What the Endorsement Covers, What the Percentage Deductible Costs in Dollars, and What to Ask Before the Next Renewal
Credit: Homeowner.ca
Most Canadian homeowners think of earthquake insurance as a yes-or-no question. Do I have it? Do I need it? That framing misses the part that decides whether the coverage ever pays you anything.
The real decision is a number. Earthquake endorsements carry a deductible written as a percentage, not a flat amount, and on an ordinary Vancouver or Montréal house that percentage converts into tens of thousands of dollars before the insurer contributes a cent. A 10% deductible on an $800,000 dwelling limit is $80,000. Few people would sign a quote with that figure printed on it. Many sign one with "10%" printed instead.
This guide works from that number outward. It explains what the endorsement is, converts the deductible into dollars at three dwelling limits, separates the fire-following question from the earthquake question, maps availability and hazard tier by province, and ends with five questions to put to your broker. It is published on the day of the Great British Columbia ShakeOut for a reason: the drill is a good moment to check the policy, not just the bookshelf brackets.
A standard Canadian home policy does not cover earthquake damage. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada lists earthquakes alongside landslides, floods and sewer backup as events home policies typically do not cover. The cover exists, but you buy it as an add-on, usually called an endorsement, attached to a homeowner, condo or tenant policy.
That structure matters in three ways. First, the endorsement carries its own deductible, separate from the $1,000 or $2,500 you pay on a burst pipe. Second, it carries its own exclusions, which sit on top of the base policy's. Third, it has to be on the policy before the ground moves. Insurers do not sell cover for a loss already under way.
It is also easy to assume you have it when you do not. The Insurance Bureau of Canada reports that 38% of Quebec policyholders wrongly believe a standard home policy covers earthquake damage, while only 7% actually carry the endorsement.
Endorsements are not interchangeable boilerplate. Each insurer writes its own, and the wording is what a claim is decided on.
For a recent illustration of how narrowly courts read the terms of an add-on, see our coverage of the Supreme Court decision on how insurance endorsements work.
Aftershocks are the detail most homeowners never think about, and the wording handles them for you. A sample wording from Square One defines an earthquake as the initial shock plus "subsequent shocks, landslides, snowslides, and earth movements occurring within one-hundred and sixty-eight (168) consecutive hours after the initial shock and shaking." BCAA describes the same idea for its customers as aftershock damage covered over seven days following the first shake.
The practical effect is favourable. A main shock on Monday and a strong aftershock on Thursday are one occurrence, which means one deductible, not two. An aftershock on day nine is a new event with a new deductible. Ask which window your wording uses; the 168-hour form is the one we found in print.
A standard Canadian home policy does not cover earthquake damage. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada lists earthquakes alongside landslides, floods and sewer backup as events home policies typically do not cover. The cover exists, but you buy it as an add-on, usually called an endorsement, attached to a homeowner, condo or tenant policy.
That structure matters in three ways. First, the endorsement carries its own deductible, separate from the $1,000 or $2,500 you pay on a burst pipe. Second, it carries its own exclusions, which sit on top of the base policy's. Third, it has to be on the policy before the ground moves. Insurers do not sell cover for a loss already under way.
It is also easy to assume you have it when you do not. The Insurance Bureau of Canada reports that 38% of Quebec policyholders wrongly believe a standard home policy covers earthquake damage, while only 7% actually carry the endorsement.
Endorsements are not interchangeable boilerplate. Each insurer writes its own, and the wording is what a claim is decided on.
For a recent illustration of how narrowly courts read the terms of an add-on, see our coverage of the Supreme Court decision on how insurance endorsements work.
Aftershocks are the detail most homeowners never think about, and the wording handles them for you. A sample wording from Square One defines an earthquake as the initial shock plus "subsequent shocks, landslides, snowslides, and earth movements occurring within one-hundred and sixty-eight (168) consecutive hours after the initial shock and shaking." BCAA describes the same idea for its customers as aftershock damage covered over seven days following the first shake.
The practical effect is favourable. A main shock on Monday and a strong aftershock on Thursday are one occurrence, which means one deductible, not two. An aftershock on day nine is a new event with a new deductible. Ask which window your wording uses; the 168-hour form is the one we found in print.
The federal consumer agency puts typical earthquake deductibles at 5% to 20% of the coverage limit. Intact Insurance quotes the same 5% to 20% range against "your home insurance coverage limit," and Quebec's CAA-Québec cites 5% to 15% of the value of the coverage.
