EQC urges homeowners to protect properties after spike in damage claims
Tuesday, 3 January 2023
The Earthquake Commission Toka Tū Ake (EQC) is urging homeowners to take action to protect their properties after a record number of insurance claims for land damage.
In the past 12 months, EQC received 3300 claims for land damage caused by landslips, storms and floods across the country.
Claims for land damage made up 80% of insurance claims received by EQC in the last year. This was more than double the number of land claims from these events in the previous four years.
In response to the rising number of claims, EQC is urging New Zealand homeowners to do more to protect their homes from extreme weather events.
**READ MORE:
* News in brief: Land claims and mayor's message
* Damage from extreme weather cost insurers $321.6 million last year
* Insurers get $43.8 million of flood claims from Cantabrian homeowners, farmers and businesses
**
The stormy winter of 2022 had been disruptive and devastating for communities and resulted in a record number of land claims, Toka Tū Ake EQC chief readiness officer Kate Tod said.
There was a huge increase in landslip claims, which were usually complex and costly to fix, Tod said.
“We’re lucky to have our national scheme, but the EQC Act only covers land damage for up to the value of your insured land, up to 8 metres around your home. For some homeowners with larger properties, that won’t cover the cost of repairing their land, especially when complex landslips have occurred.
“So, it’s important to know the surrounding hazards, understand your cover, and consider what you can do to reduce the risks,” Tod said.
Weather events in August dominated claims, with over 900 claims made from the wider Wellington region and a further 970 from the Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough region, she said.
As New Zealanders increasingly face the impact of climate change through severe weather events, people need to do more do to protect themselves and reduce the risk of damage to their homes, she said.
“One thing you can do is to check your slopes and retaining walls are well maintained. If you have a long driveway or a shared driveway, consider if you can strengthen it against storm damage and make plans in case your driveway gets washed away,” said Tod.
Last month, data from the Insurance Council showed extreme weather related insurance claims topped $335 million last year, a new record for the country.
Insurance Council chief executive Tim Grafton said as the trend for long term global warming continued, people could expect records to keep being broken.
“There is a clear pattern here of repeat bands of extreme rain saturating the ground making it more prone to slips, flooding and resultant infrastructure damage, including to roads,” Grafton said.
In 2021, the insurance industry paid $305 million as a result of weather-related claims, up from $274m of weather-related claims the year before.
The country experienced “wave after wave of extreme wet weather” this year during what NIWA declared as New Zealand’s warmest and wettest winter on record.
Grafton said that was certainly reflected in the damage and disruption across the motu.
Five weather events over July and August generated 11,086 claims totalling $123m.
The Insurance Council’s final figures were up 35% or $32m on the provisional reporting of $91.6m for those climate related events.
Nelson Tasman’s claims for the August floods came to a total of $31m, from 1575 claims. Of those, domestic claims accounted for $20m, commercial material damage claims came to $7m and business interruptions/loss of profit claims $1.1m.
In addition, $489,000 was claimed for 61 motor vehicles.
Weather events across New Zealand from July 11 to 13 resulted in $18m of claims, events from July 17 to 21 $20m and July 24 to 27 $18m.
Flooding to regions outside of Nelson from August 18 to 21 tallied up to $36.7m of claims.