I went through the California Sylmar earth quake of years ago, and incurred damage, but as you say, and it is true, the deductable is a per centage of the total value of the structure. My damage never reached that threshold, therefore I was responsible for the repairs.

As to the policy covering damage to a neighboring property, I will admit, I don't know, but you have brought up a good point, will have to read my policy!!!!

The ONLY advantage of earth quake insurance, is; if and when a catastrophic earth quake comes, the policy holder will be at least able to recoup a good portion of rebuilding the house. Any one getting earth quake insurance should carefully read and understand the policy.

The only way I could see the policy covering sinking is if the earth quake caused the ground under the house to become unstable. And that would probably be evident shortly after the earth quake, not years later. Keep in mind, there are two "types" of earth quakes, rolling and shaking, each causes different types of damage to a house and its structure.

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Originally Posted by Rick Bunzel

I was living in the Bay Area during the Loma Prieta earthquake. We had plenty of rocking and rolling which caused my neighbor's fire place to crash into my house. After the fact my neighbor said she had earthquake insurance that it would cover repairs. Two weeks later I asked when the adjuster would be out to start the claims process. She told me that her deductible was 10% of the current value and that the insurance didn't start until there had been $40K of damage (which there wasn't) Needless to say she didn't offer to fix it and was quite scarce for the next year. We were having some other work done and patching the stucco was no big deal.