Soft-story earthquake insurance
Soft-story buildings — typically multifamily residential with open ground-floor parking or commercial space — are among the most earthquake-vulnerable structures in California. Many California cities now have mandatory soft-story retrofit programs. Compliance status significantly affects both insurance availability and pricing.
What the Best Earthquake wizard captures
The application documents all the details underwriters look for. Gathering the following before applying produces a stronger submission and faster broker review:
- Building type: wood-frame soft-story apartment, condo, or commercial-below-residential
- Mandatory retrofit compliance status: compliant, in-progress, or non-compliant
- Engineering documentation: moment frames, shear walls, or other strengthening
- Occupancy: owner-occupied, rental, or mixed
- HOA or landlord coverage details and loss assessment exposure
From indication to bindable options
The Best Earthquake Insurance application gives a preliminary annual range anchored to CDI data, then submits a completed Covwell application to Bollinsure for broker review. A licensed California broker reviews your construction, retrofit, and loss details and shops multiple carrier markets to find the best available terms.
The indication is not a bindable quote — final coverage is subject to underwriting, carrier eligibility, and policy terms. But starting with a strong, complete application gives the broker the best possible foundation for market submission.
Ready to submit?
The 5-step application wizard takes approximately 5–8 minutes to complete. It walks through property and applicant details, coverage terms and deductible selection, construction and foundation type, retrofit and loss history, and a review-and-sign step where you can preview the completed PDF before submitting.
Your completed application is reviewed by a licensed broker who follows up — often the same business day — with market options and next steps.