By Annabelle Tukia
A Christchurch home owner whose property was severely damaged in the quakes says the Earthquake Commission (EQC) has delayed his insurance settlement.
The insurance company put repairs to the house on hold until the commission settled a land claim, and it was only when 3 News came calling that a resolution was reached.
It is a collapsed retaining wall that has stalled any repair work on David Watts' Mt Pleasant home.
“Our insurance company refuses to come and even visit our house to get repaired until EQC does our retaining wall assessment,” he says.
Mr Watts’ house has suffered $300,000 worth of damage. It’s warped, slumped in places and has cracks on every wall.
The retaining wall was inspected by EQC last December, but nothing has happened since. Mr Watts says this is holding up his claim with insurer IAG.
“We've spent the last six months pushing them and arguing with them just for them to write out a figure of how much it is going to be.”
On Tuesday EQC told 3 News that claims on houses were the priority and that land claims will be revisited at the end of the year. But today the head of EQC told 3 News they have now settled Mr Watts’ claim.
EQC says they have so far settled 23,000 land claims at a cost of $18 million. There are still 70,000 outstanding.
“Assessing the land damage was a huge task - we think it’s the largest land damage exercise ever conducted so it has taken some time to pull all the data together,” says EQC spokesman Ian Butler.
But Mr Watts says that’s of little comfort for others still waiting to have their land claims looked at, let alone settled.
“They need to get more resources, they need to get more people, they need to get people working 24-7 on repairs, they need to have call centres working 24-7 – we just need some certainty.”
EQC says it will have land damage information packs out to all affected homeowners by the end of November.
3 News