EQC two-thirds through home repairs three years on from quakes

Tuesday 28th January 2014

The Earthquake Commission is two-thirds of the way through repairing houses damaged by the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes in a contract managed by Fletcher Building.

Some 50,174 repairs have been made in the greater Christchurch region to homes since the establishment of the Canterbury Home Repair Programme in October 2010, Minister Responsible for Earthquake Commission Gerry Brownlee said in a statement.

EQC aims to finish all repairs by the end of the year. As of today, there were about 27,000 houses still needing full repairs, according to the EQC website.

"The end of the scheme is very much in sight," Brownlee said.

The government scheme is run through the EQC but managed by Fletcher Building, who won the tender to be the sole contractor.

The 2010 and 2011 earthquakes damaged about 180,000 homes in Canterbury. EQC is required to cover the first $100,000 and has responsibility for about 160,000 damaged homes.

It expects to make cash settlements on about half of the claims and manage repairs for the rest, and had paid some $6.75 billion as at Jan. 28 out of an estimated $12 billion.

The Reserve Bank estimates is the full cost of the Canterbury rebuild will be $40 billion.

In November the Auditor General gave the Earthquake Commission a mixed report for managing home repairs after the Canterbury quakes, with a pass mark for managing the programme and controlling costs, and a fail for how it has dealt with homeowners.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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