(SAN RAMON) -- Would you still live in this zip code if your insurance company withdrew coverage due to frequent earthquakes?
Residents may need to start asking themselves that question. With the last two OpGov.ai San Ramon earthquake stories garnered thousands of hits, this post may rise above.
Why?
Because it has come to light, California homeowners' fears may be becoming true.
Insurance companies are withdrawing coverage.
Two years ago insurance companies pulled policy coverage due to "too often" hurricanes, flooding.
If it's not enough that San Ramon residents live in fear of Mother Nature's "big one," now it's a matter of money.
Maybe it was inevitable, a day would come when insurance agents would withdraw from the West Coast as they did on the East Coast two years ago.
Now it's San Ramon.
Local earthquake levels
For the past two months, the city of San Ramon has been shaking, and with the latest reading on Dec 19, that was well over 4.0 on the scale and brought up an important topic of concern within the residents.
Recent earthquake levels locally, causing higher insurance premiums.
Property insurance.
It was brought to our notice by resident Shikha Srivastava that seeking coverage has not been an issue.
CEA policy coverage quote, which is nearly $5K, showing "does not qualify" for hazard reduction.
"We have been looking for earthquake insurance for a while to find that zipcode 94582 has a huge premium; most agencies would not cover it," Srivastava said.
This was also highlighted by residents on NextDoor.
We exclusively reached out to AAA and Farmers to verify the claims, and we were informed that AAA does not provide Fire and Earthquake insurance in the ZIP code because it considers it a high-risk area and therefore defers earthquake insurance to the California Earthquake Authority. (CEA)
The Home insurance quote: $683
The separate CEA quote: $4,466.
Below is another post by resident on the earthquake insurance on NextDoor.
Adita Patel Nextdoor Post
It's well known that when the insurance company doesn't feel comfortable insuring your property, then you are taking a much higher risk than normal.
Especially even with the government agency California Earthquake insurance agency the monthly premium of $372.12 is very high compared to regular home insurance of $683 a year.
Recently, we highlighted similar concerns in the neighbouring city of Newark, where the proposed development is in a flood plain, and there is no insurance company willing to provide insurance.
If you or anyone you know is having issues with your earthquake insurance, please contact me at chirag@lead4earth.org.
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