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Defective Repair Petition Handover

Monday 4 April 2016, 2:15PM

By Melanie Tobeck-Bourke

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More Signatures Still Coming In

Another 200 signatures have been gathered over the weekend for a petition calling on the Government to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the repairs of homes following the Canterbury Earthquakes.

Around 2500 Christchurch homeowners* have already signed the petition and many more have signaled their support via an online version of the petition.

Petition organisers Melanie Tobeck and lawyer Dr Duncan Webb say they believe many more would sign if they knew the work done on their houses was a camouflage and not a robust and genuine repair.

“It would help us all if we knew how many foundation and structural repairs have been completed,” says Webb. “To date, neither EQC nor Minister Brownlee have been willing to release that information.”

Both Tobeck and Webb say they are confident that a Royal Commission would result in an improvement of the ability of insurers, councils and EQC to respond effectively to disasters in the future, as well as being helpful for Cantabrians affected by the earthquakes of 2010/2011.

“There’s an urgent need to identify houses which have been poorly repaired so that they can be remedied. Repaired houses should be warm, weathertight and sound; unfortunately we are seeing that is too often not the case” he says.

Specifically the petition asks for an inquiry into the causes of defective repairs by EQC and insurers, including the role of the City Council in the consenting process.

That petition will be handed over to Andrew Little and Labour MP’s on 8 April 2016, 9:45am outside of the Canterbury Museum (Corner of Rolleston Ave and Worcester Boulevard). 

It's not too late to sign the petition, it can be dowloaded from www.yeswecan.org.nz.