A reply to the open letter sent by John Patterson to all those who "Call the Shots" re Earthquake repair in Christchurch.

17 November 2014

John Patterson

A reply to John's open letter on 23rd October

An Open Letter from John Patterson for all those 'In Charge' of the Chrisrchurch rebuild.

John Patterson QSM

Older Generations Forum

Dear John,

Thank you for your email letter of November 2014 addressed to Minister Brownlee, Mayor Dalziel, the Chief Executives of CERA, EQC and myself.

You raise many points and I acknowledge the frustration some people are experiencing when their homes are still not repaired or rebuilt. We have consistently said that the scale and complexity of events has always meant that it will not be till the end of 2016 that the vast majority of repairs and rebuilds will be complete in order to place a realistic picture on the timeframe. Insurers are working as quickly as they have been able to do to progress the recovery.

By the end of October, insurers had settled $13 billion of claims in Canterbury of which $5 billion are residential claims. For many reasons, which we have explained to you and publicly on many occasions, the rebuild for insurers could only have begun about mid-2012, a little over two years ago. As you know, this was a result of ongoing earthquakes, the need to reclassify land, test land quality and to develop new building guidelines.

In terms of residential claims, we have now fully settled 72%. This includes 78% of all property claims not covered by EQC and 54% of all over cap claims. The residential rebuild is currently breaking all records for throughput and consenting and we are settling about $6 million of residential claims a day.

Of the 23,181 over cap claims, 12,461 are settled and a further 2,522 are under contract, in consenting or are under construction and the vast majority of the rest are working with their insurers on designs and specifications. There are now just 1,140 customers yet to receive settlement offers which include many who have only recently been declared over cap by EQC or come from complex shared property arrangements. There are also a few hundred customers in dispute with their insurer and others who are either having difficulty reaching decisions about their offers or do not want repairs undertaken yet for various reasons.

As you know, insurers have also long established vulnerability indices to prioritise customers in the recovery queue. We have also helped fund services to assist people navigate through recovery issues such as the Residential Advisory Service, in addition to having provided direct assistance to customers through numerous meetings and by using social workers and working with community groups to help people through the process.Also, as I have explained when I first met you, insurers, EQC, CERA, the City Council and other agencies meet regularly and have done for the past four years to co-ordinate efforts in response to the situation. Special efforts have been made to brief you.

Southern Response and Tower have enabled you to meet with their teams, PMOs and builders. Both sought suggestions for improving their customer/building processes from you. I understand the engagement was constructive, but I also understand the suggestions you made to them were not always practical given the complexities. You have also been offered the opportunity, as part of a wider community group, to audit the processes employed by Southern Response.

I also know that our members and ICNZ have spent a considerable amount of time engaging with you and the Older Generation Forum Committee. ICNZ has responded to every invitation to attend forums run by your group and to meet individually. ICNZ members, the Residential Advisory Service and Earthquake Support Coordinators have also attended meetings and been available to take on any issues referred to them to help address issues.I know we have asked you on several occasions to pass on the names of any elderly you were concerned about, so we could refer to members in case they had inadvertently been missed off vulnerable lists. To date we have not received a referral from you.We will continue and are happy to engage as positively as we have with you and your group. However, it is difficult for me to understand what more we can do to demonstrate what we are doing to progress the recovery as quickly as we can or to explain how we are working constructively with others.

Yours sincerely

Tim Grafton

Chief Executive

John's Reply.

Dear Tim

I received your reply to the open letter I sent you but it seems to be a reply to a letter I have not written.The letter is about the continuing stress people have been experiencing over the past four years and how this can be eased by speeding up the building process.Your reply seems to be, and correct me if I'm wrong, a defence of what you see as criticism of the insurance industry. We are not pointing the finger of blame at anyone but rather trying to find solutions to problems facing us.

We are not interested in the number of claims you have settled or the percentages or how many customers are in dispute with their insurers. These numbers are irrelevant and meaningless.

I agree with you, we have had many meetings with different insurance companies and you have met with our committee once and spoken at one of our forums.Our relationship with the insurance industry is not an issue. I am not sure however what you mean when you say I have been offered the opportunity, as part of a wider community group, to audit the processes employed by Southern Response. But, no matter.

We also have good relationships with Cera, the city council, SKIRT etc. but despite all of this many people are still not much further on than they were at our first forum and it is taking far too long to build a house and carry out a major repair.

This is what the letter is addressing.

In the letter we ask a number of questions none of which has been answered here. Some of the questions we have been asking for the last three years but to no avail. I wouldn't expect you to answer questions about building, you are an insurance man not a builder, as I wouldn't dream of answering questions on insurance, I am a builder not an insurance man.

In your reply you point out that Tower enabled me to meet with their teams. Yes they did. I met with Tower, their PMOs and builder. It was a very good open and honest meeting.At that meeting we identified a number of road blocks that caused delays but unfortunately these roadblocks were beyond the control of anyone there.I also had a full day at the POMs office and five hours at the builders office, both excellent meetings. I now know full well the difficulties they have to work with. But it is still taking six months or more to rebuild a house.

You say that suggestions I made at the meeting were not always practical given the complexities. Which suggestions were those? We were having an open discussion and we were all coming up with new ideas, some good and some not so good, this is how discussions work.

Since then I have spoken with the people on the job, the real people. Carpenters, plumbers, drain layers, building inspectors etc. All they want to do is to get on and finish the job but they keep running into roadblocks.It was because of the meeting I had with the "team" that I thought that with an enlarged team made up of all the players all working together we could identify all the roadblocks and find the most appropriate way of getting around them.You say that all the agencies meet regularly and have done for the past four years. You also say that special efforts have been made to brief me. I can't remember ever being briefed or told who attends these meeting. This is what we are asking for in our letter.It just seems strange when we read in the Press that the insurance companies were surprised at EQC for passing on a lot more over cap customers on which you refer to in your reply and we also read about your surprise at a recent decision made by the council. I thought you all meet regularly.

I am one of the lucky ones, my house is nearing completion, I should be moving in in a few weeks time. It is a very nice well built house. There is one house completed in my street and mine will the second. How long will it be before all the rest are rebuilt? I wonder. That's just my street.As we have asked many times, where is the rebuild plan?

You said you asked me on several occasions to pass the names of any elder person I am concerned about. If I need to I contact the appropriate insurance company but our concern here is not individuals but all elderly people living in broken homes, temporary accommodation, broken streets, broken footpaths, broken drainage and with high levels of stress.

I say again - we have to speed up the time it takes to build a house or carry out a major repair and we are talking here about the time of actual building - from when the foundations are laid. It is not difficult, it is possible, we have done it before and it could be done now.

But it can only be done if all of you want this.

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