EQC making progress on full assessments

The Earthquake Commission (EQC) is on track with its full assessment of claims lodged for homes damaged by the Canterbury earthquakes.

More than 5,000 homes had had their full EQC assessments completed with 185 teams in the field completing around 350 full inspections a day. Each assessment team consists of an assessor and an estimator (builder).

EQC Chief Executive Ian Simpson said the full assessment progress was thorough and time-consuming.

“It’s vital for people with claims that we spend time at their properties to get a thorough view of the damage,” Mr Simpson said.

“Our assessments are currently focusing on properties with severe structural damage and we are on track to complete all the EQC claims assessments by mid-December.”

Progress with emergency repairs and the winter heating programme is also progressing with Fletcher EQR expecting 4,500 priority winter heating repairs to be completed by mid-May.

Mr Simpson said a lot of work was being done to identify priority cases.

“The clean heat hub has made 25,000 calls to identify those people in most need. These include people who are at additional risk with the onset of winter, including the sick, elderly or those with other special needs.”

“This is just one aspect of their work,” Mr Simpson said.

“Fletchers has more than 6,000 other urgent repair projects, excluding winter heat, either completed or underway since the 22 February earthquake.”

EQC has received a total of 294,618 claims for earthquake damage since 4 September, including 110,294 claims for the 22 February earthquake. Just under $829 million has been paid to meet all claims to date.

The final date for claims from the 22 February earthquake is Monday 23 May 2011.
ENDS

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