Los Angeles underwriters read a shopping center by its construction year, its retrofit paperwork, its tenant list and its loss history. The city’s seismic ordinances reach commercial buildings, state law puts common-area security on the landlord, and earthquake is always a separate purchase. Send me the rent roll, the leases’ insurance clauses and any city orders, and I will build the program around what the center really is.
What underwriters ask about a Los Angeles center
- Year built and frameWood frame over open parking, tilt-up concrete, brick or cast-in-place concrete each bring a different earthquake and fire question.
- City retrofit ordersLos Angeles’s mandatory retrofit programs cover commercial buildings, not only apartments. An open order is a red flag; a signed-off one is a selling point.
- Tenant mixCooking, alcohol, cannabis, vape and late-night uses change the fire and liability picture for the whole building.
- Parking lot and common areasLighting, cameras, patrols and the incident history drive the liability price more than square footage does.
- Brush exposureCenters near the hills may sit in the city’s Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, where brush clearance is required year-round.
The policy forms are the same ones used everywhere (how shopping center programs are built). What follows is the Los Angeles part.
Retrofit ordinances that reach commercial buildings
The City of Los Angeles runs two mandatory seismic programs, and both can land on a retail owner.
- Soft-story. The program covers wood-frame buildings of two or more stories, built under code standards enacted before January 1, 1978, with ground-floor parking or similar open floor space. Residential buildings with three or fewer units are outside it. LADBS sent orders to its condo and commercial group starting November 6, 2017, and gave owners seven years from the order to finish construction. A two-story strip with shops or offices above tuck-under parking fits that description.
- Non-ductile concrete. This program covers concrete buildings, with a roof or floor supported by a concrete wall or column, that were submitted for plan check before January 13, 1977. From the order to comply, owners have three years to file a checklist, ten years to submit retrofit or demolition plans and twenty-five years to finish. LADBS says it is still identifying buildings, and that the ordinance applies whether or not a building has been identified yet.
These are city laws. Elsewhere in the county the rules differ by city; Pasadena, for one, adopted its own soft-story ordinance in May 2019 for wood-frame buildings permitted on or before November 12, 1976. Tell me which jurisdiction the center is in and I will ask for the right paperwork: the order, the permit and the certificate of compliance. Older tilt-up and brick buildings get a similar question about wall anchorage and any strengthening work. If retrofit construction is still ahead of you, the work may need builder’s risk.
Earthquake is a separate policy
Shake damage is typically excluded from a commercial property policy, and the California Earthquake Authority is no help here: its policies are for homeowners, condo unit owners, mobilehome owners and renters. A shopping center’s earthquake coverage is placed in the commercial market as a standalone or difference-in-conditions policy with a percentage deductible. The region’s history explains the underwriting. The magnitude 6.4 Long Beach earthquake of 1933 killed about 120 people, mostly in collapsing unreinforced masonry buildings, with the heaviest damage in Long Beach and Compton. Expect questions on construction, stories, retrofit status and soil. How commercial earthquake coverage works.
Parking lots, security and premises liability
Most claims against a center owner come from the common areas: trip-and-falls on broken asphalt and wheel stops, and assaults or robberies in the lot. On the second kind, California law is specific. In Ann M. v. Pacific Plaza Shopping Center (1993), the California Supreme Court said a commercial landlord’s duty includes taking reasonable steps to secure common areas against foreseeable criminal acts of third parties. It also said a duty to hire security guards requires a high degree of foreseeability, which can rarely be shown without prior similar incidents of violent crime on the premises.
In practice that makes your incident log an underwriting document. I ask for:
- Lighting and cameras: what is installed, and who checks that it works.
- Security: patrol contracts, hours, and the vendor’s certificate naming you as additional insured.
- Incident history: police calls and claims for the last five years, and what you changed afterward.
- Maintenance records: sweeping, restriping and pothole repair, with dates.
A serious injury claim can exceed a primary limit quickly, so a commercial umbrella belongs over the general liability.
Tenant mix, lessor’s risk and certificates
When you lease to others and do not operate the stores, the building is usually written as lessor’s risk. The rate follows the hardest tenant in the row:
- RestaurantsHood and duct cleaning records, the suppression system’s service tag and grease handling. What the restaurant should carry.
- Liquor and barsHours, security and the tenant’s own liquor liability.
