Insurers have settled $15.9 billion in Canterbury earthquake claims, according to the Insurance Council of New Zealand’s (ICNZ) latest figures.
ICNZ CEO Tim Grafton said insurers had now settled 70% of over cap residential Canterbury earthquake claims adding that reinsurers had termed it as one of the most complex natural disaster recoveries ever.
There were 24,994 over cap residential claims at the end of September 2015, with 467 transferred from the Earthquake Commission (
EQC) in the last quarter.
This took the total transferred from EQC since September 2014 to 1813.
Seventy-nine per cent, or 19,734, of all over cap residential claims were resolved or had been fully settled. Resolved means the repair/rebuild is under construction, in consenting or a building contract has been signed.
A further 16%, or 3,928, of the 24,994 over cap claims were in resolution, meaning the rebuild/repair was in the pricing and design process or cash settlement was pending.
“Insurers are continuing to make a major contribution to Canterbury and the New Zealand economy and are committed to settling the remaining claims as quickly as possible,” Grafton said.
Grafton was also urging customers to contact their insurer or the Residential Advisory Service if they were unsure about the offer they’d received or had yet to make a decision.
The number of customers who were still to receive offers from their private insurer was down to 465 and there were 314 people who had yet to make decisions on the offers they’d received.
The figures are based on data jointly collected by ICNZ and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA).