Percentages hide the stakes. Here is the same range expressed as the amount you would carry yourself, calculated against the dwelling limit alone.
Read the table as a filter. Any quake that does less damage than the figure in your cell is, for claim purposes, uninsured. On a $1.2 million limit at 15%, that is a $180,000 threshold. For a wood-frame house that rides out moderate shaking with cracked drywall, a split chimney and broken dishes, the endorsement may pay nothing at all.
That is not an argument against buying it. It is an argument for knowing which loss you are insuring. At high percentages, the endorsement is catastrophe cover for the house you cannot afford to rebuild, not repair cover for the house you can.
Rising limits raise the deductible automatically. When your insurer increases the dwelling limit at renewal to track rebuilding costs, a percentage deductible grows with it, even though the percentage never changes.
Insurer statements agree that the deductible is a percentage of a coverage limit. They are less precise about which limit, and that ambiguity is worth real money. Take one loss and read it three ways.
Assume an $800,000 dwelling limit, a $400,000 contents limit, a 10% earthquake deductible, and a quake that causes $150,000 of damage to the house and $30,000 to its contents: $180,000 in total.
The last reading appears in some consumer explainers online; none of the insurer statements reviewed for this guide describe their deductible that way. It is included because a homeowner who believes it will badly underestimate what they carry.
The spread between the first two readings is $30,000 on the same claim. The declarations page usually settles it. If it does not, ask for the answer in writing.
Deductibles across the whole home insurance market have been climbing, which makes this arithmetic more important, not less; our report on what $10,000 deductibles and coverage pullbacks mean for homeowners explains the broader trend.
Two products change the numbers above. In British Columbia, brokers sell earthquake deductible buy-back or buy-down cover that reimburses part of the percentage deductible. InsureBC notes that most policies start at 5%, with some insurers requiring 15% to 20%.
Condo owners face a second deductible they did not choose. A B.C. strata corporation's building policy carries its own earthquake deductible, typically 10% to 25% of the total property limit according to HUB International, and it is charged back to owners by unit entitlement. A unit-owner policy can carry deductible assessment coverage for that share. If you own a strata unit, that assessment line is often the more important number on your own policy.
Insurer statements agree that the deductible is a percentage of a coverage limit. They are less precise about which limit, and that ambiguity is worth real money. Take one loss and read it three ways.
Assume an $800,000 dwelling limit, a $400,000 contents limit, a 10% earthquake deductible, and a quake that causes $150,000 of damage to the house and $30,000 to its contents: $180,000 in total.
The last reading appears in some consumer explainers online; none of the insurer statements reviewed for this guide describe their deductible that way. It is included because a homeowner who believes it will badly underestimate what they carry.
The spread between the first two readings is $30,000 on the same claim. The declarations page usually settles it. If it does not, ask for the answer in writing.
Deductibles across the whole home insurance market have been climbing, which makes this arithmetic more important, not less; our report on what $10,000 deductibles and coverage pullbacks mean for homeowners explains the broader trend.
Two products change the numbers above. In British Columbia, brokers sell earthquake deductible buy-back or buy-down cover that reimburses part of the percentage deductible. InsureBC notes that most policies start at 5%, with some insurers requiring 15% to 20%.
Condo owners face a second deductible they did not choose. A B.C. strata corporation's building policy carries its own earthquake deductible, typically 10% to 25% of the total property limit according to HUB International, and it is charged back to owners by unit entitlement. A unit-owner policy can carry deductible assessment coverage for that share. If you own a strata unit, that assessment line is often the more important number on your own policy.
Fire is one of the ways a large urban earthquake does its worst damage: ruptured gas lines, overturned appliances, and water mains too damaged to fight what starts. The Canadian answer to that risk usually sits in the base policy rather than the endorsement.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada states it plainly in its consumer guidance: earthquakes are not covered on a home policy, "damage from a fire or explosion caused by earth movement would be covered." TD Insurance says its base home policy covers fire, explosion and smoke following an earthquake. BCAA and CAA-Québec say the same for their customers.
That is the reason a household without the endorsement is not entirely exposed. If the quake knocks the house off its footing, that is an earthquake loss. If the quake ruptures a gas line and the house burns, that is, under most wordings, a fire loss.
