MEDIA RELEASE
September 3, 2013
80 Percent of Insurer Canterbury Residential Earthquake Claims Completed, Resolved Or In Progress
Private insurance companies have made significant progress in resolving Canterbury residential property earthquake
claims, with 80 percent having been completed, resolved or scheduled for completion.
According to figures released by the Insurance Council of New Zealand, collected by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery
Authority (Cera) for progress up until 1 July 2013, private insurers are dealing with 24,000 over cap residential
property claims.
The data shows that 34 percent of the claims had been fully resolved through external resolution or were fully completed
rebuilds and major repairs. A further 46 percent were claims where a repair or rebuild had been agreed and was in
progress.
“This indicates that 80 percent of the over cap residential property claims have been completed or are in the process of
being resolved,” said Insurance Council CEO Tim Grafton.
“This is significant progress given the challenges that insurers have faced in supporting customers to resolve their
claims and helping to get Cantabrians back to some level of normality,” said Mr Grafton.
“The insurer rebuild and repairs programme in Christchurch is well and truly ramping up and will be completed by the end
of 2016,” he said.
The figures also show that 7,200 (30%) of the 24,400 had been externally resolved, which includes cash settlement and
house re-instatements, with an additional 3,100 (13%) external resolutions still to be fully completed.
About 4,400 residential property claimants have been offered settlement options but are still undecided on the options
presented to them. Some 600 (2%) have yet to receive an offer.
“There are significant issues that are still to be addressed including land settlement, shared properties, the Port
Hills review and the speed of building consents,” said Mr Grafton. “But we’re hopeful that these matters can be resolved
without any impact on insurers being able to achieve an end of 2016 completion for the residential rebuild and major
repairs programme.”
Summary of Insurer Progress as collated by CERA, 1 July 2013:
ENDS