Canie,

If I remember right (I'll have to go out and check somewhere), our building codes are only designed to withstand (and withstand is loosely coined where you'll still have a lot of damage no matter how exacting to the standards that you are) an M6.7 event. Our house was built in 1989 and we still had 28k in damage from Northridge.

But in all reality, codes are meant to reduce the number of deaths. They won't limit how much damage you'll have to repair. So unless your planning on walking away from your investment, earthquake insurance is a must.

On the rest of your message, I totally agree. But then you have the earthquake prediction naysayers pointing to building codes over prediction. The problem is that you'll never be able to get around crooked builders.

Dennis