- Cannabis, smoke and vapeMany standard markets will not write a building with a cannabis tenant, so the placement often moves to specialty carriers. How dispensaries are insured.
- Massage, nail and late-night usesUnderwriters ask about hours, permits and any police activity.
- Vacant unitsVacancy clauses can cut coverage after a set number of days. Tell me before a unit sits empty.
The lease should require each tenant to carry liability insurance and name the owner as additional insured, and someone should collect the certificates every year. A certificate holder has no rights under the policy; an additional insured does. The difference, explained.
Loss of rents and code upgrades after a partial loss
A fire in one unit can shut the neighbors for months. Loss of rents coverage replaces the rent that stops, so size it to the full rent roll, including the taxes, insurance and maintenance charges tenants reimburse, and to a realistic permit-and-rebuild period in Los Angeles. How income coverage works.
Older centers have a second gap. When part of a building burns, the repair must meet current code, and the undamaged part may have to be upgraded or even demolished. A standard property policy pays to put back what was there. Ordinance or law coverage pays for the undamaged portion, demolition and the increased cost of construction, each up to its own limit. On a pre-1978 center it is one of the first things I check.
Brush zones, vandalism and hard-to-place centers
The Palisades Fire, which started January 7, 2025, burned 23,448 acres and destroyed 6,845 structures, commercial buildings among them. Since then, centers near brush get a closer look. LAFD requires owners in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone to maintain vegetation within 200 feet of any structure all year, and underwriters ask whether that is done.
When standard and surplus lines markets decline a center, the California FAIR Plan writes retail buildings. Its commercial policy is named-peril, covering fire, lightning and internal explosion, with vandalism and malicious mischief as an optional extra. In 2025 the Insurance Commissioner approved commercial limits of twenty million dollars per building and one hundred million per location. Liability, loss of rents on broader terms, and the perils the FAIR Plan leaves out are bought separately. How a difference-in-conditions policy fills the gaps.
What to send me
- Address, year built, stories and construction type, with square footage by building.
- Retrofit paperwork: any order to comply, permits and the certificate of compliance, or a letter showing the building is out of scope.
- The rent roll, with each tenant’s business, hours and lease expiration, and any vacant units.
- The insurance clause from your leases, and the tenants’ current certificates.
- Current declarations pages for property, earthquake, liability and umbrella.
- Five years of loss runs, plus the parking lot incident log.
- Updates with years: roof, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, sprinklers and alarm.
- Security and maintenance contracts: patrol, cameras, lot sweeping and hood cleaning.
Common questions
Who insures strip malls in Los Angeles?
Commercial property and liability carriers write them, usually on a lessor’s risk basis, and the choice narrows with the building’s age, retrofit status and tenants. As an independent broker I take the center to the markets that fit it, including surplus lines carriers and the FAIR Plan when needed.
Does the Los Angeles soft-story ordinance apply to commercial buildings?
It can. The program covers two-story-or-taller wood-frame buildings with ground-floor parking or similar open space built under pre-1978 code standards, and LADBS sent orders to commercial buildings starting in November 2017.
Do I need earthquake insurance on a shopping center in Los Angeles?
No law requires it, but your lender may, and a standard property policy typically excludes shake damage. The CEA only writes residential policies, so a center’s earthquake coverage is bought separately in the commercial market.
Am I liable if a customer is attacked in my parking lot?
Possibly. California courts hold commercial landlords to reasonable steps against foreseeable crime in common areas, and prior similar incidents on the property weigh heavily in that question.
Why did my shopping center insurance go up after I leased to a restaurant?
Cooking adds fire load to the whole building, so the property rate follows the most hazardous tenant. Hood cleaning records and a serviced suppression system help.
Are my tenants’ certificates of insurance enough to protect me?
Not by themselves. A certificate only shows a policy existed on the date issued; you want to be named as an additional insured on each tenant’s liability policy and still carry your own.
What does ordinance or law coverage do for an older center?
After a partial loss it pays for the undamaged part of the building that code forces you to tear down or upgrade, plus demolition and the higher cost of building to current code, up to the limits you chose.
General information about insuring shopping centers in the City and County of Los Angeles as of November 2026, not legal advice. Retrofit ordinances, fire zone rules and FAIR Plan limits change, and each city in the county sets its own building rules; confirm your building’s status with LADBS or your city’s building department, and your duties as a landlord with counsel. Coverage depends on underwriting and the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued.