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12 Tuesday <strong>July</strong> <strong>31</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
Shoddy repairs<br />
PEGASUS POST<br />
Advertising<br />
FeAture<br />
When I say “shoddy repairs” to<br />
people in the North Island or the West<br />
Island where I come from, they have<br />
absolutely no idea what I’m talking<br />
about. They have no understanding<br />
what shoddy repairs really means.<br />
That’s because anywhere else in the<br />
world where a natural disaster has<br />
occurred the Insurance company will<br />
either do the repairs themselves and<br />
stand behind those repairs or pay<br />
cash out to you to take the risk and<br />
do the repairs yourself.<br />
Not in Christchurch, Christchurch is another reality,<br />
we have EQC. After I left EQC and before I started<br />
my business whenever I told anyone about my idea to<br />
challenge EQC reports I lost count of the people that<br />
told me,” You’re crazy”. I was told, “Your business<br />
will never work here, don’t you know, we are the only<br />
country in the world that has EQC, they will look after<br />
us and we will never need to challenge their reports”.<br />
After 7 years the truth is out there, and you must<br />
challenge the EQC assessments and repairs carried out to<br />
your homes.<br />
“Who’s to blame”<br />
The previous government want you to believe it was the<br />
fault of the builders trying to cut corners. Of course, the<br />
builders involved are not blameless, but, they are not<br />
solely responsible. To many people this was just a series<br />
of unfortunate events and gross incompetence. I do<br />
not believe that, I believe this was a well-orchestrated<br />
takeover of the entire process by the Government and<br />
those beholden to it or benefiting from it. We all know<br />
that all governments lie, some more than others. But<br />
what happened here was a well thought-out, wellorchestrated<br />
hoodwinking of an entire city and nation.<br />
The tools the then government used included EQC,<br />
The Red Zone, The Residential Advisory Service (RAS),<br />
The Christchurch Home Repair Program (CHRP),<br />
the media, the legal system, MBIE and professional<br />
experts. The result is billions of dollars being denied to<br />
homeowners with damaged homes and a damaged<br />
Christchurch housing stock that will take generations to<br />
recover.<br />
Perhaps the most insidious program of all was the<br />
Christchurch Home Repair Program (CHRP), with about<br />
90,000 homes repaired under this program. I’m not going<br />
to say all the repairs carried out were failures. What I will<br />
say is that a significant amount of the more difficult repairs<br />
had work done<br />
on them that<br />
did not meet<br />
building standards let alone the much<br />
higher standard of the insurance<br />
policies. Significant damage has<br />
been ignored and when challenged<br />
explained away as pre-existing. After<br />
seven years of re-assessing EQC<br />
work we’ve seen it all. From a jandal<br />
being used to pack a pile to a pile<br />
being cut through so there was no<br />
need to get a plumber to move a<br />
pipe and EQC refusing to lift carpets<br />
to see if the slabs were cracked.<br />
THERE IS<br />
NO TIME<br />
TO DELAY,<br />
YOU NEED<br />
TO TAKE<br />
ACTION<br />
NOW<br />
CHRP, but many, many more are<br />
completely unaware of the damage<br />
caused and damage ignored under<br />
CHRP. We know EQC give estimates<br />
of as low as 600 and as high as<br />
3,000 homes that have suffered<br />
shoddy repairs. I believe the actual<br />
number is much higher, in the tens<br />
of thousands, but only time will<br />
tell. The fact is, no one knows the<br />
actual number because there are no<br />
records that could be relied upon.<br />
Proper assessments were never done by EQC.<br />
What we do know from fighting for so many homeowners<br />
with shoddy repairs, is that many of the repairs have<br />
covered up the actual damage. Foundation damage<br />
hidden behind epoxy glue, plaster and paint, piles packed<br />
on poor ground and doors and windows shaved to fit.<br />
What you must do<br />
To get justice you have to fight for your rights,<br />
however getting justice is very expensive. You will<br />
need to have very deep pockets and some or all of<br />
the following: Builders, Engineers, Quantity Surveyors,<br />
Geotech Engineers, Lawyers and a lot of your own<br />
personal time. Or you can pass all of that on to us to<br />
fund and manage.<br />
If you can afford it<br />
• you must get your repairs checked, by independent<br />
experts.<br />
• If there is unaddressed damage, get a lawyer. Find<br />
one that doesn’t work for Insurance companies.<br />
If you can’t afford it<br />
• Call us, we are New Zealand’s largest earthquake<br />
litigation funder.<br />
• We pay for an independent expert to assess the repairs<br />
and damage.<br />
• If there is no damage and the repairs have been carried<br />
out correctly, you pay nothing, and our contract is<br />
terminated.<br />
• However, if damage is found or the repairs are substandard,<br />
we fund everything it takes to prove your<br />
claim until settlement.<br />
• We operate a “No win, No fee” system of funding.<br />
• At settlement we take back the costs outlaid and a<br />
percentage of the settlement.<br />
Call us on 03 377 88 55 to get us working for you,<br />
or email us at info@earthquakeservices.co.nz<br />
Bryan Staples, CEO, Earthquake Services.<br />
Many homeowners are now seeing<br />
the result of their failed repairs under<br />
Contact us today - call 03 377 8855 or visit earthquakeservices.co.nz. We’re located at 130 Ferry Road, Christchurch.
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