Home › Forums › Closed Forums › Buying and Selling RE › CEA Earthquake Insurance?
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UCGal.
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August 16, 2012 at 2:03 PM #20063August 16, 2012 at 2:56 PM #750398
UCGal
ParticipantWe carried the CEA insurance for a few years while my husband did some “seismic retrofits”.. then we dropped it.
In our case our house is early/mid 60’s era and the building codes have improved since then.
We also had the soils report from the original development – and had it confirmed when we did a big construction project – we’ve got good dirt… no issue of liquifaction.
The retrofits included:
– adding more diagonal bracing. (As walls were opened for other reasons, he’d retrofit bracing and insulation.)
– adding more sheer wall strength – especially in the corners. (Replacing sheet rock with plywood.)
– Adding more foundation/sill bolts.
– Adding strapping between second floor and first floor.
– Adding strapping between second floor and roof.
– removing some brick that was very 60’s decorative – to remove the weight load.August 16, 2012 at 4:12 PM #750405mike92104
ParticipantSome good info on retrofits:
August 16, 2012 at 9:48 PM #750425Participant[quote=profhoff]My insurance company (Allied) just informed me that they are no longer underwriting earthquake insurance and they have offered me a CEA (California Earthquake Authority) policy.
It’s really expensive ($1150/yr) with a $100,000 deductible. It doesn’t really cover contents (up to $5000). It’s hard to tell from the policy but I *think* if the house burns down or blows up as a result of the earthquake, I’m not covered since that’s fire or gas, not earthquake.
Anyway, it seems like there are a lot of loopholes, not the least of which is the statement in the policy that if the Authority runs out of money to pay, I’m SOOL. In the event of a major quake, this seems pretty likely.
My house is in Riverside and built in 1999. In today’s market it’s worth around $650,000 give or take.
Should I buy the insurance? How can I make an informed decision?[/quote]
Seems pricey. Is the quote based on the figure to replace the house or the purchase price? My little 1940 2 bedroom was quoted for $101/year.
August 16, 2012 at 10:12 PM #750428Hatfield
ParticipantYes, that seems way off. The CEA policies on my two little rental cottages are around $100/yr, and our 1900 sq ft residence is $150. All three policies have 15% deductibles.
August 17, 2012 at 12:22 AM #750432profhoff
ParticipantI think I read tht the Japanese earthquake affected rates! The house is 3585 square feet. I’m not sure what it covers because the policy is very confusing. Allied’s earthquake policy was under $200 a year but that’s over now.
August 17, 2012 at 12:36 AM #750433ParticipantWow! I just used the online estimator at CEA. Carlsbad zips are around $250 and Riverside zips are $1030 for the same parameters so clearly the CEA thinks its risky here. Jeez that’s expensive.
August 17, 2012 at 8:42 AM #750444livinincali
ParticipantI’m not sure I see the point in high deductible earthquake insurance in So Cal. In a strong earthquake most woodframe houses will be fine with minor damage such as broken windows, cracks in the plaster, etc. Al stuff that wouldn’t make it worth the deductible. If we truly did get the big one that causes hundreds on billions of dollars of damage in SoCal the insurance companies wouldn’t have the reserves to pay the claims anyways. Take the $1000 and put it in house maintenance fund. If an earthquake breaks a few windows you’ll have the money to pay for it.
August 17, 2012 at 9:27 AM #750447bearishgurl
ParticipantCEA charges me $185 annually for about a $360K rebuild value. My deductible is $50K. Location is near Dtn ChulaV. We’ve had a few shakers from the Tecate area (epicenter) in the last few years. One lasted over a minute but no damage in my area.
August 17, 2012 at 11:56 AM #750442Navydoc
ParticipantOurs was quoted at about $400/year, but the deductible was massive @ $150,000. I can imagine doing quite a lot of repairs for 150k. We chose not to carry it.
August 17, 2012 at 1:57 PM #750459ParticipantI clearly live in a high risk zip code.
August 17, 2012 at 9:41 PM #750478Participant[quote=profhoff]I clearly live in a high risk zip code.[/quote]
Yeah you Do! The southern face of the San Bernardino Mountains marks the location of the San Andreas, and it run right up through Cajon Pass.
http://geology.com/san-andreas-fault/
Shaking Potential:
http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/information/publications/ms/Documents/MS48_revised.pdf
August 20, 2012 at 9:03 AM #750563Participant[quote=mike92104]Some good info on retrofits:
http://www.strongtie.com/ftp/fliers/F-SEISRETRGD12.pdf%5B/quote%5D
Good link.
That’s basically what we’ve done to our house with the bolts and what they call sheathing, but my husband called sheer walls.Lots of anchors/hangers/bolts/brackets… and corners (and a few interior load walls) stiffened with plywood.
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