Earthquake insurance in San Francisco

Two faults, and a fire that did more than the shaking

The 1906 earthquake began in the Pacific about two miles west of the city and tore some 296 miles of the San Andreas Fault. USGS counts 28,188 buildings lost and estimates more than 3,000 deaths, but the three-day fire that followed did far more damage than the ground motion, burning 4.7 square miles of the city.

Fire caused by or following an earthquake is a homeowners or renters policy claim, not an earthquake claim, so in a city of attached row houses the fire limit deserves as much attention as the earthquake deductible.

• Bay Area as a wholeAbout 74 percent, up from 72 percent in the 2014 forecast.
• San Andreas FaultAbout 25.5 percent, up from about 22 percent.
• Hayward and Rodgers Creek FaultsAbout 34 percent, the highest of any single Bay Area fault system.

The Marina in 1989, and where the soft ground is

Loma Prieta was centered about 50 miles away, yet it destroyed 35 buildings in the Marina District. The district stands on a filled cove and lagoon: dune sand, 1906 rubble and, from 1912, sand pumped in behind a seawall for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition grounds. That loose, wet ground amplified the shaking and liquefied. USGS found the worst damage in four-story, wood-frame corner buildings; similar buildings with masonry or concrete ground floors were damaged about ten times less on average.

• Look up the parcel. On the city's copy of the state seismic hazard zone map, addresses I checked in the Marina, South of Market, Mission Bay, the Embarcadero and Treasure Island fall inside a zone; ones in Pacific Heights and Noe Valley do not. Your natural hazard disclosure or the state's EQ Zapp map answers it for your lot.

Where the coverage comes from and how the deductible works

The California Earthquake Authority does not sell to the public; its policies are issued through participating insurers alongside a homeowners, condo or renters policy. The FAIR Plan is one of them: if your house is on a FAIR Plan Dwelling Fire policy, it offers a separate CEA policy, though it writes no earthquake policy of its own. A few companies write standalone earthquake policies; I compare those with the CEA option.

• Deductible choices5 to 25 percent of the dwelling limit, in steps of five.
• When the low choices close5 and 10 percent are off the table for a dwelling limit above one million dollars, and for a pre-1980 frame house off a slab with no verified retrofit.
• Living expensesLoss of use carries no deductible.

Earthquake coverage across California, the FAIR Plan with a companion policy and paying for code upgrades.

The city's soft-story retrofit list

San Francisco Ordinance 66-13, signed April 18, 2013, requires retrofit of wood-frame buildings of three or more stories, or two stories over a basement or underfloor area, with five or more dwelling units, where the permit for the original building was applied for before January 1, 1978. The retrofit targets the weak ground story, typically garages or storefronts. Condo and TIC buildings can be on the list too: the scope turns on construction and unit count, not tenure.

• Tier IAssembly, school or care uses. Work due September 15, 2017.
• Tier IIFifteen or more units. Due September 15, 2018.
• Tier IIIEverything not in another tier. Due September 15, 2019.
• Tier IVGround-floor commercial space, or in a mapped liquefaction zone. Due September 15, 2020, extended by one year to September 15, 2021.

Every deadline has passed. The Department of Building Inspection's public list, last refreshed in July 2025, shows 4,945 buildings, of which 4,678 had finished work with a Certificate of Final Completion and 262 were marked non-compliant. Underwriters typically want that certificate, and a non-compliant listing narrows options.

For rent-controlled units, the Rent Board lets an owner pass through all of the certified cost of seismic work required by law, spread over 20 years and phased in under an annual cap of the greater of thirty dollars or 10 percent of base rent. The state's multi-unit retrofit grant lists San Francisco; its 2026 registration closed September 30. Apartment buildings and landlord policies.

Concrete buildings: the 2025 screening ordinance

Ordinance 70-25, passed May 6, 2025, starts an inventory of older concrete buildings and certain one-story tilt-up and masonry buildings. It does not order retrofits. Owners the city has notified must file a screening form by June 9, 2027, and the city says owners who do not will be automatically included in any future mandatory retrofit program. Residential buildings of two or fewer units are exempt, and the Board stated its intent that a building found exempt or voluntarily retrofitted to the new standards be spared any local mandatory retrofit for 20 years, absent a compelling public safety need.

Houses: bolting, bracing and rooms over the garage

A one-to-four unit, wood-frame house built before 1980 on a raised foundation, bolted, braced and with the water heater strapped, can earn up to 25 percent off CEA coverage, with the largest step for raised foundations built before 1940. The work is verified on the CEA's Dwelling Retrofit Verification form, completed with a contractor or structural engineer, and a verified retrofit also reopens the 5 and 10 percent deductibles up to the one million dollar limit.

When I checked the state's grant ZIP code lists in October 2026, every residential San Francisco ZIP code was on the Earthquake Brace + Bolt list, and registration was closed. The companion Earthquake Soft-Story grant, for houses of no more than two stories built before 2000 with living space over the garage, covered most of the city but not 94104, 94105, 94111, 94158, the Presidio or Treasure Island. Both need level ground or a slight slope, and pulling a permit or starting work before acceptance disqualifies the job.

Condos and TICs

Start with the association's annual budget report, which by law summarizes any earthquake policy, its limit and its deductible. With no earthquake cover on the master policy, shake damage to the building is typically funded by reserves or a special assessment; with it, a percentage deductible on a large building value can still come back to owners as an assessment.

A CEA condo policy has optional building property and loss assessment coverages, each with limits up to one hundred thousand dollars and its own percentage deductible; loss assessment pays your share of certain assessments the association charges, and it can be bought on its own or with the other coverages. A TIC is not a condominium: each co-owner holds an undivided share of the whole property rather than a separate unit, and the building typically carries one policy, so the earthquake decision is usually made for the whole building. Your TIC agreement should say who carries it and how a deductible is split. Condo insurance and loss assessment.

What to send me

• Declarations pages for the current homeowners, condo, landlord or FAIR Plan policy, and any earthquake policy.
• The address and block and lot, plus the natural hazard disclosure if you have it.
• Year built, stories, unit count and foundation, and whether there is living space or storefronts over or beside a garage.
• Retrofit records: the permit, the Certificate of Final Completion for a soft-story building, or the CEA Dwelling Retrofit Verification form for a house.
• For a condo or TIC: the budget report's insurance summary or the TIC agreement's insurance section, the master policy's earthquake terms and how assessments are shared.
• For a concrete building or a condo in one: any screening notice from the city and who is filing the form.

Common questions

General information about earthquake insurance in San Francisco as of October 2026, not legal advice. CEA deductible rules and discounts, state retrofit grant rounds and ZIP code lists, Rent Board passthrough rules, and the Department of Building Inspection's soft-story and concrete screening programs all change; check your policy wording, the grant program's ZIP code search and your building's status with the Department of Building Inspection. Coverage depends on underwriting and the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued.