About the Claim

This claim is about EQC's failure to scope, assess and repair or make settlement on homes that were subsequently on-sold.

EQC assessed, repaired, replaced or made settlement payments on over 50,000 properties which have been subsequently on-sold since the Canterbury earthquakes.  

EQC had a track record of incorrect and/or inaccurate assessments of earthquake damage and badly repairing earthquake damage.

Many people who purchased these on-sold houses that were incorrectly or inaccurately assessed and/or badly repaired, relied on EQC’s settlement information that the house was correctly assessed and/or repaired.  They now find that further repairs are needed to meet the standard of repair required under the EQC Act.  

Generally, where these houses are over the EQC cap, private insurers will only pay indemnity value leaving homeowners with a shortfall to repair their houses.  

While the Government introduced the $300m On-Sold Policy (administered by EQC) to meet this shortfall in the repair costs, this requires affected homeowners to complete repairs that are paid to homeowners in tranches with up to the final 10% not paid until the repairs are complete.

We believe affected homeowners should be able to receive a cash payment for the cost of the remedial work which is a result of EQC’s actions and/or inaction.  They should not be locked into the prescriptive criteria of the Crown On-Sold programme.

EQC will tell you that you should participate in the Crown On-Sold programme it administers on behalf of the Government, however, we believe homeowners should be properly compensated for EQC’s incorrect and/or inaccurate assessments and/or badly repaired houses, and they should not have to rely on the restrictions of the Crown On-Sold programme.

This class action against EQC was launched in June 2021, and in August 2022 the High Court approved an ‘opt in’ representative order (or class action).

At this stage we encourage you to register your interest. This does not commit you to anything and is just a way for us to keep in touch with you.  

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