Four years on, and the cock-ups and delays continue.
and this:
‘Earthquake Commission (EQC) staff have called the police 90 times in the past 2 1/2 years in response to threatening or distressed customers.
As Canterbury’s mental health services deal with huge demand, EQC figures show some frustrated homeowners are reaching the end of their tether…’
Not enough hi-viz vests and clipboards to go round?
I have a truckload of sympathy for those being dicked around by EQC.
Lessons *should* be learned from this (but I’m sure they won’t be).
What about this for an idea – would this work?
A quake hits a city. It gets declared a disaster area. The government brings in a law under urgency declaring that those with house insurance get paid their insured value.
Those without house insurance get paid maybe half (or 2/3) the worth of their house.
No house inspections, no mucking around – just *get it done*.
Ok, sure, there will be a lot of cases where Joe (whose house has just a few cracked windows) gets paid much more than he would normally get, but still….. there *must* be a better way that the current way.
I’m keen to hear of other ideas…..
I like that approach, Tranquil. And I’m damn sure it would be cheaper and faster than employing hundreds of obstructive apparatchiks.
That would be a disincentive for people to insure their houses.
I hear that there are many victims who are creaming it when it comes to pay-outs.
“A quake hits a city. It gets declared a disaster area. The government brings in a law under urgency declaring that those with house insurance get paid their insured value.
Those without house insurance get paid maybe half (or 2/3) the worth of their house.”
What about this. A quake hits a city. It gets declared a disaster area. Those people who have entered into a contract with an insurance company get paid out according to the terms of their contract. Those who haven’t, don’t. The government gets involved only if the insurance company tries to fuck their customers around.
We have a joke here in Katrina land-“those poor people,first they get hit by the storm,then FEMA came in”
Those with insurance are happy. The builders dealing with the insurers are happy. The entitled minority are the only ones whining.
Christchurch is powering ahead. I was down there meeting a builder at New Year. He is happy and so are those having refurbishments attended to. lots of $$$$$ flying around and some great new architecture emerging. It is genuinely all good there!
Not at all what I hear from people, Cad.
The only people I hear who are not over the moon are the engineers whose works have been shown to be wanting, hence litigation lawyers are very stretched.
I’ll go find out exactly what the EQC’s job is.
The easy way would have been to use non – EQC assessors to assess with insurers managing the process and EQC paying costs, up to $115,000 plus a fee, to insurers. I know that most houses were clearly under or over the EQC cap and this could be determined in about 15 minutes. There were few that were on the cusp although some of the EQC assessments were laughable and that complicated things. There should have been far more cash settling (as opposed to managing repairs) as well. EQC used to be great to work with some years ago – very helpful and professional. I’m not sure what happened but suspect modern management arrived.