Not every wording follows the pattern. The Wawanesa Homeowners Comprehensive Package, Form 1503, in the 2022 edition we reviewed, excludes loss "caused directly or indirectly by earthquake" and adds that the exclusion "applies whether or not there is another cause or occurrence (whether covered or not) that contributes concurrently or in any sequence." Neighbouring exclusions in the same form end with a sentence restoring cover for resulting damage from an insured peril. The earthquake clause does not.
We are not concluding that a Wawanesa policyholder has no fire cover after a quake. An earthquake endorsement, a later edition, or provincial statutory conditions could change the result, and only the insurer can confirm how it reads its own form. The point is narrower: "fire following is always covered" is an industry generalization, not a guarantee, and the only way to know is to ask.
There is a second wrinkle even where fire is covered. Square One's sample wording applies its earthquake deductible to loss "directly or indirectly resulting from Earthquake." Under that kind of wording, a fire after a quake could be paid subject to the earthquake deductible rather than the ordinary one. That is a very different cheque.
Fire is one of the ways a large urban earthquake does its worst damage: ruptured gas lines, overturned appliances, and water mains too damaged to fight what starts. The Canadian answer to that risk usually sits in the base policy rather than the endorsement.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada states it plainly in its consumer guidance: earthquakes are not covered on a home policy, "damage from a fire or explosion caused by earth movement would be covered." TD Insurance says its base home policy covers fire, explosion and smoke following an earthquake. BCAA and CAA-Québec say the same for their customers.
That is the reason a household without the endorsement is not entirely exposed. If the quake knocks the house off its footing, that is an earthquake loss. If the quake ruptures a gas line and the house burns, that is, under most wordings, a fire loss.
Not every wording follows the pattern. The Wawanesa Homeowners Comprehensive Package, Form 1503, in the 2022 edition we reviewed, excludes loss "caused directly or indirectly by earthquake" and adds that the exclusion "applies whether or not there is another cause or occurrence (whether covered or not) that contributes concurrently or in any sequence." Neighbouring exclusions in the same form end with a sentence restoring cover for resulting damage from an insured peril. The earthquake clause does not.
We are not concluding that a Wawanesa policyholder has no fire cover after a quake. An earthquake endorsement, a later edition, or provincial statutory conditions could change the result, and only the insurer can confirm how it reads its own form. The point is narrower: "fire following is always covered" is an industry generalization, not a guarantee, and the only way to know is to ask.
There is a second wrinkle even where fire is covered. Square One's sample wording applies its earthquake deductible to loss "directly or indirectly resulting from Earthquake." Under that kind of wording, a fire after a quake could be paid subject to the earthquake deductible rather than the ordinary one. That is a very different cheque.
Ask two separate questions: is fire following an earthquake covered under my base policy, and which deductible applies to it? A yes to the first does not answer the second.
Hazard here means probability, not prediction. Natural Resources Canada's simplified seismic hazard map sorts the country into three relative tiers for one- and two-storey homes. The highest-hazard regions have at least a 30% chance of significant damage within towns every 50 years. Moderate regions sit at 5% to 15%. The lowest are under 1%.
City-level modelling behind the 2020 National Building Code puts Victoria at the top, then Vancouver, then a cluster of Montréal, Québec City and Ottawa, with Toronto and Calgary well below. The detail that surprises people is the eastern cluster: Montréal's modelled short-period shaking sits closer to Vancouver's than to Toronto's.
Availability comes with one honest caveat. No regulator or industry body publishes a province-by-province availability list. The Insurance Bureau of Canada describes the cover as widely available with low take-up, national carriers sell it as an optional endorsement, and none of the sources reviewed for this guide identify a province where it cannot be bought. The table below reflects that.
British Columbia is where the endorsement is most common and most expensive to go without. The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimates take-up at 50% to 65%, far above the rest of the country. Some carriers go further: TD makes earthquake cover mandatory in certain high-risk B.C. areas when you buy its home insurance.
Availability in the highest-hazard postal codes has historically been insurer-by-insurer. In a December 2012 release, Square One reported that two carriers would stop offering earthquake cover to homeowners in Metro Vancouver and southern Vancouver Island. If one company declines, that is a reason to shop brokers, not a verdict on the province.
