Nearly seven years on, thousands of Christchurch earthquake insurance claims remain

Friday, 9 February 2018

Insurance experts think there could still be outstanding Christchurch earthquake claims in 2019. MICHAEL HAYWARD meets some long-suffering home-owners. 

Karen Price cannot prove her cardiac arrest was caused by the stress of dealing with her Christchurch earthquake insurance claim, but she has no doubt the two are related. 

It was an early morning last April when Price's heart stopped, about 5.30am. She was lucky her husband Brent woke up and started CPR.

It still took repeated zaps from a defibrillator to pull her out of it, followed by a spell in intensive care. Eventually she made a full recovery. 

**READ MORE:

* Christchurch Regeneration Minister calls for timeline on outstanding insurance claims

* New Christchurch rebuild minister 'absolutely' wants EQC royal commission 

* Open letter to Justice Minister Andrew Little to fix 'failed' quake court

* Christchurch earthquake insurance wrangles endure, six years on**

For Price, who describes herself as fit and healthy, there was no warning anything was wrong – let alone something so serious.

She says people do not have cardiac arrests for no reason, and there was 'no doubt' in her mind the event was related to the constant stress of the insurance claim. 

'I was busy with work and stuff, but you know there's a level of underlying stress which is soaking up some of your reserves, your whole resource, you have to cope with things life throws at you.'

The Prices are one of thousands of families still embroiled in earthquake-related insurance disputes, nearly seven years after the destructive event occurred. 

Crown agency the Earthquake Commission (EQC) provides natural disaster insurance for residential properties. It had 2968 outstanding Christchurch earthquake claims on its books as of December, all for re-repairs to previous insurance work. The agency has dealt with over 167,000 residential building claims related to the quakes. 

As of the end of September, almost 2700 more claims were outstanding with private insurers, which are passed claims once the value reaches EQC's liability 'cap' of $100,000 plus GST. This counts for previously unscoped damage but not unsatisfactory original repairs, for which EQC are liable. Updated figures are due next week.

These over-cap claims are still coming in – nearly 280 were passed from EQC to private insurers between 1 July and 30 September last year. About 450 private insurance claims were settled in the same timeframe. Most claimants have to effectively start again with their private insurer when a claim goes over-cap. 

Insurance Council New Zealand chief executive Tim Grafton says if insurers had not received any new over-cap claims from EQC in 2017, the number of outstanding over-cap claims would be closer to 1700. 

'We know there are over 500 multi-unit building claims that have been notoriously difficult to settle which are over cap and remain unsettled. There are also a few hundred claims before the Court which cannot be advanced.'

Grafton says 2017 had been a challenging year for insurers dealing with a large number of Kaikōura quake claims and a record number of claims from weather events – most of which had been settled. 

He could not say when he thought all claims would be settled, because he does not know when EQC will stop transferring over-cap claims to insurers – but if it continued to happen, it would be 'inevitable' there would be outstanding claims in 2019.

It's yet to be seen whether a change of Government will inject some life into the settlement process. Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods says she is working with both EQC and private insurers to see what changes can be made to speed things up. 

'We know that often it's the interaction between the private insurer and EQC that is the hold up.'

She says the outstanding claims are the 'tail' of a huge number of repairs, but are the hardest, most complicated cases. The Government is committed to 'making sure we're not just going to stand around talking about this difficult long tail' but putting in mechanisms and making changes so it can see cases settled.

'If we were to stand by under the status quo the last government left us with, we could be having this long tail for a very, very long time.'

The Government is working on an enquiry into the performance of EQC. Expert advice has been sought and public submissions are open to shape the terms of reference, which is being drafted. 

They have found $700,000 to keep the Residential Advisory Service operating (it was due to close last December), which Woods says is important because it means someone will pick up the insurance files and get some action. 

They are also working on a $1 million fund to sponsor some precedent-setting test cases in the High Court, which will clarify major legal issues around earthquake insurance claims, and an arbitration tribunal to hear claims issues with EQC and private insurers.

But none of this will provide a quick resolution for the Prices. 

They are able to live in their house, despite the boarded windows, cracks and temporary braces which have been in place for nearly seven years – most of the damage came from the February 2011 quake. Price says living like that is difficult for the 'house proud' couple. 

The couple's multi-storey Mt Pleasant home was deemed over-cap back in October 2013. It was passed on to Southern Response, the Government-owned company managing claims for the old AMI, where it has floundered for years as both sides traded technical reports from structural and geotechnical engineers and surveyors. 

The first damage report produced by Southern Response (through project manager Arrow) was given to the Prices in September 2014. They thought it was too low, asked Southern Response to have another look, and brought on their own experts in the meantime. 

The two sides have been trading reports ever since, without any progress in coming to an agreement on the extent of the damage. When Stuff talked to the couple last year there were frustrations, but things were not openly hostile. 

Since then, plenty more paperwork has been generated but little progress has been made. The latest sticking point is getting engineers from both sides into the same room to talk it out. 

'I think the frustrating thing is we haven't even sat down around a table to say 'OK, this is where we disagree, this is the number we've got on the table',' Price says. 

Southern Response chief executive Anthony Honeybone says Southern Response tried to set up a meeting between the company's structural engineer and the Prices, who refused because their own engineer was not able to attend. 

He says Southern Response provided the Prices an explanation of why it 'does not believe an engineer-to-engineer meeting would be constructive in this particular situation', but refused to provide the explanation citing privacy. Karen Price believes its because the insurance company does not like their engineer. 

Southern Response thinks the best way forward is to complete design plans for the property so consents can be applied for, which could then be 're-visited' if the repair methodology was later found to be unsuitable. A site visit is planned for late February. 

Price says work pricing to repair the house before the parties resolve their damage assessment and repair strategy differences is a waste of time and money, and fear they will be presented with a 'take it or leave it' offer if an agreement on repairs is not reached first. 

They now plan to file with the High Court over the claim. Price says it's not something either of them want to do, and they're not positive it will help, but says there seems to be 'no other alternative' to get Southern Response to talk to them.

'When we made that decision I cried, I just felt sick that we had to go down this path.'

The Prices' lawyer advised them to get an independent peer review of Southern Response's and their own engineering reports, expected to be finished in four to eight weeks, before filing with the courts. 

It's going to cost about $10,000 – on top of the $34,000 Price claims to have spent on reports and legal fees to date – but she says shes quite pleased to do it despite the cost because it will reassure them they're on solid ground. 

'We've said to this new engineer, who's peer reviewing everything, we just want the truth.

'We're not looking to try and get one over on Southern Response but we know that there are gaps in their engineering, their assessment of our damage.'

As of 30 September 2017, 1014 cases have been filed to the High Court Earthquake List, established in 2012 to fast-track earthquake-related litigation. Just 42 had been disposed of by judgement, while 472 were settled before reaching trial.

Community group Empowered Christchurch last month sent an open letter to Justice Minister Andrew Little, claiming it was under-resourced and prohibitively expensive, and calling for changes to the system. 

But the progress report, by Chief High Court Judge Justice Geoffrey Venning, said the settlements were the most common and effective resolution, and a 'positive indicator' the Earthquake List process provided parties a way to reach a determination.

Where all of this leaves the Prices, and the thousands of others grappling with outstanding claims, is hard to say.