Tower Insurance welcomes reform of EQC

Wednesday, 6 June 2018, 1:10 pm
Press Release: Tower Insurance

Tower Insurance welcomes reform of EQC

Source: Tower Insurance

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Tower Insurance welcomes and supports the recommendations made in the independent ministerial advisor’s report into the EQC released today.

Tower CEO, Richard Harding, noted that Tower has long maintained that the current EQC system is broken and is pleased that the Government is taking action to address failings of the system.

"In the past two and a half years we received 436 completely new, over-cap claims from the EQC. It is simply not acceptable to still be receiving completely new claims seven years on from the Canterbury quakes," he said.

"Recent reports of the EQC finding an additional 949 open, unresolved earthquake claims highlights just how broken the system is and the challenges we have faced trying to understand how many claims remain. We strongly support the addition of data resources to accurately identify and quantify outstanding claims.

"We look forward to working closely with the Government and EQC to resolve outstanding issues and encourage them to increase claims management resources to expedite fair outcomes for customers.

"We urge the Government to implement these recommendations to ensure that mistakes of the past are not repeated.

"We firmly believe that customers deserve better and the successful model used in response to the Kaikoura earthquakes is the best way forward for New Zealand.

"For Tower policy holders we believe the fairest way to start the 6 year limitation period is from the date that the claim is settled rather than the day of the original event, and we encourage other insurance companies to take the same view."

ENDS

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