Earthquake insurance covers some of the losses and damage that earthquakes can cause to your home, belongings, and other buildings on your property.

If you have a mortgage, you must have homeowners insurance. But you do not have to buy earthquake insurance.

No. There are limits on what earthquake insurance pays. The purpose of earthquake insurance is to help put a roof back over your head. It does not replace everything you lost.

You can buy earthquake insurance to cover damage to your home and belongings. It can also pay for living somewhere else while your mobile home is being repaired.

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) provides most earthquake insurance in California. CEA offers earthquake policies, for homeowners, mobile home owners, condo unit owners and renters. You cannot buy earthquake insurance directly from CEA you buy it directly from insurance companies that are members of CEA. You must have a residential property insurance policy in place in order to get a CEA earthquake policy. You must purchase your CEA policy from the same insurance company that you have your residential policy with-see the list of CEA participating insurers here.

All insurance policies have exclusions. These are the things the policy does not cover. Read your policy to learn about your exclusions.

If you have homeowners insurance in California, your company must offer to sell you earthquake insurance. It must offer this every other year. The offer must be in writing. It must tell you the amounts it covers (the limits), the deductible, and the premium. You have 30 days to accept the offer. The 30-day period starts the date the company mails the offer to you. If you do not reply, you are rejecting the offer.

You can buy earthquake insurance to cover damage to your belongings and to pay for living somewhere else while your rented home is being repaired.

You can buy earthquake insurance to cover damage to your belongings. It can also pay for living somewhere else while your condo is being repaired. You may also need insurance to help pay for your condo association assessment to repair your building. Talk to your condo association.

Your premium depends on many things, such as the location of your home, the cost to rebuild, type of construction, the coverages selected and the deductible. With CEA insurance, older homes may qualify for a discount of up 25 percent if they have been properly retrofitted.

Fire

Earthquake insurance usually does not cover anything that your homeowners policy already covers. For example, your homeowners policy covers fire damage, even if an earthquake causes the fire. Therefore, your earthquake policy does not cover fire damage.

Land

Usually, earthquake insurance does not cover damage to your land, such as sinkholes from erosion or other hidden openings under your land. You may be able to buy limited additional coverage to restore or stabilize land.

Vehicles

Earthquake insurance does not cover damage to your vehicles. Check your auto insurance policy to find out if it covers that damage.

Flood

Earthquake insurance does not cover water damage from outside your home, such as sewer or drain back-up, flood, or tsunami. For example, if you live near a lake that floods your home after an earthquake, earthquake insurance will not pay to repair the damage. A flood insurance policy will cover you.