Southern View: June 21, 2016

SOUTHERN VIEW Tuesday June 21 2016 9
EQC UPDATE KEEPING YOU INFORMED | JUNE 2016
EQC begins settling ILV land damage claims
Head of Canterbury Land Settlement for EQC,
Keith Land
The Earthquake Commission has begun
settling claims for Increased Liquefaction
Vulnerability (ILV) land damage.
Keith Land, Head of Canterbury Land
Settlement, says that the settlements will go to
4,400 customers whose properties have
qualified as having an increased vulnerability to
liquefaction following the 2010-2011
Canterbury earthquakes.
“Each qualified property is being assessed and
will be cash settled on a case-by-case basis as
we have done to date with other forms of land
damage resulting from these earthquakes.
Similar to Increased Flooding Vulnerability (IFV)
land damage, settlement of ILV land damage is
a world-first. This type of land damage has not
been covered by insurance anywhere else, so
Fulbright-EQC Award recipient to study
seismic performance of high-rise walls
The Fulbright-EQC Graduate Award’s newest recipient, Alex Shegay,
is looking into the reasons behind unexpected failures of reinforced
concrete walls and ways in which performance can be improved.
Mr Shegay, 24, has been granted the 2016 Fulbright-EQC Graduate
Award in Natural Disaster Research and soon will be heading to the
University of Washington on his exchange.
In the US, he will research the seismic performance of high-rise structural
walls and use experimental data to create validated computer models.
The research will go towards his PhD in Structural/Earthquake
Engineering at the University of Auckland.
“Structural engineers have significant social responsibility to protect
civilians even in the most devastating circumstances. The 2010/2011
Canterbury Earthquakes were an example of one such catastrophic event,
producing ground accelerations never before recorded in an urban
environment.
“Many concrete buildings in Christchurch that relied on reinforced
concrete walls for seismic resistance were severely damaged to the
point that it was fortunate to find them still standing. It’s crucial to learn
from the Canterbury earthquakes and improve building design and
construction practice.”
considerable work was required to get the
engineering and valuation methodologies
right,” said Mr Land.
“We want to make sure that the final settlements
are based on a robust and appropriate
settlement process so that customers can have
confidence their claims for ILV land damage
have been paid consistently and fairly.”
EQC expects at least two thirds of ILV
customers will receive settlements based on
the reduction in their property’s market value
caused by ILV, also known as Diminution of
Value (DOV).
“This is because generally, there are no
available ground improvement methods to
address ILV damage on a property where
a house has remained in place since the
earthquakes,” says Mr Land.
The remaining third of ILV customers are being
assessed for a settlement based on the cost to
repair the ILV land damage. This will generally
be in situations where the house has already
been, or will be, rebuilt or removed due to the
earthquake damage.”
Customers receiving a ‘cost to repair’
settlement will be individually case-managed,
as the situation for each of them varies. Before
it can be confirmed that these customers will
receive a repair cost settlement, more
information is needed to understand their
property’s current situation.
Mr Land says that settlements for DOV
customers began this month and EQC also
started contacting repair cost customers.
EQC has resolved nearly 90% of properties
with land claims resulting from 2010-2011
Canterbury earthquakes, and expects to
resolve the remainder of the land programme
by the end of 2016.
EQC will also hold six ILV meetings from July to
November for customers whose settlements are
based on DOV. The purpose of the meetings is
for customers to ask questions and hear from
EQC and its valuers about what’s been involved
in ILV settlement decisions.
Venue:
Beulah Church, 140 Springfield Rd,
St Albans
Date
Monday 4 July
Wednesday 27 July
Monday 22 August
2016 Fulbright-EQC Graduate, Alex Shegay
Wednesday 28 September
Wednesday 26 October
Wednesday 30 November
Time
7pm
7pm
7pm
7pm
7pm
7pm
For more information on these meetings and
ILV land damage, including Q+As and
engineering and valuation methodologies,
please visit www.eqc.govt.nz/ILV.
