Glossary
Earthquake retrofit, defined
Structural work that ties an existing building more firmly to its foundation and stiffens the weak points that shaking tends to break. For a wood-frame house the standard package is bolting the sill plate to the concrete, bracing the cripple wall between foundation and floor, and strapping the water heater.
In practice
Carriers that write earthquake coverage ask about it on the application and price it: a bolted and braced house of a given age may qualify for a credit, and some carriers will not write an older, unbolted house at all or will offer only a higher deductible. Utah's Wasatch Front and Nevada's Reno and Las Vegas basins are where the question comes up most in the four states, along with unreinforced masonry buildings anywhere. For a commercial building the work is larger: shear walls, moment frames, roof-to-wall anchors, and it can be a condition of a loan. Documentation matters as much as the work; a permit, an engineer's letter or a contractor's invoice is what the underwriter will accept. The analysis asks for it before quoting and states what the credit is worth.
A worked example
Suppose the owner of an older house near Salt Lake City is quoted $1,800 a year for earthquake coverage with a fifteen percent deductible. After bolting and cripple-wall bracing documented with a permit, the carrier re-rates the policy at $1,300 and offers a ten percent deductible option. On a $400,000 dwelling the deductible drops from $60,000 to $40,000. Hypothetical figures, to show that the work changes both the premium and the share the owner carries.
Applies to: Earthquake InsuranceHome Insurance