Brokers should urge their clients to keep up with vital home maintenance, which could invalidate insurance policies if left neglected, according to an industry body.
The good news is that many Kiwis feel the need to be proactive about home repairs. According to a survey from stuff.co.nz, those shaken most by last year's Kaikoura earthquake are most likely to feel that their home needs urgent maintenance.
The results showed 8% of people surveyed in Wellington and the South Island, excluding Canterbury, reported that their homes were in need of "immediate or extensive maintenance.”
Waikato, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, and Manawatu-Whanganui regions followed at 7%, while Canterbury and Auckland had the fewest people worried about immediate repairs at 6%.
Cantabrians, in previous surveys, have reported the highest levels on the need for urgent maintenance, but now those most worried are in Wellington, the report said.
However according to the Insurance Council of New Zealand (
ICNZ), homeowner insurance does not cover damage caused by deferred maintenance or neglect because it is often avoidable, stuff.co.nz said.
"We have an incredible opportunity to move at great pace and take quick action and lead. We shouldn't be quibbling about where the money should come from, we just need to get on with it and do the work," Wellington Mayor Justin Lester told the stuff.co.nz. "We dodged the bullet, we are not bulletproof.”
According to the Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ), two years of delaying maintenance would likely costs $10,000; 10 years of letting conditions deteriorate would cost about $35,000 and another $10,000 on top of that in 15 years, stuff.co.nz said.
The recent housing-condition survey from BRANZ also found an average cost $13,000 per house on the required maintenance of 560 homes they assessed.
Related stories:
Why maintaining property could cost Kiwi homeowners less
What brokers need to tell homeowners to maximise their protection
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