High Risk Jolts Rates for Quake Insurance

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 there mean shaking will be hard during a major quake.

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. The lowest rates in the county, $1.78 per $1,000, are available to homeowners in west Ventura and the Ojai Valley.

Billions in losses after the 1994 Northridge temblor 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 the scheme, 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 quake authority. The logic is that insurance rates are significantly higher in areas that the authority believes face greater risk of damage.

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