Earthquake insurance in Canada

What is earthquake insurance?

Earthquake insurance is a coverage available from many home insurance providers, being part of a home insurance policy. When available, it’s usually optional. Earthquake insurance covers damage to your home or belongings caused by earthquakes. It also typically covers additional living expenses if you need to vacate your home following an earthquake.

Because it covers more than just damage to structures (like houses), earthquake coverage is beneficial for renters or condo owners as well.

Hopefully, we’ll never need to use it, but earthquake insurance is an important coverage throughout Canada. Some areas are more likely to be hit by a severe earthquake than others, of course. Southwestern BC and southern Quebec are the regions with the highest seismic risk, but earthquakes can happen anywhere. There are more than 5,000 earthquakes each year across Canada.¹

If you live in an earthquake zone, then you must consider earthquake insurance. Traditional home insurance policies don’t cover loss or damage caused by earthquakes; you must specifically request that your insurer add it to your policy. Earthquake insurance typically has its own limit of insurance as well as a separate deductible, which is usually higher than the base deductible.

Is it worth having earthquake insurance?

While earthquake insurance does come at additional cost, we strongly recommend that all primary residences have it in place. It’s simply not worth the risk of going without.

Despite widespread earthquake risk across Canada, earthquake insurance take-up is low — even in particularly earthquake-prone regions. In BC, the province with the most severe earthquake risk, earthquake insurance is included on between 10% and 70% of home insurance policies, with higher-risk areas having higher take-up rates. However, in Quebec, which also faces high earthquake risk in some locales, just 4% of home insurance policies have earthquake protection.²

There are many reasons for this. For one, some people believe that insurers won’t be able to pay covered claims resulting from a major event like a catastrophic earthquake. This is not true — insurers factor earthquakes into their prices, building reserves to pay for resulting claims. Some of the other things that help ensure insurance companies can meet their commitments:

• Insurers buy catastrophe protection from reinsurance companies. This helps spread the risk (and cost) of disasters globally.
• Insurance companies in Canada are heavily regulated by both provincial and federal governments. Among other things, these governmental bodies supervise the solvency of companies.
• Insurance companies must be members of the Property and Casualty Insurance Compensation Corporation (PACICC). If an insurance company fails, PACICC will automatically respond to all valid claims for participating members. PACICC is similar to the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation, which protects savings in case a bank fails.

Aside from that, many people simply underestimate the earthquake risk their home is exposed to. Other people don’t consider the extra cost worthwhile — but earthquake insurance isn’t necessarily expensive.

Earthquake insurance costs

The cost of earthquake insurance varies greatly depending on the local earthquake risk, as well as the amount of coverage required and the deductible you choose.

In a low-risk area, it could be as little as $15 per year. In higher-risk regions, like Vancouver or Montreal, it may be more like $150–500 per year to insure a house against earthquakes. For those renting their homes or living in apartments or condos, earthquake insurance usually ranges from $5 to $50 per year.

What does earthquake insurance cover?

Earthquake insurance covers loss or damage caused by the tremor or shaking from an earthquake. It does not cover loss or damage caused by landslides, snowslides or other forms of earth movement. Nor does it cover loss or damage caused by tsunamis or tidal waves, even if the tsunami or tidal wave was due to an earthquake.

Homeowner

If you own a house, your earthquake insurance will cover loss or damage to your building and your personal property. Often, it also includes additional living expenses, which covers any extra expenses you incur if you’re unable to live in your home while it undergoes repairs. That could include hotel rooms, meals, and more.

Condo owner

If you own a condo, your condo (or strata) corporation is responsible for insuring the building. Your individual condo policy must include earthquake insurance to cover your personal property, upgrades to your unit, and additional living expenses. Your policy may also cover assessments made against you because of a shortfall in your condo corporation’s insurance.

Condo owners should take special note: if you live in a condo building that suffers damage in an earthquake, there may be a loss assessment to each unit to cover the building’s deductible. On your condo unit owner’s policy, you can purchase coverage to protect you (for example, Condo Owner’s Protection from Square One). However, it will only protect you if the loss is one that is covered on your condo policy. So if you don’t carry earthquake insurance on your contents, your policy will not respond to cover any assessment due to an earthquake.

Tenant or renter

And if you rent your home, earthquake insurance on your tenant policy will cover your personal property and additional living expenses.

Preparing for earthquakes

You can read more about earthquake insurance on Square One’s earthquake insurance page. Square One approaches earthquake insurance differently — we offer it on every home insurance policy we sell.

In addition to insuring your home against earthquakes, it’s crucial to have an earthquake plan in the event of an emergency. There are many things you can do to physically prepare your home for earthquakes, too.

Learn all about preparing your home and your family for earthquakes on our preparing for earthquakes page. And, check out the Government of Canada’s “Get Prepared” site for more information.

Sources

1. Government of Canada. “Prepare for earthquakes.” Get Prepared, 8 Oct. 2024, www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/hzd/rthqks-en.aspx
2. Goda, Katsuichiro et al. “Relationships Between Earthquake Insurance Take-up Rates and Seismic Risk Indicators for Canadian Households.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 50, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101754.

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