CEA Renters Earthquake Insurance Policies

A. Yes! A CEA renters policy includes personal property coverage, along with loss of use coverage and emergency repairs coverage. Emergency Repairs will cover up to $1,000 to make the insured’s home safe, such as repairing broken windows or removing broken glass. And Loss of Use pays for the additional living expenses necessary to maintain the insured’s normal standard of living, up to the coverage limit they selected. And it never has a deductible!

A. Use CEA’s premium calculator for agents to help your client who rents find a policy that works best for them. You can play around with coverage limits and deductible options to make sure they have the personal property and loss of use coverage that fits their needs.

A. The insured does not have to pay their deductible out of pocket to receive payment on a claim. The deductible is subtracted from their covered damage, so they don’t have to pay any of the deductible up front before receiving their claim payment. And remember that Loss of Use never has a deductible.

A. There are thousands of known faults in California, and scientists continue to discover new ones. Since earthquakes can happen anywhere in California, damage to your client’s rental home and personal property, and that damage forcing them to move out, is always possible. Check to see earthquake risk near you and your client and help them take steps to get prepared, which includes purchasing the best earthquake policy to meet their needs and budget.

A. Yes. CEA has never imposed a moratorium on selling new earthquake insurance policies following any earthquake, even in the areas directly affected by the earthquake.*

If your customers choose to purchase a new CEA earthquake insurance policy shortly after the occurrence of an earthquake in their area, and if there are aftershocks or other quakes that are related to that same earthquake, then you should help make them aware that their new CEA policy will not cover losses from these aftershocks or other related ground-shaking that occurs within 15 days (360 hours) after that earthquake, though would cover damage from completely unrelated earthquakes that may occur immediately after they purchase their policy. That original earthquake, together with all related shaking that occurs within 15 days, are collectively referred to as the "seismic event" in the CEA policy. In other words, the "seismic event" commences upon the initial earthquake, and all earthquakes or aftershocks that occur within the 360 hours (15 days) immediately following the initial earthquake are considered for purposes of this policy to be part of the same "seismic event."

For a loss to be covered under a CEA policy, both the original earthquake that caused the loss (to your customer’s property or belongings) and the 15-day "seismic event" that the earthquake is part of must commence during the policy period.

If, however, another earthquake occurs after the new policy goes into effect, and that earthquake is not seismically related to the earlier earthquake (not part of the earlier “seismic event”), then your customer’s losses from this new earthquake would be covered, even if they occurred immediately after the effective date of the policy, because those losses would arise from a different seismic event.

If you have customers who are current policyholders and they have experienced damage from a covered seismic event, and another quake occurs as part of the same event (for example, with the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake, when a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck and the next day a 7.1 magnitude struck, as part of the same seismic event), our 360-hour definition allows current policyholders to combine all the damage to meet their deductible. In other words, they do not need to meet their deductible each time; they only need to meet it once.

*It is possible, however, that one or more CEA participating insurers, as well as other insurance companies, may declare a moratorium on new sales of their own insurance policies (e.g., homeowners, condominium owners, or renters insurance that covers the risk of fire) in the affected area after an earthquake or other disaster. We recommend you be aware if your company has issued a moratorium on the policy types they offer following recent earthquakes or other disasters.