Ventura County Pays High Quake Rates

In addition to facing pockets of high seismic risk, Ventura County has some of the costliest earthquake insurance rates in the state.

Homeowners along the loamy edges of the Santa Clara River and the sediment-rich Oxnard Plain can expect to pay top rates because soil conditions mean shaking during a major quake will be especially intense there.

Because of the greater danger in Oxnard, Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru, rates in those areas are $4.48 per $1,000 of a home’s value, much higher than the $2.79 statewide average.

Fillmore and Piru also are close to two major seismic faults that experts believe are at high risk of producing an earthquake exceeding magnitude 7 on the Richter scale.

Low-lying areas in Camarillo and the coastal communities of Silver Strand and Hollywood Beach also are in the $4.48 rating territory. But homeowners in Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Newbury Park generally have lower rates, averaging $2.47 per $1,000 of a home’s value, while the lowest rates, $1.78 per $1,000, are available to homeowners in west Ventura and the Ojai Valley.

Billions of dollars in losses following the 1994 Northridge earthquake led many insurance companies to abandon the earthquake insurance market. So, in 1996, the state created the California Earthquake Authority--a privately funded, state-managed agency--to ensure that homeowners have access to coverage.

Under this program, all providers of homeowners’ insurance are required also to offer earthquake insurance, either through the authority or with their own policies. New information on seismic risk and soils, however, has resulted in higher rates for many in Ventura County.

The type of residence and its year of construction also factor into the rate, said Tupper Hull, a consultant for the California Earthquake Authority. The overall logic is that insurance rates are significantly higher in areas that the authority believes face greater risk of damage.

But that doesn’t mean that rates always make sense. Because the rating zones are based on ZIP Codes, neighbors facing the same geologic risk could have vastly different insurance costs. The authority is looking for a more appropriate way to assign rates, Hull said.

“It’s somewhat arbitrary,” he said. “Someone who lives across an imaginary line from someone else could be paying a higher rate for no good reason.”

Susan Johnson, a Farmers Insurance agent in Camarillo, said she always gives clients a brochure explaining how earthquake insurance policies work. But the majority of clients don’t ask about it, she said.

“People just figure they’re safe because we haven’t had a big earthquake in a long time,” she said. “It’s not something people pay attention to.”

Those who do ask are often put off by the high cost and the fact that most policies have a 15% deductible.

High rates appear to have driven many customers away. Statewide, about 16% of homeowners take out earthquake insurance. Before the Northridge earthquake, that figure was 30%.