Earthquake insurance in Los Angeles

Why Los Angeles is its own earthquake question

Much of the hazard here comes from faults you cannot see. The 1994 Northridge earthquake struck on a blind thrust fault, one with no trace at the surface. The Puente Hills blind thrust runs for more than 40 kilometers beneath the northern Los Angeles basin and produced the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake; a 2005 study led by USGS scientists estimated that a full rupture, which it described as rare, would be the costliest disaster in U.S. history. The Newport-Inglewood fault zone, which runs from Culver City and Inglewood through Long Beach to Newport Beach, produced the 1933 Long Beach earthquake.

The building stock is the other half: pre-1980 houses on raised foundations, hillside homes on posts, and older apartment and concrete buildings under city retrofit orders. Those features change your deductible options, your discount and your exposure.

What Northridge changed about buying coverage

Northridge caused residential damage estimated at more than 20 billion dollars, about half of it insured. Because California law required companies selling residential policies to offer earthquake coverage, by 1995 companies representing nearly 95 percent of the residential market had restricted or stopped writing homeowners policies. The Legislature responded with a basic earthquake policy any insurer could sell, and then created the California Earthquake Authority, which opened in 1996.

What that means today:

• You cannot buy directly from the CEA. CEA policies are sold through the insurance companies that participate in it, alongside their homeowners, condo or renters policy.
• Your insurer must offer earthquake coverage with a homeowners policy, and repeat the offer every other year.
• Standalone earthquake policies exist. A few companies sell earthquake coverage separate from your homeowners policy, with different limits and deductibles. I compare them with the CEA route.
• Fire after a quake is a homeowners claim. California law requires homeowners and renters policies to cover fire caused by or following an earthquake.

How earthquake coverage works statewide.

How the percentage deductible works

An earthquake deductible is a percentage of the coverage limit, not a fixed amount. On a CEA homeowners policy it is 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 percent of the dwelling coverage limit. With a 15 percent deductible, the first 15 percent of that limit in covered damage is yours.

• When 5 and 10 percent are off the tableUnder CEA rules, the 5 and 10 percent options are not available when the dwelling limit is more than one million dollars, or for a frame house built before 1980 that is not on a slab foundation and has no verified retrofit. The lowest choice for those homes is 15 percent.
• One deductible, dwelling firstOn the standard CEA homeowners policy the dwelling deductible has to be met before personal property is paid. The Homeowners Choice version has a separate contents deductible.
• No deductible on loss of useLiving expenses while you are out of the house are paid without one.
• Emergency repairsThe first fifteen hundred dollars of emergency repairs is paid without a deductible.
• Building code upgradePaid once dwelling damage exceeds the deductible. What ordinance or law coverage does.

Retrofitted houses: the discount and the grants

The CEA discount for a bolted and braced house is up to 25 percent for a one-to-four unit, wood-frame house built before 1980 on a raised or other non-slab foundation, with the water heater secured to the frame. Raised-foundation houses built in 1939 or earlier get the largest discount. The retrofit is verified on the CEA Dwelling Retrofit Verification form, completed by a contractor or structural engineer and sent to your insurer. A verified retrofit also reopens the 5 and 10 percent deductible options, unless the dwelling limit is above one million dollars.

The state’s Earthquake Brace + Bolt program pays grants toward that retrofit. When I checked the program’s ZIP code list in October 2026, many City of Los Angeles ZIP codes were on it, from the Valley to the Westside and South LA, but registration was closed. It applies to pre-1980 wood-frame houses with a raised foundation or crawl space, on level ground or a slight slope, and rentals now qualify. A companion program covers houses with living space over the garage. Work started before you are accepted is ineligible, so check your ZIP code and sign up for notice of the next round.

Hillside homes and post-and-pier foundations

Many hillside houses in the Hollywood Hills, Silver Lake, Mount Washington and the Santa Monica Mountains sit on posts, piers or tall stepped cripple walls. That changes three things:

• The grant may not fit. Brace + Bolt is limited to houses on level ground or a slight slope, so a steep-lot house falls outside it and needs a retrofit designed for the site.
• The discount has a foundation test. For a post-and-pier house, the CEA discount requires a foundation placed continuously under all exterior bearing walls, with the house anchored to it, and braced cripple walls.
• The value can be higher than it looks. Retaining walls and caissons make a slope rebuild cost more than square footage suggests. High-value homes.

Soft-story and concrete buildings under city orders

Los Angeles Ordinance 183893, effective November 22, 2015, made retrofit mandatory for two kinds of building; the soft-story program also runs under Ordinance 184081.

• Wood-frame soft-storyWood-frame buildings permitted before January 1, 1978, with ground-floor parking or similar open space and at least one story above. Buildings used only as housing with three or fewer units are excluded. Orders went out from May 2016 through November 2017, with two years to submit plans, three and a half to pull a permit and seven to finish.
• Non-ductile concreteConcrete buildings built under a permit application submitted before January 13, 1977, other than detached single-family houses and duplexes. Orders began in November 2017, with three years for an engineer’s checklist, ten for retrofit or demolition plans and twenty-five to finish. A building in scope is covered even if LADBS has not yet identified it.

If you own one of these buildings, or a condo in one, the retrofit file and certificate of compliance are underwriting evidence. The state’s Earthquake Multi-Unit Retrofit grant, for 5 to 10 unit buildings in Los Angeles and other cities whose owners have a city retrofit order, took registrations from August 19 to September 30, 2026; that round has closed. Apartment building insurance and landlord policies.

Condo owners and the master policy

If the association leaves earthquake off the master policy, shake damage to the building is typically paid from reserves or a special assessment on owners. If it does, the master deductible is usually a percentage of a large building value, and that bill can also come back to owners as an assessment. The association’s annual budget report must summarize its earthquake policy, limit and deductible, so start there.

A CEA condo unit policy addresses both. Its loss assessment coverage, up to one hundred thousand dollars, pays your share of certain association assessments for earthquake repairs or the master policy deductible. It can be bought alone or with unit, contents and loss of use coverage, each with its own deductible except loss of use. Ask the board how assessments are shared, and estimate your share of the master deductible. How loss assessment works, condo insurance and the association side in Los Angeles.

What to send me

• Your current declarations page for the homeowners, condo or landlord policy, and any earthquake policy you already have.
• Year built, square footage and foundation type: slab, raised with cripple walls, or post-and-pier.
• Retrofit paperwork, including permits, the contractor’s or engineer’s sign-off and any Dwelling Retrofit Verification form.
• Hillside details: slope, retaining walls and whether the house sits on posts or caissons.
• For a condo: the association’s insurance summary from the annual budget report, whether the master policy carries earthquake, its deductible and the number of units.
• For a rental building: unit count and any city retrofit order and the certificate of compliance, if there is one.

Common questions

General information about earthquake insurance in Los Angeles as of October 2026, not legal advice. CEA deductible rules and discounts, state retrofit grant rounds and eligible ZIP codes, and City of Los Angeles retrofit orders all change; check your policy wording, the grant program’s ZIP code search and your building’s Permit & Inspection Report with LADBS. Coverage depends on underwriting and the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued.