Vero Insurance says it has paid out almost $3.9 billion or 80% of its total costs toward the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery programme with plans to pay out more than 90% by December 2015.
Vero’s EGM, Earthquake Programme,
Jimmy Higgins, said the rate of domestic claims settled was 14% greater than the rest of the industry.
“We have resolved and settled 86% of all our residential claims compared to the industry’s 72%. This includes more than 70% of over cap claims now resolved and settled,” he said.
The company hopes to resolve and settle more than 90% of residential claims by June 2015.
Higgins said there were a large number of homes close to resolution.
“These include customers that have their contracts ready to sign and return to us and homes that are in the final stages of contract preparation or settlement.
“However, we are very aware that we still have some customers whose claims are yet to be resolved and we are working with them every day to bring them certainty.”
He said the remaining properties were increasingly complex and challenging and required continued work with customers to ensure they understood the options available to them.
“Our multi-unit properties programme is well-advanced. We started building the first two major multi-unit residential properties in central Christchurch in October and have a number of large multi-unit properties close to contract stage,” Higgins said.
The commercial reinstatement programme had begun to wind down and was expected to be largely completed by June 2015, with 90% of commercial claims paid out by then.
“Earlier this year we brought our earthquake and business-as-usual claims operations together. We have kept our promise to our Cantabrian customers to resolve almost all residential claims by the end of this year and we’ve made great progress with our earthquake programme,” Higgins said.