Quebec has the widest gap between hazard and uptake in the country. The Western Quebec Seismic Zone encloses the Ottawa Valley from Montréal to Temiscaming, taking in Montréal, Ottawa–Gatineau and Cornwall. Charlevoix–Kamouraska, downriver from Québec City, is the most seismically active region of eastern Canada and has produced five historical earthquakes above magnitude 6.
Yet only an estimated 4% to 7% of Quebec residents carry the cover, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. The endorsement is available to owners, condo owners and tenants across the province.
Eastern Ontario shares the same seismic zone and much of the same exposure. An Ottawa homeowner's hazard tier looks more like Montréal's than Toronto's.
For most of Ontario, Alberta and the rest of the country, the endorsement is available and inexpensive relative to the hazard, and the question becomes whether a percentage deductible on a low-probability event is worth carrying at all. For many households it is not. For owners with most of their net worth in the house and no ability to rebuild from savings, even a low tier can justify it.
For a broader view of how climate and catastrophe exposure are reshaping who can buy what, see our analysis of whether Canadian homes are becoming uninsurable.
Hazard here means probability, not prediction. Natural Resources Canada's simplified seismic hazard map sorts the country into three relative tiers for one- and two-storey homes. The highest-hazard regions have at least a 30% chance of significant damage within towns every 50 years. Moderate regions sit at 5% to 15%. The lowest are under 1%.
City-level modelling behind the 2020 National Building Code puts Victoria at the top, then Vancouver, then a cluster of Montréal, Québec City and Ottawa, with Toronto and Calgary well below. The detail that surprises people is the eastern cluster: Montréal's modelled short-period shaking sits closer to Vancouver's than to Toronto's.
Availability comes with one honest caveat. No regulator or industry body publishes a province-by-province availability list. The Insurance Bureau of Canada describes the cover as widely available with low take-up, national carriers sell it as an optional endorsement, and none of the sources reviewed for this guide identify a province where it cannot be bought. The table below reflects that.
British Columbia is where the endorsement is most common and most expensive to go without. The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimates take-up at 50% to 65%, far above the rest of the country. Some carriers go further: TD makes earthquake cover mandatory in certain high-risk B.C. areas when you buy its home insurance.
Availability in the highest-hazard postal codes has historically been insurer-by-insurer. In a December 2012 release, Square One reported that two carriers would stop offering earthquake cover to homeowners in Metro Vancouver and southern Vancouver Island. If one company declines, that is a reason to shop brokers, not a verdict on the province.
Quebec has the widest gap between hazard and uptake in the country. The Western Quebec Seismic Zone encloses the Ottawa Valley from Montréal to Temiscaming, taking in Montréal, Ottawa–Gatineau and Cornwall. Charlevoix–Kamouraska, downriver from Québec City, is the most seismically active region of eastern Canada and has produced five historical earthquakes above magnitude 6.
Yet only an estimated 4% to 7% of Quebec residents carry the cover, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. The endorsement is available to owners, condo owners and tenants across the province.
Eastern Ontario shares the same seismic zone and much of the same exposure. An Ottawa homeowner's hazard tier looks more like Montréal's than Toronto's.
For most of Ontario, Alberta and the rest of the country, the endorsement is available and inexpensive relative to the hazard, and the question becomes whether a percentage deductible on a low-probability event is worth carrying at all. For many households it is not. For owners with most of their net worth in the house and no ability to rebuild from savings, even a low tier can justify it.
For a broader view of how climate and catastrophe exposure are reshaping who can buy what, see our analysis of whether Canadian homes are becoming uninsurable.
Earthquake endorsements exclude more than most buyers expect, and the exclusions cluster around what a quake sets in motion rather than the shaking itself.
Tsunami. Every insurer statement reviewed excludes it. The federal consumer agency warns that earthquake insurance may not cover tsunami or tidal-wave damage caused by an earthquake. In Square One's wording, seawater driven by an earthquake is defined as coastal flood, and coastal flood is its own exclusion. For a coastal B.C. home, tsunami is a flood-insurance question, not an earthquake one.
Landslide and land movement. BCAA excludes resulting landslides and land movement such as sinkholes, and CAA-Québec excludes landslides unrelated to an earthquake. Some wordings, including Square One's, pull earthquake-triggered landslides within the 168-hour window back into cover. The difference matters for homes on slopes and fill.
