178 red-zoners reject Crown buyout offer

Dozens of red-zoners have rejected a Crown offer to buy their earthquake-damaged land and will stay on in largely abandoned neighbourhoods.

Flat-land red zone residents had until 5pm on Tuesday to accept compensation payouts for their property, but 178 chose not to.

They included owners opposed to the principle of the Crown offer – based on all or part of a property’s rating valuation (RV) – and those who faced financial loss by accepting the deal, so chose to stay on uninsured.

Those who accepted have vacate the land by July 31.

Of the nearly 6800 red-zoners subject to Tuesday’s deadline:

5419 had settled with the Crown.

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1193 had accepted the Crown offer and nominated a settlement date.

130 had not returned sale and purchase agreements, which detailed the Crown offers.

48 did not return consent forms, and received no formal Crown offer.

Red zone properties in South New Brighton, Southshore and the Port Hills still have time to accept compensation.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) chief executive Roger Sutton said he knew the offer would not appeal to everyone.

‘‘In a natural disaster of this size and scale, there actually is no onesize-fits-all solution.’’