13 years post quake, hundreds of Cantabrians still entangled in claims
Thursday, 22 February 2024
It’s been 12 years since lawyer Grant Shand first took action against the Toka Tū Ake Earthquake Commission (EQC) on behalf of Christchurch residents with quake-damaged homes, but he’s still frustrated by the process in 2024.
Shand - who is currently working on two class action cases against the EQC - believes the organisation is “back to being very difficult to deal with settled claims.”
He has described a delay in processing all cases 13 years after the quakes as “terrible”.
The EQC has refuted that description, pointing out that no homeowners have been waiting 13 years to resolve claims from its scheme and that when old claims are re-opened, the organisation makes it a priority to resolve them “quickly and efficiently.”
“There are still original earthquake claims from 2010/2011 against EQC and insurers. EQC continues to reopen claims,” said Shand.
“EQC is dragging out the claims. There are hundreds of people in the EQC on-sold programme that are not yet settled.”
However, Toka Tū Ake EQC Chief Executive Tina Mitchell insists there is not a delay in settling reopened claims.
She said in the past year, an average of 298 claims were reopened each month, mainly for newly discovered earthquake damage.
Over the past two years, an average of 85% of reopened claims were “settled within six months”. The commission’s customer satisfaction scores were also “higher than they have ever been”, Mitchell pointed out.
Exactly 13 years after the deadly February 2011 quake, the commission has 667 quake-related claims on hand.
Mitchell said compared to the nearly 3500 reopened claims in June 2018, the overall number in Canterbury is “gradually reducing”.
Mitchell confirmed there were currently 13 Canterbury cases in the court system, but pointed out the huge number of claims that were settled years ago.
“The Canterbury Earthquake Sequence on 2010-11 generated around 469,000 claims for EQCover. Those claims were all settled by 2016,” she said.
“The scheme is very flexible in that it allows people to revisit their claim well after an event if they become aware of earthquake damage that was previously not discovered.”
Mitchell said the commission receives “a few hundred queries of that nature every month”.
“We continue to support the people of Canterbury until the final claim is settled and encourage customers to call us if they have concerns about un-repaired earthquake damage.”
So far, close to $11.9 billion has been paid out by the EQC for Canterbury claims.
Shand, who spent years working on leaky homes cases before the earthquakes, said he didn’t mind being described as a “tireless battler” and “EQC’s biggest thorn in the side”.
Post earthquakes, he has represented several homeowners against insurers and the EQC and his work continues.
“I have a class action against EQC on behalf of about 260 people that bought earthquake affected houses after they were assessed, scoped and/or repaired by EQC.
“I have another class action against EQC for people whose land suffered increased liquefaction vulnerability.”
The latter could be one of New Zealand’s biggest class actions yet, with an estimated $1.5 billion cost to the EQC if it loses.
Lucinda McEvedy and Andrew Freer are the representative plaintives in that claim.
Mitchell said the commission cannot comment on any outstanding claims on private insurance policies, but “there are no homeowners who have been waiting 13 years to resolve claims from the EQC scheme.”
“The oldest claim we have on hand is two years old. We are working actively with the homeowner and their representatives to resolve a very complex situation,” said Mitchell.
“We understand the frustration and stress that occurs when people discover new earthquake damage and therefore make it our priority to resolve these claims quickly and efficiently.”