Christchurch Earthquake: New home owners in limbo

New home owners are finding themselves in limbo and at risk as insurers refuse to write any new policies for Christchurch's shaken homes. Hundreds of people with houses purchased before Saturday's quake and due to be settled in the coming weeks are struggling to get insurance cover.

Chris Ryan, of the Insurance Council, says this is a common practice for the companies, who have to protect themselves against fraudulent claims.

"After a big event like this, insurance companies get a lot of people ringing them and asking them to insure their properties.

"The next day, they say that a subsequent earthquake has damaged them and make a claim for $200,000. This move is to stop people doing that," Mr Ryan told TVNZ's Close Up.

Cantabrian Mark O'Reilly is due to move into a new home with his young family this week and despite a loyal insurance history with AMI, he had not been able to get cover for the property.

But AMI chief John Balmforth saw Mr O'Reilly on Close Up on Wednesday, and yesterday he stepped in to ensure that cover was provided.

Mr Balmforth said he was aware that there were other AMI customers in similar situations.

He recommended that people who were buying a property get technical advice on the soil standard and the structure of the house to help with assessing the home.

Homeowners would improve their chances of earthquake cover if they arranged a geotechnical report, he told Close Up.

Mr Ryan accepted there was a problem and said government officials, bankers and representatives from the insurance industry worked hard yesterday to reach a resolution.

He expected that insurance claims from Saturday's quake would soar and said the industry might seek to recoup its financial losses by increasing premiums for consumers.

"People should reasonably expect insurance premiums to rise as a result of the Canterbury quake," he said.

An Auckland-based insurance broker, and 42-year veteran of the industry, put it in layman's terms: "Basically when people take out insurance, they are putting their money into a bucket and claims come out of this. When a huge disaster occurs and lots of claims are made the bucket is suddenly emptied. The only way to refill the bucket is to charge everyone more."

Estimates of insured losses from the quake range between $1 billion and $4.5 billion and, as aftershocks continue to shake the Canterbury region, the figure can only go up.

Although the Government's Earthquake Commission forks out for the first $100,000 of claims for home damages and the first $20,000 on contents claims, private insurers are responsible for settling claims in excess of these amounts.

And the buck does not end there. New Zealand-based insurers take out their own insurance internationally, said Mr Ryan, and they would be making claims to global reinsurers.

Vero chief executive Roger Bell said global reinsurers would be having a close look at these claims and predictions around maximum losses, and would reappraise New Zealand based on this event.

"This is going to be the biggest insurance event in New Zealand. We can tell by the claims already in, this is going to be massive for the industry."

This article is published courtesy of NZ Herald. To view click and other Property related articles click here

Posted: 10 Sep 2010