Free service offers help to resolve quake claims
The Government has launched a ‘‘game changer’’ new independent advice and dispute resolution service to help settle the remaining Christchurch earthquake insurance claims.
The Greater Christchurch Claims Resolution Service (GCCRS) will provide claimants access to settlement advice, mediation, engineering expertise, legal guidance and dispute resolution. Homeowners could opt out at any stage if desired.
The free service could be accessed online, over the phone or face-to-face at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) Cashel St office. When homeowners signed up to the website and were verified, they would be able to access the most recent reports from the Earthquake Commission (EQC) and Southern Response relating to their property.
The website will also tell homeowners where their claim is up to, what needed to be done next, who was responsible for doing it and when it had to be done by. It would provide homeowners with names and contact numbers for the individual managing their claims at EQC, Southern Response and the GCCRS.
Those going into the office would be able to talk to one of ten brokers working for the service, talk to EQC or Southern Response staff with decision making powers on site, and get advice from community law.
There would be several wraparound services included, such as a wellbeing service offering support for mental health issues, the ability to organise basic foundation checks through Engineering NZ to tell owners whether they needed to have more work done, and a facilitation service to work through differences between homeowners and insurance company’s engineering reports.
A new Internal Dispute Resolution Service is being set up, to work in two parts. The first is a facilitation process where homeowners and insurers try to work to an agreement.
If this does not work, a determination process is being set up, where an independent person comes in to oversee the discussion before making a binding decision. MBIE hopes to have this running by early November.
The service is funded by the MBIE, with a forecast cost of $4,355,719.80 to run until June 30, of which $436,461 is set-up costs. The money will come from existing budgets for MBIE, EQC and Southern Response.
It will remain completely independent of EQC or Southern Response, who will provide reports and update tasks but will be unable to see other information held by GCCRS.
GCCRS director Darren Wright said the ‘‘game changer’’ service had been built around the homeowner.
He said the new service would eliminate a lot of uncertainty; ‘‘at any time, you know who you need to call, and above this, you know who’s doing what, so you’re actually getting a lot more control back into the homeowner’’.