policy.

Despite experiencing 90% of the country’s earthquakes, only 10% of California’s residents have earthquake insurance. Standard homeowners’ insurance does not cover damage resulting from land movement or landslides. For example, if an earthquake causes televisions to fall off the wall and crush a coffee table, the policy will pay to replace both the TV and the coffee table. Similarly, if liquefied mud drains into the apartment and ruins all of a tenant’s area rugs, the policy would pay to replace the rugs. Knowing the importance insurers put on roofs, scammers have targeted homeowners.

Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Earthquakes?

You will likely have a deductible if your home insurance company approves a roof claim. Your deductible is the amount deducted from a home insurance claims check. Luckily, homeowners insurance can help cover a range of damages and inconveniences caused by severe winter storms and extreme cold. Asking your neighbors what they pay for earthquake insurance may seem useful, but in reality, your rates could be entirely different even though you live in the same area.

Many people find earthquake insurance to be pricey, especially considering the high deductibles that they’d have to cover anyway. If your quake damage amount is less than your deductible, insurance won’t pay out. But only you can do the math on whether earthquake insurance is a smart buy in relation to the potential payout. Grants for home repairs are meant to cover essential repairs only, to get your house to be safe and clean, not to restore it back to its original condition. Additional federal financial help is often in the form of loans that have to be paid back.

Is Earthquake Covered By Homeowners Insurance?

That is not pocket change, but it is far cheaper than having to spend $300,000 or more to rebuild your home. Regardless of where you live, earthquake insurance is rarely included as part of a standard homeowners insurance policy. In this guide, we’ve covered everything you need to know about earthquake insurance. Floods are never covered by a homeowners insurance policy, and they are also not covered by earthquake insurance. You’ll need to purchase a separate flood insurance endorsement even if the flood is a byproduct of an earthquake. The dwelling coverage of an earthquake insurance policy covers such things as repairing the structure of your home, up to a certain amount.

While our partnerships may affect where products may be placed within our content and our site, our goal is still to provide you with the best information and tools you require to make the best decision. That’s exorbitantly high, but the deductible can be far cheaper than if you had to spend $300,000 or more to rebuild your home. For example, say your earthquake deductible is 15% of your home’s value of $300,000.

If you live in California, state law requires insurance companies to offer earthquake insurance when you purchase homeowners insurance. Your insurance company must offer you earthquake insurance every other year. Whether you have a repair estimate or not, you can contact your homeowners insurance company and file a claim for the roof damage. You will need to fill out paperwork explaining what caused the damage, what type of damage occurred when the event happened and what else was damaged as a result .

This is the reason why a home with a stone or brick base is more prone to damage during strong tremors. Apart from wood, homes that use sandy soil as a base also enjoy a lower premium for their insurance coverage. Since earthquake insurance is different from your standard homeowner’s insurance, there are some major differences to the coverage. In order to delve deeper into this issue, we list down some factors that may affect the premium price of an insurance policy. You just bought a house and a standard homeowner’s insurance to go along with it.