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Insurance Advocate Buoyed By EQC Chair's Resignation

Friday 23 February 2018, 10:21PM

By RedPR

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2017 Cartoon after the then Minister for EQC declared EQC a "roaring success"
2017 Cartoon after the then Minister for EQC declared EQC a "roaring success" Credit: The Press

CHRISTCHURCH

“An excellent start”.

That from Ali Jones this afternoon after Minister Megan Woods announced she had accepted the resignation of EQC board chair Sir Maarten Wevers.

“It appears this new government is prepared to act and put its money where its mouth is,” she says “and that has to give those of us stuck, some real hope.”

Jones adds that a closer look at the EQC board as a whole, senior management from the Chief Executive Sid Miller down and across the way at Southern Response in the same areas, would be a positive move too.

“I get the impression that Sir Maarten felt he could not commit to providing assurance to the minister that the outstanding claims and issues could be sorted in a timely manner, which if correct, is pretty concerning especially 7 years after the event,” says Jones. “I would like to see the board and senior managers at the Government owned Southern Response given the same shake up and see what falls out.”

Claimant David Townshend says he has been fighting with EQC and SR for 7 years and continues to be bounced around and frustrated. He is sounding a word of caution however with regards to MBIE being named as a significant part of this new direction, without there being a mention of insurance expertise.

“We are partially in this mess I believe, because of what was termed MBIE guidelines, something that EQC assessors and others used to scope damage and apply repair methodologies. Unfortunately, this was not done in parallel with what the homeowners insurance policy entitled them to and therein lies some of the problem,” he says.

Townshend says although he believes insurance expertise must be included in this next review stage at EQC, he is pleased to see the new government grabbing the issue and getting on with making things right.

“We haven’t had this kind of focus on change for 7 years,” he says, “in fact there’s been a push back when it came to any suggestion of things being improved or changed.”