Only 1,500 claims not settled in Christchurch not 10,000

The Insurance Council points out:

Insurers involved in the Canterbury earthquake recovery have 22,455 over cap dwelling claims with 87% fully settled or agreed with customers.

Based on figures collected in the CERA quarterly survey, at the end of March 2014 there were 9,877 (44%) dwelling claims closed and completely settled.

“There is a further 9,755 (43%) which CERA refers to as ‘pending settlement’, which essentially means the insurance company has reached an agreement with their customer and is in the process of being settled, so contrary to what Mr Cosgrove suggests there is no dispute,” says Insurance Council spokesman Samson Samasoni.

“Pending settlement means that there are builders on site completing the rebuild or repair, it’s scheduled for a rebuild or repair or they’re waiting to receive their cash settlement. Insurers don’t call it ‘completely settled’ until the key to the front door has been handed over or the cheque is banked,” he says.

Mr Cosgrove says that ‘sending an offer to a claimant is not settlement’.

“Our members don’t call that a settlement either. There are 1,508 over cap dwelling claims in that category, where the insurer has made their customer an offer but the insured hasn’t made a decision, many are saying it’s because they’re waiting to know what their land settlement is going to be from EQC before making a decision,” says Mr Samasoni. “We anticipate that there may be small percentage of this 1,508 that will end up in some form of dispute”.

So the actual numbers that go to court will probably be low hundreds.