Court ruling brings in more homeowners

WELLINGTON: In what is being hailed as a landmark ruling, the Court of Appeal has decided a class action against Southern Response can proceed on an opt out basis.

It means a class action against the Governmentowned settlement agency will now cover a lot more people and could end up costing it a lot more money.

It has been brought by Christchurch couple Brendan and Colleen Ross, who claim the company gave them an abridged repairrebuild assessment, or DRA, on their quakedamaged home and shortchanged them by more than $100,000.

Their lawyer, Grant Cameron, said the Appeal Court decision was important as it meant the action could potentially cover everybody whose case has been settled in the same way as the Ross couple.

That could include about 3000 homeowners who claim they were underpaid before 2015 by being given the lesser of two DRAs.

Yesterday’s ruling means unless claimants choose to opt out, they would all be included in the class action.

The cost to Southern Response could be up to $300 million.

The company is already facing claims following a precedentsetting ruling a month ago for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars over previous DRAs.

Last week, Southern Response has revealed its staff were paid more than $1.1 million in bonuses in the past financial year.

Southern Response chairman Alister James said 130 staff were eligible for bonuses.

Mr James said the performance payments were based outstanding customer service and undertaking tasks beyond job expectations. — RNZ