EQC claims deadline tomorrow (May 23)

People who have yet to make a claim for damage to their property or contents as a result of the 22 February earthquake have until midnight tomorrow (Monday 23 May) to lodge a claim.

As of Friday 20 May EQC has received more than 330,000 claims for all insurable events since the first earthquake struck on 4 September last year. This includes more than 145,000 claims for the February earthquake.

People who have received new or worsened damage from the 22 February earthquake must lodge a claim and they can do this by either going to www.eqc.govt.nz or call 0800 DAMAGE, 0800 326 243.

“By law we cannot accept claims that come in after midnight on 23 May, so I would urge anyone who has still to lodge their claim to contact us immediately,” EQC Chief Executive Ian Simpson said.

“Some people may not be able to quantify their damage for many reasons including being unable to access a property for safety reasons. That doesn’t matter. They should still lodge their intention and we can work out the details later,” said Mr Simpson.

Nearly 15,000 full assessments have been completed on properties with earthquake damage from February’s earthquake.

“EQC is still working to indicative timeframes for the completion of full assessments,” said Mr Simpson.

“Homes with severe structural damage will receive a full assessment by mid July, those with minor structural damage by mid September and those homes with no structural damage will receive a full assessment by Christmas.”

EQC has paid out more than $17 million in claims from the 22 February earthquake and a total of $866 million on all claims to date.

Mr Simpson said that good progress was also being made in the winter heating programme.

“As of last Monday we had completed nearly 4000 priority installations or repairs. There is a considerable workload involved in this process, for example Fletchers has a call centre dedicated to this work, which has made 75,000 outbound calls to homeowners or residents and to date 19,600 claims have been dealt with.”

EQC is one of a number of organisations working with the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) on rebuilding greater Christchurch and its surrounds, and supporting the welfare of its residents.  For more information visit www.cera.govt.nz