EQC media release
2 April 2012

EQC payments in Canterbury top $3 billion

EQC’s total payments made to customers from the earthquakes in Canterbury have topped the $3 billion mark, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in history.

EQC Chief Executive Ian Simpson says this figure amounts to about a quarter of the estimated total liability of $12 billion, which will be paid out as EQC settles claims in the next two to three years.

“On a global scale, what we’re doing is right up there. Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005 was the costliest natural disasters in history, resulting in roughly the same number of insurance claims as the number we have received from our customers.”

“We are facing an unprecedented job in Canterbury. Nowhere else in the world has there been an insurance event made up of a number of ongoing events.

“Even as we continue to make encouraging progress, we still have a long way to go,” Simpson says.

EQC has now also closed over 100,000 individual building claims. There have been 413,000 building claims lodged since the September 4 quake.

In addition, almost 12,000 house repairs have been completed under the Canterbury Home Repair Programme.

However, Mr Simpson says the progress has not been helped by continuing seismic events in Canterbury.

“We received more than 48,000 new claims since the December 23 earthquake, making it our fourth biggest event after June 13.

Simpson says the pace of land settlements will accelerate as the status of the land is clarified and the likelihood of further significant damage decreases.

“Geotechnical drilling on the TC3 land has just begun. This will enable EQC and insurers to quantify the cost of foundations repairs by providing reliable data for appropriate foundation designs. When we have this information, we will be settling many more land claims.

“The extensive land damage due to liquefaction is posing challenges to all the agencies involved in the Canterbury recovery, particularly as each earthquake event has delayed the moment when we could make a reliable assessment of the condition of the land.”
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