Is earthquake insurance worth it for an Orange County home?

Does homeowners insurance cover earthquakes?

Not the shaking. The Department of Insurance's earthquake guide says a homeowners policy does not cover earthquake damage, with one exception: state law requires it to cover fire caused by or following an earthquake, whether or not you have earthquake insurance. Your insurer must offer you earthquake coverage in writing every other year, with the limits, deductible and premium, and you have 30 days to accept. No reply counts as a no.

You do not have to wait for that letter. The CEA says you can add a policy at any time, through your insurer, if it is one of the CEA's participating companies. The department warns that after an earthquake, insurers often stop selling coverage for a while.

What does a CEA policy cover?

The CEA, a not-for-profit, offers two homeowners policies: Standard, with one deductible, and Homeowners Choice, which lets you insure the house alone or add your belongings with their own deductible (CEA coverages). The main parts:

• The house. The dwelling limit must match the dwelling limit on your homeowners policy.
• Loss of use. Rent and extra living costs while you cannot live at home, with no deductible. Limits run from $1,500 to $100,000.
• Emergency repairs. The first $1,500 to keep damage from getting worse has no deductible.
• Building code upgrades. $10,000 is included to bring a damaged home up to current code, and $20,000 or $30,000 can be bought.

Per the Department of Insurance, CEA policies do not cover landscaping, pools, fences, masonry or separate buildings, and earthquake insurance does not cover flood or other water from outside the home. Read the policy form for the full list of exclusions.

How does the earthquake deductible work?

It is a percentage of the dwelling limit, not a flat dollar amount, chosen in steps of 5 percent. The 5 and 10 percent options are not offered on a dwelling limit over $1,000,000, or on a frame home built before 1980 that is not on a slab and has no verified retrofit. As plain arithmetic, a 15 percent deductible on an $800,000 dwelling limit is $120,000 of damage before the policy pays for the house.

The department notes that you do not have to spend the deductible first: the insurer subtracts it from what it pays. On a Homeowners Choice policy, the belongings deductible is waived once the house damage passes the dwelling deductible. The CEA's homeowners page says the premium depends on the home's age, foundation, construction and roof type, and on location data such as distance to faults and soil type.

Can a retrofit lower the premium?

On an older house, yes. The CEA's Hazard Reduction Discount covers one to four unit, wood-frame homes built before 1980 that are not on a slab, with the water heater secured, any cripple walls braced and, on post-and-pier or post-and-beam foundations, the house anchored to the foundation:

• Raised foundation: 20 percent if built 1940 to 1979, 25 percent if built 1939 or earlier.
• Other foundations that are not a slab: 10 percent if built 1940 to 1979, 15 percent if built 1939 or earlier.

A home on a slab gets no discount, because the CEA says its rate already reflects the lower risk. To claim it, a contractor or structural engineer signs the CEA's Dwelling Retrofit Verification form for your insurer, or you give the verification number from an Earthquake Brace + Bolt retrofit. That program pays up to $3,000 toward the work, and its Southern California ZIP list names most Orange County cities, among them Anaheim, Santa Ana and Costa Mesa. Our earthquake retrofit guide covers which houses need the work, the grant steps and the permit.

How much earthquake risk does Orange County have?

The Newport-Inglewood fault runs 46 miles on land from Culver City to Newport Beach. The California Geological Survey says it caused the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, a magnitude 6.4 centered 3 miles south of Huntington Beach that killed 120 people (CGS). The U.S. Geological Survey's forecast puts the chance of at least one magnitude 6.7 or larger quake in the 30 years from 2014 at 93 percent for Southern California and 60 percent for the Los Angeles region.

For your own lot, the state's EQ Zapp map shows whether it sits in an earthquake fault zone or a liquefaction or landslide zone, and a seller must disclose a fault zone to a buyer (CGS fault zones). Every city is on the Orange County hub. For the minutes after a quake, see how to shut off gas after an earthquake.

As of November 2026. Your insurer's written offer and the CEA policy form have the final word on coverage, deductibles and discounts.