EQC sets repair target for homes
DAVID WILLIAMS
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Christchurch Earthquake 2011
A day for Christchurch to remember
Eighty per cent of Canterbury's earthquake-damaged homes in the Government-managed repair programme will be fixed within three years, the Earthquake Commission (EQC) will announce today.
The time frames for residential repairs – to be unveiled by the commission and Fletcher Construction, which is managing residential repairs between $10,000 and $100,000 through project management office Fletcher EQR – will affect about 100,000 homeowners.
The EQC yesterday confirmed it had reached its goal of completing 190,000 initial house assessments by Christmas.
EQC customer services general manager Bruce Emson said the commission's goal was for Fletcher EQR to fix 80 per cent of the programme's homes by December 31, 2014.
He said it would be New Zealand's largest construction project – a "monstrous" task costing more than $3 billion, on top of the $2.7b already paid out by the EQC.
"If you think about the Waterview bypass in Auckland that's about to start, or the Victoria Park underpass [also in Auckland], the Clyde Dam project, none of them is as large as this in terms of scale or cost. None of them was managed across 100,000 individual homes," he said.
"This is a monstrous task that we are undertaking."
The repair programme will see 24 hubs established across the city, with the hardest-hit homes expected to be done first. The final number of Fletcher-managed repairs will vary depending on how many homeowners opt out and the number under a $10,000 repair bill who will receive cash.
Some industry sources have predicted Christchurch's residential repairs, part of an overall $30b rebuild, will take five years. However, Emson said the EQC wanted a "much tighter time frame" for its portion.
"We don't actually know the size of the task for all of the jobs. A large number of them are cosmetic, so it's paint and paper, cracks and the like."
The 80 per cent goal, which would see more than 2200 homes completed a month, was "non-negotiable", he said.
"What we're trying to do is give confidence to our customers that we have a plan, a process and an objective with fairly clear targets," he said.
To date, there have been 6700 EQR-managed repairs completed and 16,000 more being worked on.
"We'll just continue going faster than we are at the moment, but we're going pretty bloody fast right now. We just have to get better at it," Emson said.
Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce chief executive Peter Townsend said any time frame would need to be challenged to see whether it could be accelerated.
"As long as we're seen to be continuing to move forward, albeit in small steps from a household-by-household perspective, I think people will live with it,'' he said.
"If we're seen to be bogged down and nothing going, then I think people will be very intolerant of that."
Quake-damaged homes over the EQC's $100,000 cap are being managed on behalf of private insurers. One industry source is picking that those more difficult repairs could take four years, depending on challenges such as the huge demand for construction workers.
The source said EQC's goal "should be achievable", adding: "A lot of it is internal decorating and finishing work."
Emson said homeowners who were missed in the initial assessment phase, or who had not been paid contents claims as promised, should contact the EQC on 0800 326 243.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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I have a house that is in the whize zone with damages estimated by the EQC just below the $100k: I can't repaired it, I can't rent it out and as others there is not financial help available as the rent insurance is expired. Construction costs are expected to go up 20%-30% compared to the estimates of EQC: EQC should recalculate and pay out houses were the damages are close the $100k and pass them to the private sector, instead of letting people wait for years and ruin family lives. EQC is just a bunch of bureaucrats employed and selected with the experience and skills required when EQC was a government office that was just collecting premiums. Gerry: you need to change the management of the EQC to get things going!!!
I agree with #35 this is one city full of bleaters there are places and people far worse off than christchurch "Rome wasn't built in a day"
Tui needs to make a billboard on this one. 80% Christchurch homes fixed within 3 years. YEAH RIGHT!!
I'm not thrilled about the progress, any more than the rest of us living in houses that may or may not survive the next quake.
But there is a solution. We can all move to Haiti and see how the professionals do it.
No, wait, that's not right.
What we can actually do is try to understand the scope of the damage, and be grateful that we live in a country where there can be so much damage, and yet so few deaths and we can go onto the internet to whine about how inconvenient earthquakes are.
EQC isn't perfect? No kidding. But I don't want to think about how badly off we could have been.
Honestly, the worst part of the whole thing has been living in a city full of people who can't stop moaning and griping.
Just visiting tsunami damaged areas in Sendai, Japan with my wife and her family who live here. I was amazed by the scale of damage but also the amount of work being done over here by individuals and agencies alike. In Chch we are over the cap and in green blue zone. Was pretty embarrassed explaining our eqc and insurance system to people who have lost EVERYTHING, (literally for Kms) with no insurance for eq damage and at best a $20,000 payout on a complete loss from the govt. I am certainly not saying our system is perfect ....but I think we should at least be thankful we have some form of protection for our assets. I understand and until now agreed with the anger being expressed in this forum but seeing the scale of things and the lack of cover for home owners over here I am a little happier to wait and be thankful than I was before.
@Andrew #18 I totally understand - I'm in TC3 too and need a complete rebuild. Still no idea when anything will happen and it looks more and more like it'll be ages. I know that as we're over the cap to be dealt with by EQC they can't talk about our time frames but it seems crazy minor damage is repaired before rebuild work! If there's a limited resource pool surely those resources should go to the most need - and I'm not suggesting that should be me as I know there are many worse off !?
Yes, we have a continuation of EQC's settle the minor claims first policy, that way the government has a greater number of happy voters come election time! Worked this time round and I fully expect it will work again in 2014, coz let's face it, nobody gives a toss as long as it's not their home that's severely damaged...especially when they've just been redecorated courtesy of EQC.
my guess is that the folks that create these timelines and statistics aren't living in homes with doors that won't open, with weatherboards that are split, open to the elements. Do they take that into account when they're repairing my home- the damage that has come about while waiting for the repairs to take place? I doubt that too- as they are making 'no improvements'...
@mark#26, 73 homes per day at 7 days per week
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Wow, a plan with communication. Now there is something new.
It only took 15 months, however I am seeing most of the repair work happening on the west side of the city.
Hardest hit homes first, not so sure about that.
According to some we take what we're given and shut the hell up regardless of what the cover was we paid for.
May be these people would settle for less on their health insurance when sick, and just be happy they don't live in some country with lower health care standard.
Try that when your really ill.
Yeah for you!!!