Surface water and weather through openings. Intact excludes surface water or waterborne objects "even if caused by an earthquake," and rain, snow, wind or hail entering through openings. A cracked foundation that lets in groundwater, or a broken window that lets in a week of rain, may not be earthquake damage in the policy's sense.
For the full map of which water losses sit where, our guide to overland water, sewer backup and coastal flooding covers the flood side in detail.
In eastern Canada, the damage pattern points to specific parts of the house. After the 1925 La Malbaie earthquake, Natural Resources Canada's GeoFact on southeastern Canada records that unreinforced masonry suffered the most damage and many chimneys collapsed. In the 1988 Saguenay quake, damage was most severe on unstable soils.
That makes three things worth checking on your own wording: whether brick veneer, masonry chimneys or stone walls carry a sub-limit or exclusion, whether retaining walls and landscaping are covered at all, and whether pools and detached structures fall under the endorsement or outside it. None of the public insurer summaries reviewed spell these out, which is exactly why they belong on your list.
After an evacuation, the base policy may not pay your hotel. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada notes that home policies usually will not cover additional living expenses when the evacuation is due to an earthquake, while earthquake insurance usually does. Confirm that your endorsement extends additional living expenses, and for how long.
Treat these as a checklist. Each one maps to a section of this guide, and each has a dollar answer.
If you are reviewing your policy anyway, our home insurance renewal audit covers the rest of the declarations page in the same way.
The Great British Columbia ShakeOut runs on October 15 at 10:15 a.m., and most households spend it practising drop, cover and hold on. Two claim-related steps fit the same morning. Photograph each room, including the furnace room and water heater, so you have a pre-loss record. And check that the water heater is strapped and the gas shut-off is reachable, because a fire that starts in your own utility room is the loss where the fire-following question stops being theoretical.
Treat these as a checklist. Each one maps to a section of this guide, and each has a dollar answer.
If you are reviewing your policy anyway, our home insurance renewal audit covers the rest of the declarations page in the same way.
The Great British Columbia ShakeOut runs on October 15 at 10:15 a.m., and most households spend it practising drop, cover and hold on. Two claim-related steps fit the same morning. Photograph each room, including the furnace room and water heater, so you have a pre-loss record. And check that the water heater is strapped and the gas shut-off is reachable, because a fire that starts in your own utility room is the loss where the fire-following question stops being theoretical.
About the Author
Ryan is the founder of Homeowner.ca and a proud Canadian homeowner based in Guelph, Ontario. Over his 25-year career in digital publishing, he has focused on transforming complex information into clear, practical guidance that helps people make confident, well-informed decisions.
No. Earthquake damage is excluded from standard homeowner, condo and tenant policies. You need an earthquake endorsement added to the policy, and it must be in place before the event.
Generally yes. Insurer summaries describe cover for the dwelling, detached structures, personal property and additional living expenses. Check whether the percentage deductible applies separately to contents, because a separate contents deductible can wipe out a modest contents claim.
Premiums vary by hazard tier, construction, deductible and insurer, and no named, dated survey of average premiums was available for this guide. Ask your broker for quotes at two or three deductible levels so you can see how much each percentage point saves.
Do not count on it. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada warns that you may not be eligible for government disaster assistance if earthquake insurance was available in your area and you chose not to buy it. Budget 2025 announced a federal consultation on the insurance system's stability in an extreme earthquake, but no backstop program exists yet.
Insurers do not sell cover for a loss already under way. Add it at renewal or mid-term, before you need it.
Usually not, if they fall within the wording's event window. The wordings reviewed treat shocks within 168 hours, or seven days, of the first one as a single earthquake, so one deductible applies.
No. Every insurer statement reviewed excludes tsunami and tidal-wave damage from the endorsement. Some wordings treat seawater driven by an earthquake as coastal flood, which is its own coverage question and may not be available in high-risk coastal locations.
The strata policy covers the building, but its earthquake deductible, often 10% to 25% of the building's insured value, is charged back to owners by unit entitlement. A unit-owner policy with earthquake deductible assessment coverage is the usual way to protect your share.
The hazard there is in the lowest modelled tiers, so the case rests on your equity and your ability to rebuild from savings, not on the probability of a quake. If losing the house outright would be financially unrecoverable, a low-cost endorsement can still make sense.
Natural Resources Canada publishes simplified hazard maps for each province and territory, plus a building-code hazard tool that returns values for a specific location. Use them to judge tier, not to predict when an earthquake will happen.
