Earthquake survivor warns not to hurry any settlement for home damage as Canterbury residents begin to discuss with their insurance companies.
Insurance expert Andrew Hooker also backs up the warning, saying some customers may find if they settle early they will end up paying much more out of their own pockets as the true scale of the damage becomes clear. Robert Constable lived through a similar experience in Newcastle in New South Wales 21 years ago, where the Christmas earthquake killed 13 and toppled houses.
“The images that are coming from Christchurch are very similar, eerily similar to the images of Newcastle,” said Constable. His home was left liveable and the first insurance assessment said it needed about $30,000 worth of repairs.
“We found that we were under pressure to settle as quickly as possible and I had to resist my insurance company.”
Constable said like many in Canterbury, he just wanted to get on with rebuilding his life. But the earthquake survivor is now relieved he waited for the ground to settle before he finalised his claim.
“It was well over $100,000 worth of damage when it was eventually done and the whole timber structure had to be jacked up off the ground and foundations replaced, substantially replaced,” said Constable. Many in Canterbury are currently facing this issue with insurance lawyer Hooker saying wait as long as you can to settle.
“If halfway through the job you find out that it was worse than you expected because the house hadn’t been dismantled or repairs hadn’t started – if you’ve signed a watertight discharge then the insurance company may have grounds to say sorry that’s all you’re getting,” said Hooker. The lawyer spent two decades representing insurance companies and said he knows how those contracts work.
“Be very, very careful before you rush into signing something like that – it might look like a lot of money now but as I said have you ever seen a building job come in under budget? It doesn’t happen.”
Both Constable and Hooker stress that if your home is unsafe you will need to get it fixed as soon as possible but at least try to get an escape clause in case the damage turns out to be even worse later down the road.
