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HORIZON “We’re moving into the ‘hard’ claims, as those claims that can be settled, to a large extent, have been. The claims that remain revolve around some really difficult issues for both insurers and policyholders,” Johnstone says. “There are still 50 CBD buildings to be demolished; they are primarily on hold due to unresolved building claims.” The complexity of navigating the insurance process is not helped by the two-layer insurance scheme that operates for house repairs. The Earthquake Commission (EQC), which provides natural disaster insurance for residential
property and administers the Natural Disaster Fund, steps in to resolve all property claims valued between $10,000 and $100,000. For house repair or rebuild claims above $100,000, the relevant private insurer steps in. Insurers, for their part, have tried to clear the backlog of claims as efficiently as possible, says Andrew Horne, partner, Minter Ellison Rudd Watts Lawyers. “They’ve gone from having a few house fires a year to having thousands of claims, but they’ve ramped up their resources to appropriately deal with them,” he explains.
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