Tornado The Costliest On Record With $32m Paid To Customers For Insured Losses

Preliminary figures released by the Insurance Council of New Zealand - Te Kāhui Inihua o Aotearoa - report that insurers have supported their customers with $32m paid for insured losses resulting from the tornado that tore through the South Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe on Saturday 19 June, 2021.

"This makes the tornado the costliest on record," says Tim Grafton, Chief Executive ICNZ. "Significantly, we can see the impact on residential customers with $24m of the total paid in residential and contents insured losses, reinforcing how important insurance is to support your recovery when these sudden events happen."

The provisional total includes 1,206 house and contents claims, 280 claims for motor, 132 commercial and business-related claims.

Insurers were quick to respond with support provided to help customers secure their property, undertaking make safe repairs and getting assessors on the ground to review the damage and get the claims lodgement and recovery process underway.

ICNZ said the resulting repairs have been undertaken as quickly as possible with many homes already repaired or with repairs underway.

"Part of the response was to assess the severity of damage, with priority placed on repairing things that enabled customers to return home, like roofs, while garages or fences could wait."

In some cases, the sector had noticed knock-on delays of a very active building market and supply delays attributed to ongoing COVID impacts. "Our members have reported that securing some trades or sub-contractors to carry out the work have been impacted, or that they have seen a delay or longer lead time for certain building materials.

"These aspects are completely out of insurers hands, but they are doing all they can to support their customers affected by delays that may mean a longer recovery for some."

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