Most people's biggest Halloween worry is running out of candy. One Hollywood star didn't have a front door to hand it out from.
Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage has been living out of hotels for weeks, and the reason is a giant hole where part of his Malibu driveway used to be.
"I'm currently a little bit homeless," Cage said during a panel at LA Comic Con on Oct. 31. "Something happened to my house in Malibu, so I'm just sort of living in hotels, so I don't have normal trick-or-treaters I would like to enjoy tonight."
He still planned to take his 4-year-old daughter, August, trick-or-treating in Santa Monica and watch "The Shining" afterward.
The "homeless" line spread fast, and Cage cleared it up a few days later. He said he'd been riffing and that the house was red-tagged, so he couldn't decorate or hand out candy the way he likes to.
"It was not that we're destitute," Cage told People at the premiere of "Madden" last Wednesday. "I like Halloween, and I wanted to be able to decorate. We're fine. We're continuing. We're okay."
Sponsored Content: The company behind the first FDA-cleared AI skin cancer device of its kind is now open to everyday investors. See How to Own a Stake.
The Driveway Didn't Make It
The trouble started on or around Sept. 8, when the ground gave way in the driveway and private road near Cage's roughly $10.5 million beachfront home on Sea Level Drive. The collapse measured about 25 to 30 feet deep and 30 by 60 feet wide. It swallowed part of the driveway and deck. and set off a gas leak.
The city of Malibu declared a local emergency. About 31 properties were affected. Seven were red-tagged as hazardous, and the rest were mostly cut off because the neighborhood's only road in was blocked. Nobody was hurt.
Technically, it wasn't a classic sinkhole. It was a coastal bluff collapse tied to erosion, high tides, pounding waves, and Tropical Storm Marie, in an area long flagged for erosion risk.
Cage and his neighbors secured permits for excavation, debris removal, soil sampling, and sandbagging to hold back the waves. The homeowners association is handling the private road. As of late October, many residents still couldn't get in or stay, and utilities were affected.
The Fine Print Nobody Reads
Here's the catch. Standard homeowners policies almost always exclude "earth movement," and the fine print usually names sinkholes, subsidence, landslides, and erosion.
That means damage from the collapse itself typically isn't covered unless the homeowner bought a specific earth movement, landslide, or sinkhole endorsement. Those add-ons are rare, and California doesn't require insurers to offer them.
If the collapse triggers a covered problem like a fire or explosion, that damage might still be covered. The ground and the structure usually aren't.
Claims can also come down to a legal doctrine called efficient proximate cause. Insurers and homeowners can end up fighting over whether a covered peril, like storm-driven rain and waves, did the real damage or whether gradual erosion, which is excluded, was to blame.
There's no public word on whether Cage's claim has been paid or denied. His neighbors were reportedly checking with their own insurers.
Smaller Hole, Same Problem
Most homeowners will never wake up to a 30-foot crater in the driveway. The coverage gap still shows up on a smaller scale, and people usually find out about it after the damage is done.
The first step is reading the policy. Homeowners can check the declarations page and exclusions for words like earth movement, sinkhole, subsidence, and landslide, then ask their agent in writing what is and isn't covered.
Florida handles it differently. Every standard policy there must include limited catastrophic ground cover collapse coverage, but it only pays if the ground suddenly collapses, the hole is visible, the home's structure is damaged, and a government agency condemns the home and orders everyone out.
Broader sinkhole coverage in Florida is optional. Insurers must offer it for an extra premium, but they can require a geological inspection first and may turn down high-risk homes. Deductibles are often 1% to 10% of the dwelling limit.
In California and most other states, optional endorsements or difference-in-conditions policies may be available, depending on the insurer and the property. They aren't required; they can be expensive or hard to get in risky coastal areas, and relatively few people carry them.
Buyers in risk zones can get a geological or engineering inspection before closing, document the home's condition, and keep drainage in good shape. It also pays to confirm additional living expense or loss-of-use coverage, which covers temporary housing when a home becomes unlivable for a covered reason. When the cause is earth movement, homeowners often end up paying for hotels and repairs themselves.
Cage says his family is fine, just a little bit homeless for now. Plenty of homeowners in the same spot would be footing the hotel bill on their own, so anyone living near a bluff, a beach, or sinkhole country should talk with an insurance agent before the ground makes the call.
On the date of publication, Caleb Naysmith did not directly have a position in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.