Cyclone Gabrielle: Three years to resolve? Nats say demand on EQC assessors dragging out insurance claims

The EQC says unstable land has hampered their attempts to undertake insurance assessments. Photo / NZME

The Earthquake Commission (EQC) has resolved just 399 of the 3075 insurance claims lodged in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle and Cyclone Hale.

The EQC, in partnership with private insurers, assesses and covers claims for damage to land caused by natural disasters.

In response to a written parliamentary question from National Party Cyclone Recovery spokesman Chris Penk on May 5, Earthquake Commission Minister Deborah Russell said the EQC was using two private geotechnical firms - Tonkin and Taylor and WSP - to assess properties.

In a statement to Hawke’s Bay Today on Monday, the EQC said they are now providing “onsite training and support” to additional geotechnical firms, in an effort to speed up the claims process.

“Our thoughts are with all homeowners affected by the severe weather events in 2022 and 2023 and we empathise with the uncertainty that they are navigating,” EQC head of claims Bernadette McDougall said.

Any delay in the processing of claims, McDougall added, was not due to the lack of assessors, but the severity of the damage caused by the cyclones.

Until land is stable, it cannot be assessed.

“We consider current timeframes are to be expected considering the scale of the damage, the number of claims and the demand on qualified assessors and specialists,” McDougall said.

At the current rate of processing, Penk estimated it would take the EQC three years to resolve these claims.

Penk says he feels the EQC situation is typical of promises made by the Government to home, land and business owners that cyclone-related questions, compensation packages and insurance claims would be answered or settled in a timely fashion.

“The issue is, number one, they should have been clearer,” Penk told Hawke’s Bay Today.

“If there wasn’t the capacity to do the assessments, then they shouldn’t have blithely said in the first place it’ll be four or five months to do the assessments and then taken people on a month-by-month emotional roller coaster.

“Where there’s land damage, people aren’t finding out what compensation they’re going to get - if it all - because that’s assessed by EQC.

“Until such time as they find out, they don’t know if they’re going to be paid out for the damage to their land.”

Penk said he would have sought additional geotechnical assistance from Australia, in order to hasten the process and give people certainty.

National Party Cyclone Recovery spokesman Chris Penk (right) addresses a public meeting in Esk Valley on June 26. Photo / Paul Taylor

The fact that hasn’t happened was, he said, indicative of a “lack of urgency from Wellington” to address the issues faced by folk in areas such as Hawke’s Bay.

“Certainly, when people saw the Government ministers come in with the high-vis jackets and the concerned expressions on their faces immediately following the disaster, they could’ve quite reasonably thought that the support would be ongoing,” said Penk.

“But there’s a cynicism now that people have been forgotten and left behind and the photo opps are over and therefore, as far as the rest of the country’s concerned, the problem’s gone away.”

For those not yet able to move on from Cyclone Gabrielle, McDougall said the EQC “encourage homeowners to stay in touch with their insurer to understand their individual timeframe”.

Hamish Bidwell joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2022 and works out of the Hastings newsroom.