Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Earthquakes in California? No, and Here's What Does

No. A standard homeowners policy in California leaves out earthquake damage. If the ground shakes and the house cracks, slides off its foundation, or has to come down, your homeowners policy won't pay to fix it.

Earthquake coverage is a separate policy, added alongside the one you already have. A lot of people asking whether homeowners insurance covers earthquakes in California find this out too late.

Darlene Baxter is a licensed California insurance agent and owner of Darlene Baxter Insurance Agency in Pleasant Hill, CA, helping homeowners, families and business owners get covered with real choices: their main company first, and other companies through the brokerage when it isn't the right fit. Earthquake coverage is a big part of what her team does.

You pay for the repairs yourself, and you still owe the mortgage.

That's the biggest reason people call us about it: their equity. The house you've been paying down for years could need tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of dollars in repairs before anyone can live in it again.

Waiting for help after a disaster is a hard plan. Aid, when it comes, is often a loan you have to pay back, not a check to rebuild your home.

Scientists don't predict the day, but they do estimate the odds. The U.S. Geological Survey puts the chance of at least one magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area before 2043 at 72 percent (USGS).

Darlene was in downtown San Francisco with her nine-month-old son when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit. She tells that story on our earthquake insurance page, and it's why she takes this coverage so seriously.

It works differently from the deductible on your homeowners policy. Most earthquake deductibles are a percentage of your dwelling coverage, not a flat dollar amount.

Here's an example of the math. If your home is insured for $500,000 and you choose a 15 percent deductible, you'd cover the first $75,000 of damage to the house yourself, and the policy pays the rest up to your limit.

That sounds like a lot, and it is. Earthquake insurance is built for the loss you can't recover from, not the cracked tile. Being on the hook for $75,000 is hard. Being on the hook for the whole house is harder.

Many policies let you choose your deductible. A lower percentage means a higher premium, and a higher percentage lowers the cost.

Often not right away. Companies often pause new earthquake policies in an area right after a quake. The time to have it is before, while it's available.

A house fire usually hits one home. A large earthquake hits a whole region on the same morning. Thousands of homes can need repairs at the same time, and every one of those owners is calling the same contractors.

It can. If your home was built before 1980 and sits on a raised foundation with a short crawl space wall, it may be a good candidate for a seismic retrofit. The work bolts the house to its foundation and braces that wall.

Policies through the California Earthquake Authority, for example, offer a discount of up to 25 percent on the premium for a qualifying retrofit. Other companies set their own rules.

California also has a grant program, Earthquake Brace + Bolt, that helps pay for the retrofit in certain ZIP codes. Check the official site for what's available where you live.

No. If your home is on the FAIR Plan with a wrap policy, earthquake still isn't included. It takes its own policy, the same as for any California home.

Our post on what a wrap policy is explains what those two policies do cover.

Darlene Baxter is a licensed California insurance agent and owner of Darlene Baxter Insurance Agency in Pleasant Hill, CA, helping homeowners, families and business owners get covered with real choices: their main company first, and other companies through the brokerage when it isn't the right fit.

Michelle Henning handles our earthquake policies. She'll ask about your home, your current coverage, and how much of a deductible you could live with, then show you options side by side. We can't promise approval or a price. Those decisions belong to the insurance companies.

Call the office at (925) 940-6970 or send us a message. Now that you know homeowners insurance doesn't cover earthquakes in California, we'll go through the coverages with you before you sign anything, not after.