The last quarter has seen private insurers settle the highest number of residential claims settled of any quarter to date, according to the latest figures released by the Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ).
ICNZ CEO Tim Grafton said the record-breaking 40% increase took the value of all residential and commercial claims settled to well over $15 billion.
Private insurers have settled 66%, or over 16,000, over cap residential Canterbury earthquake claims, including over 1,500 in the quarter to 30 June 2015, or equivalent to nearly 17 properties a day, ICNZ said.
Grafton said: “The pace of settlements has ramped up and the evidence suggests that contrary to recent commentary reported in the media about the rate of recovery, we are continuing to see more residential settlements than ever.”
At the end of June 2015, there were over 24,527 over cap residential claims with 327 transferred from the Earthquake Commission (
EQC), taking the total transferred from
EQC since January 2015 to 602.
Based on data jointly collected by ICNZ and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA), 75% of all over cap residential claims are resolved or have been fully settled, ie the repair/rebuild is under construction, in consenting or a building contract has been signed.
A further 19% of the 24,527 over cap claims are in resolution, ie cash settlement is pending or the rebuild/repair is in the pricing and design process.
“While cash settlement remains an option for many homeowners, the increase this quarter in settlements is for both cash settlements and rebuilds and repairs,” Grafton said.
Insurers completed 596 major repairs and rebuilds in the last quarter, bringing the total to 4,053 to the end of June 2016.
The number of cash settled over cap claims to date is 12,153 while the number of customers still to receive offers from their private insurer is 488. There are 358 people who have yet to make decisions on the offers they have received.
