Vero ramps up activity in Christchurch

Vero ramps up activity in Christchurch

Vero continues to make progress in Christchurch. In September this year Vero was the first insurer to provide customers with scheduled dates for their reinstatements and is currently planning for an increase in rebuilding activity leading into the New Year.

Vero has a total of 19,600 commercial and domestic claims of which it has settled almost 50%. A total of $1.76 billion has already been paid out.

In addition to work already underway, Vero’s residential customers have been contacted with construction dates that range from a start date within the next six months to 2015. These timeframes are in line with planned building resource capacity and anticipated timeframes to secure the information needed to start construction on projects.

If customers do not wish to participate in the Vero reinstatement programme, they can talk to us and explore their options.

“This is a commitment Vero made to its customers in August this year and it is an important step in our reinstatement approach to customers. As we work through the reinstatement activity, we intend to have increased conversations with our customers, particularly those impacted in the TC3 areas of Christchurch.

“In my experience it is important to understand both the variety and shared complexities our customers face following significant disasters and for us to tailor our response to these complexities. We have therefore identified the need to have specialist teams dedicated to customer groups,” said Jimmy Higgins, Vero Executive General Manager – Earthquake Programme.

Since April this year, after DBH released its foundation guidelines for TC3 properties, Vero has been working to these guidelines in designing reinstatement solutions for affected customers.

“Our customers in TC3 areas of Christchurch are an important part of our overall reinstatement programme. Careful planning and scheduling of repairs for these customers has ensured that our drilling programme is proceeding as planned and we’re confident that our planned repairs will not be delayed because of drilling.

“Vero has already started repairs in some TC3 areas of Christchurch and our drilling program is enabling us to better understand reinstatement solutions and progress our customers through the reinstatement process,” said Jimmy Higgins.

Vero has over 1,000 projects (both domestic and commercial) in the final stages of preconstruction, with contracts prepared for execution.

“While there is currently a modest number of over-cap domestic rebuilds and repairs underway, we expect construction activity to significantly increase in the first half of next year.

“Almost a third of all our EQC-excluded claims have been completed or are near completion. On average we continue to pay between $80 million and $100 million a month in claims,” concluded Jimmy Higgins.
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