Well, not quite. Experts say, at the very least, before you decide not to buy quake insurance, analyze your risk. That could mean hiring an engineer, geologist or other similar professional to examine your home's proximity to fault lines, seismic activity and soils in your area, the construction of your home and your willingness to mitigate seismic risk, say by retrofitting. A 5 percent discount is available on CEA premiums for homes built before 1979. It's kind of like buying stock.
Some people go right with the high-risk issues.
If you are going to lie awake at night thinking about this, buy insurance and sleep better,'' said Leslie Ransbottom, geologist and vice president at EQE International, the Oakland firm that supplied the original risk analysis data CEA used to set its rates. The Mercury News. The information you receive online from The Mercury News is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright-protected material.