Geraldine Biggs

The report of the Public Inquiry into the Earthquake Commission was released in March.  In short it was damning.  It will have come as no surprise to many that the Inquiry Chair held grave concerns about the quality of housing stock in Canterbury as a legacy of inadequate damage assessments and repairs by EQC.

Many homeowners have discovered that EQC wrongly determined their earthquake damage to be under-cap. Some may still be unaware of the full extent of the damage which might only come to light when they try to sell their home, or even after a sale has taken place.  Others may have unwittingly bought a home believing it to have been repaired.

This affects all of us in Canterbury because even if (you think) the home you own now is ok, the same cannot be assured for your next one.

So what can you do about it?

If you owned your home at the time of the earthquakes and still do, it’s not too late to have an under-cap determination re-assessed by EQC.  If the damage is determined to be over the EQC cap of $100,000 (plus GST) as part of that re-assessment, then it will be dealt with by your private insurer.

It’s trickier if you didn’t own your home at the time of the earthquakes. That’s because, even if you were assigned the benefit of the earthquake claims by the vendor, their private insurer will likely not be liable to you for the cost of over-cap damage. 

If you bought your home on or before 15 August 2019 however, you may be eligible for an ex gratia payment to cover the cost of repair under the government’s programme for “on-sold over-cap” properties.  You would need to apply by the extended deadline of 14 October 2020 for this. You can do so online at  https://www.eqc.govt.nz/canterbury/on-sold-over-cap-properties

We are happy to provide advice about all of this, and are doing so for many clients currently.  If you don’t fall within the eligibility criteria for the on-sold scheme, we particularly recommend that you contact us for advice about the potential liability of others and claims that may be open to you.

It’s not just EQC who got things wrong. Over-cap claims were not always dealt with properly by the private insurers either.

Forewarned is forearmed. If you are worried about unresolved earthquake damage to your home or if you are thinking about buying or selling a home, we can help you navigate the minefield of issues to still be aware of nearly a decade on since the Canterbury earthquakes hit.

Email Geraldine for any further information or call on (03) 379 4660.