Quake claim deadline nears

Almost 25,000 claims have been lodged with the Earthquake Commission (EQC) in the wake of the Kaikoura quake, with the final deadline looming.

Tuesday will be the last day those affected by the 7.8 magnitude November 14 quake can make a claim with EQC.

EQC general manager customer and claims Trish Keith said the disaster was the second largest event that EQC has responded to, after the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.

The majority of the 24,602 claims were lodged in the Christchurch and Wellington districts, followed by Marlborough with 3500.

About 1500 claims were lodged for Kaikoura, Keith said.

‘‘EQC has settled around $11 million of claims at this early stage of what is New Zealand’s second largest earthquake in recent times,’’ Keith said.

‘‘Almost 70 per cent of all claims are building claims, followed by building and contents, and contents only. Claims involving land damage account for 10 per cent at this stage.

‘‘The Canterbury earthquakes were more localised but impacted on a large urban area so the number We’re still in limbo, where we’ll be in six months we don’t know. of claims being received will be much less but this is still a significant event.’’

People who had not already lodged a claim for damages incurred in the Kaikoura earthquake would not be able to do so after midnight on Tuesday.

EQC led four public forums with private insurers in Ward, Kaikoura and Waiau to assist in the claims process, Keith said.

Gail Phipps had her Ward home red-stickered and attended one of the meetings.

She said it had been helpful, but she would like to see the Tuesday deadline postponed to remove any possibility that someone could miss lodging their claim.

The future was still uncertain for Gail and her husband Bryan as they continued to live out of a converted garage following the 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

‘‘We’re still in limbo, where we’ll be in six months we don’t know,’’ she said.

Claude Lane’s home on Gulch Rd, Ward, was white-stickered despite the collapse of his chimney in the earthquake.

The damage was assessed by insurers on Thursday and Lane said he was happy overall with his treatment through the claims process.

‘‘They’ve looked after me alright. I think some people get the claim wrong and that’s where they have problems,’’ he said.

‘‘They’ve told everyone that the claims are about to close and people have had enough time to do it, they’ve had oodles of time.’’

Despite the deadline, Keith said EQC continued to work closely with other government agencies, territorial authorities, insurers and community groups to engage directly with residents.