infonews.co.nz
INDEX
NEWS

Insurance Lawyer Warns Buyers of Christchurch Homes to Check Them Carefully

Thursday 23 November 2017, 2:02PM

By RedPR

1045 views

House being lifted into position after being moved following EQs
House being lifted into position after being moved following EQs Credit: supplied

CANTERBURY

“Don’t rely on assurances from EQC.”

That from a lawyer who is working with claimants who bought Christchurch houses they thought had been correctly repaired.

As the house selling season starts to pick up, Andrew Hooker says it’s clear from the cases he has filed in the High Court and the increasing number of people coming to his Christchurch offices every week, the problem of failed EQC repairs is growing.

“People are buying houses that look fantastic in the marketing, on the Open Days and sometimes even pass the muster with a property check as several of my clients found. However, because EQC did not repair them correctly, these predominantly river stone foundation, pre-1970 houses usually on TC3 or TC2 land, are now starting break and crack,” he says.

The main issue according to Hooker is that insurance companies are saying it’s nothing to do with them because it’s EQC’s poor work that’s resulting in the damage. EQC is saying their obligation is only up to the cap of $100,000 plus GST, (as in the EQC Act) and the owner is left in limbo.

“I see the For Sale signs all over the city at the moment and then the SOLD sticker goes up and I hope for the sake of the buyer, they are confident their new home was repaired properly. Some won’t even know there was earthquake damage,” he says.

He’s referring to the “as is” properties which are fixed up and sold on, sometimes a few times in a short period. Or the houses that are repaired by EQC and often that information is not included with the property marketing, or it is even marketed as “repaired by EQC”. With each subsequent sale of a property (and it has been more than 7 years since the first quakes struck), the record of damage and repair becomes less visible.

“I am not sure the Real Estate Institute even knows this is an issue,” Andrew Hooker says. “I know that some people in Auckland for example, see Christchurch as a great place to buy an affordable house. It’s definitely a great city with lots to offer but that affordable house may end up being a nightmare and massive heartache for someone.”

Shine Lawyers in Christchurch has filed more than a dozen cases in the High Court, where houses people have purchased as “repaired” clearly have failed EQC repairs and neither EQC nor the private insurer say they are prepared to fix them leaving homeowners with little choice but to take legal action.