Four Key Issues To Be Addressed At Last EQCfix Meeting
Four Key Issues To Be Addressed At Last EQCfix
Meeting For 2017
• Buying or selling?
Understand assignment of
claims.
• Worried you’ve been
underscoped / under assessed by
EQC?
• Was your claim discharged by
Southern Response?
• It’s time to
demystify land claims.
More than 7 years after
the first Canterbury earthquake sequence started in
September 2010, several significant issues continue to
confound claimants.
A meeting at the Transitional
Cathedral has already attracted around 180 inquiries and
many more are expected before the meeting on Monday 27th
November, 7:00pm to 8:30pm.
Lawyer John Goddard who is an Associate at Wellington’s Morrison Kent lawyers, is returning to Christchurch for the meeting. Mr Goddard was the Residential Advisory Service (RAS) Supervising Solicitor between 2014 and 2016, and will address issues regarding land claims.
“There is no private insurance cover for land claims so these are solely the domain of EQC,” says John Goddard. “Under the Act, EQC is required to pay its customers the value of the area of land that is lost or damaged and the indemnity value of bridges, culverts and retaining walls. It’s a complex system, one that I believe has left a number of people short of their full entitlements, especially when it comes to the remediation of their land.”
Other experts will cover Assignment of
Claims, situations where a property has been under or
incorrectly assessed by EQC and the discharging of claims by
Southern Response (especially before June
2015).
ENDS
For more information, please contact
Melanie Bourke on 021 449 584
Presenters:
John
Goddard (Associate at Morrison Kent Lawyers). After more
than three years at Community Law in Christchurch, working
with claimants using the Residential Advisory Service, John
is returning to Christchurch to talk about land claims. He
will explain how EQC has relied on its ILV policy instead of
legislation, and will outline what you can do to receive
your full entitlements for remediation of EQ damage. John
was the Supervising Solicitor of the Residential Advisory
Service (RAS) between 2014 and 2016.
Grant Shand (Partner at Grant Shand Lawyers). Grant will update you on the issue of Southern Response's approach to discharging claims up to mid-2015, and Southern Response’s possible breach of the Fair Trading Act and good faith obligations by concealing DRA’s that had professional fees, demolition and contingency on them. Some owners may be entitled to significantly more money as part of their settlement from Southern Response.
Peter Woods (Partner at Anthony Harper Lawyers). Peter will address the very topical issue of assignment of claims when buying and selling homes, the process to follow if you are concerned your home has been underscoped or incorrectly assessed by EQC, as well as what to do if you find repairs are now failing.
EQCfix
says……..
WHY KNOWING ABOUT LAND IS SO
IMPORTANT
After the earthquake sequence
in Canterbury, EQC had what it saw as expensive obligations
to pay for land claims under the EQC Act. It is our view
that EQC sought a way, by developing alternative internal
policies, to significantly reduce its obligation to
Canterbury homeowners. and therefore, its liability.
However, EQC is obliged to follow the EQC Act; the Act is
the obligation, not its internal policies.
WE BELIEVE YOU
CAN SUCCESSFULLY CHALLENGE EQC
If you
want to hear what EQC has done, how experts believe your
rights may have been undermined come along. We want to
support you to ensure EQC is held fully accountable.
WHO
SHOULD ATTEND?
Any person who owns, or
is thinking of buying property in Christchurch. Any person
with a home or land impacted by the Kaikoura 2016 Quake. Any
person who has bought a property that they thought was
repaired by EQC but that repair is failing. Anyone who
believes the land claim related to their property was not
assessed correctly. Any person with a Southern Response
claim settled before mid-2015.
The meeting is FREE,
however booking tickets is recommended. Book here There will
be time for questions and a number of homeowner focused
lawyers will be in attendance. Additional information on
EQFix.NZ:
EQCfix.NZ is an independent public justice
project whose overarching goal, in a post disaster
environment, is to:
Ensure that EQC meets
its obligations under the Earthquake Commission Act 1993
(the Act).
The project
intends to achieve its goal by working with central and
local body representatives such as legal, insurance, land,
engineering, surveying, and quantity surveying
professionals; as well as building-industry practitioners
and tradespeople, all of whom are demonstrably motivated to
ensure that the interests of the homeowner are protected.
Our aims are:
to provide information, and if
appropriate education programmes, for homeowners that better
enables them to navigate, understand, and manage the EQC
process(es) from claim to reinstatement,
to co-ordinate and support groups of homeowners to work collectively to address EQC's failures to meet its statutory obligations, when a potential EQC performance issue is identified by interested groups / individuals,
to investigate and, if possible, to provide homeowners with access to a group solution which is affordable and realistic to advocate for an independent inquiry into EQC’s performance, handling and management of Canterbury eart hquake claim and reinstatement processes,
to review and monitor EQC procedures and processes to better ensure that EQC learns from past experience and changes accordingly.
TO FIND OUT MORE GO TO www.eqcfix.nz