On June 06, the government announced it had received a report outlining the need for a wide range of reforms to speed-up the resolution of outstanding EQC claims.
According to Tower chief executive officer Richard Harding, the company has long maintained that the current EQC system is broken and is pleased that the government is taking action to address the failings of the system.
“In the past two and a half years we received 436 completely new, over-cap claims from the EQC,” Harding said. “It is simply not acceptable to still be receiving completely new claims seven years on from the Canterbury quakes.”
The CEO also mentioned recent reports of the EQC finding an additional 949 open, unresolved earthquake claims. He noted that this highlights “just how broken the system is,” and the challenges insurers have faced trying to understand how many claims remain.
“We strongly support the addition of data resources to accurately identify and quantify outstanding claims,” Harding said. “We look forward to working closely with the government and EQC to resolve outstanding issues and encourage them to increase claims management resources to expedite fair outcomes for customers.
“We urge the government to implement these recommendations to ensure that mistakes of the past are not repeated,” he added.
Tower said the fairest way for its policyholders to start the six-year limitation period is from the date that the claim is settled rather than the day of the original event.
“We encourage other insurance companies to take the same view,” it said.
