The diggers are moving in on Christchurch suburbs and work has begun in Bexley to demolish the first of thousands of red-zoned homes.
It is three weeks until the first anniversary of the February 22 earthquake.
CERA chief executive Roger Sutton spoke on Firstline this morning about the city's recovery.
Insurers to join EQC quake assessments
Major differences in assessments of
quake-damaged Christchurch
properties - including estimates which vary by hundreds of thousands of dollars
- has led to insurance companies joining forces with Earthquake Commission
assessors.
The EQC completed all of the 164,000
damage assessments resulting from the February 22 earthquake by the end of last
year.
However, EQC customer services manager
Bruce Emson says the commission and insurers will now carry out joint
assessments on properties where there were "significant differences"
between damage and value assessments by each party.
Kaiapoi couple Maree and Allen Dvorak were
among the homeowners who received varying assessments.
Since the September 2010 quake, their home
had undergone 11 assessments carried out by 14 assessors - and damage estimates
differed by over $300,000, Campbell Live reported.
Mr Emson says the EQC and insurers are
working together to resolve costing and apportionment issues, and in some cases
a combined inspection may be the quickest way to move forward.
He says a difference in assessments is not
a reflection on the quality of work by either party.
"Changes to EQC's methods for
allocating damage between events, Department of Building and Housing guidelines
and building rates, and the continued stress on buildings through time, weather
and countless aftershocks has all contributed to claims where there are
differences between insurer and EQC costings," Mr Emson says.
IAG's general manager of Canterbury
Recovery, Dean MacGregor, welcomed the move.
"There has always been good intent,
but the involvement of multiple parties in the assessment process provides
challenges. We expect this new approach will speed up the process for our
customers and therefore is something we fully support," he said.
Joint inspections have begun in red zoned
areas, and will start in other areas shortly.
3 News