The Fulbright-EQC Graduate Award in Natural Disaster Research
facilitates research that reduces and prevents natural disaster damage.
It is part of $16 million granted by EQC each year to high quality research
that builds knowledge about New Zealand’s natural disasters.
Progress report
on EQC remedial
programme
The Earthquake Commission has received 8,337
remedial enquiries of which 2,211 have been resolved
as of 27 May 2016. This leaves 6,126 enquiries
remaining.
The amount recorded as being spent on remedial work to
May 2016 was $7,068,833. However it has not been possible
to separate out all remedial costs from other work streams.
The total cost of the remedial repairs will never be finally
known until we have resolved all the outstanding claims.
There are still a number of unknowns and it’s also too early
to say exactly what the final figure will be for the remedial
programme. However, EQC expects the final cost could be
in the region of $60 million to $70 million, which is covered
by our existing liability estimates. To put this estimate in
context it would account for less than 3% of the approximate
$2.5 billion cost of the Canterbury Home Repair Programme
to date.
The level of remedial work for the Canterbury Home
Repair Programme is well within industry norms for the
national construction sector.
EQC has prioritised first time repairs, although it has carried
out urgent remedial work for vulnerable customers or where
the work is needed to make a house safe, secure and/or
sanitary.
Now that EQC is down to the last of the first time repairs,
focus has increased on resolving remedials.
EQC is confident it has the processes and teams in place to
address the issues. EQC has been expanding the remedial
team since September 2015 and more staff are being added
as first time repairs near completion.
EQC does not have a projected date to stop receiving
remedial requests but will continue working with customers
until their claims are resolved.
One of the reasons for starting the Canterbury Home Repair
Programme was to ensure customers would have the
assurance that any issues with their earthquake repairs
would be addressed.
Currently around 100 remedial requests are being received
a week.
Customers can follow the progress of their
claim through a series of EQC letters with a tick
diagram. Each new tick means the customer
is closer to receiving their settlement.
Processing
starts for
Feb 2016
quakes
EQC aims to complete assessments
more quickly for the February 2016
Canterbury earthquake claims using
customer-provided information for
desk-based assessments.
Onsite assessment visits to customers’
properties will be the exception for cases
where there is extensive damage, claims
are complex or individual circumstances
require it. EQC claim managers have
been calling customers to get
information and documents – such as
specific damage measurements and
photos – before deciding whether a
phone or on-site assessment works best.
Claims processing is well underway
with over 685 claims paid so far out of
the total 13,134 received. Priority is
given to vulnerable customers, followed
by claims in the order in which they
were lodged.
“Customers who have had their claims
settled so far have told us that the new
approach is working better for them.
Before starting to settle claims, EQC
proactively talked with customers about
different ways of doing things, using
their feedback to design our approach
for this event,” says EQC Manager of
the February 2016 Event, Jayne Lapin.
“Most of the damage suffered is
cosmetic, so EQC won’t manage a repair
programme this time but, customers
who need assistance to organise repairs,
can contact our Community Contact
Team in Christchurch. The team has
strong links with support agencies who
can help. Call EQC on 0800 DAMAGE
(0800 326 243) to book an appointment
with the Community Contact Team, if
support is needed.
“For customers whose 2010/2011
Canterbury earthquake claims are still
open, EQC aims to resolve their February
2016 claim together with their
2010/2011 claims. We want to make
sure all outstanding issues for their
properties are on track for resolution by
the end of 2016,” Ms Lapin says.
At this stage, EQC expects to resolve
the majority of February 2016
earthquake claims by the end of
December 2016.
Inquiries – view the latest fact
sheet under Recent Events on
www.eqc.govt.nz, call 0800 326 243
or email info@eqc.govt.nz
CONTACT EQC AT 0800 DAMAGE (0800 326 243) OR VISIT WWW.EQC.GOVT.NZ