Car becomes anti-insurance billboard
Peter Glasson says his portable anti-insurance company billboard has proved a hit with Cantabrians.
He has been fighting insurance company IAG for six years over the cost of reinstating his earthquake-damaged rental house.
Two weeks ago, fed up with the system, he got a signwriter to do up his 1995 Holden Commodore with anti-insurance slogans.
‘‘I’ve been getting a huge amount of support,’’ Glasson said.
‘‘People are tooting the horn and giving thumbs up.’’
His Addington house, which Glasson said had sunk 16 centimetres on one side, has not had any repairs done.
He said it was not worth it, because his independent experts considered it a rebuild.
‘‘We believe that IAG is delaying the process and they should be doing the claim much quicker than they are. We just think that they’re not showing good faith in their negotiations or the processing of the claim.’’
IAG spokeswoman Renee Walker said the principle of good faith was ‘‘at the very heart of insurance’’.
‘‘By acting in good faith, we have settled over 97 per cent of all Canterbury earthquake claims, and the majority of our customers are pleased with both the process and the outcome.’’
The claim will go to a court hearing in August. Glasson said he expected the process to drag on for another year or so.
Walker said IAG wanted to settle all claims directly with its customers, but ‘‘unfortunately’’ it was unable to reach agreement in a small number of cases.
‘‘In these cases customers may seek to involve the courts.’’
IAG had been ‘‘actively’’ working with Glasson and his wife over the last five years, and had made several settlement offers, she said.
‘‘Unfortunately we are unable to agree on the extent of damage, and associated cost to repair, and the Glassons have opted to get the court to decide what their entitlements are. One in three women and one in five men have had chlamydia by the age of 38, a study estimates.
The high rate of the sexually transmitted infection (STI) has prompted a plea for more Kiwis to get tested.
The latest findings from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, known as ‘‘The Dunedin Study’’, show chlamydia is more common than previously thought.
The rate of infection could be higher for younger people, who were born more recently than the study group, lead author Dr Antoinette Righarts, of the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at the Dunedin School of Medicine, said.
She said STIs ’’hit this wall when HIV came out and people’s behaviour changed over a remarkably short time, but later the safe sex messages started wearing off’’.
Infections occurred when the study’s cohort were teenagers and young adults, but was before New Zealand – and other high-income countries – experienced a marked increase in chlamydia in the late 1990s, she said.
At the age of 45 most women in the cohort had completed their reproductive lives, but concerns remain for those aged in their 20s and 30s.
Dr Righarts said the safest thing for people entering a sexual relationship was to use protection, such as condoms, and have a chlamydia check-up. ‘‘It is not good enough for one person to do the test, both have to do it.
‘‘Get tested and treated. It is never too late to get treated.’’
British studies indicated 17 per cent of infections in women advanced to pelvic inflammatory disease, with 0.5 per cent of women becoming infertile and 0.2 per cent having an ectopic pregnancy due to irreversible damage.