Buffalo, NY (WBEN) After Monday's earthquake that was centered in West Seneca, some homeowners are wondering about whether to get insurance to cover earthquakes. Insurance agents say it's easy, but you won't be able to get it for a couple of days.
Agents say earthquake insurance is an endorsement to your home insurance policy. "You're going to need to have an earthquake endorsement on your policy to make sure that everything will be covered. Otherwise, without that optional endorsement, the only thing that would be covered would be a fire or an explosion that is caused by that earthquake," says David Kirst of AAA Insurance. He says getting that is as easy as making a phone call to your insurance agent asking them to add that coverage on.
Kirst says that endorsement means any damage that's done to the structure to your belongings due to that earthquake is now covered. But you can't do this until later this week. "There is a 72 hour period after an event where you can't add that on. So after that, they want to make sure they're protecting themselves against any aftershocks, or follow up to the initial one," explains Kirst.
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Michael Sperrazza of TFG Insurance says cost depends on where you live. "It differs by where you are, and the size of your home, but it could go anywhere from $50 to five, $600, depending on where you are," says Sperrazza. He notes this is an annual addition to your home insurance premium.
Both say if you didn't have the endorsement before Monday's earthquake, and you have damage, you're out of luck. "Without that endorsement, the only thing that they are going to cover is that fire or explosion resulting from that earthquake," says Kirst.
Monday's earthquake registered a magnitude of 3.8 and there was no significant damage reported locally.
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