The Earthquake Commission (EQC) has now spent more than $300 million fixing botched home repairs in Canterbury, a figure that is likely to eventually double.

New figures show EQC has spent $60m on re-repairing earthquake damaged homes in the past five months, taking the total so far to $315m.

EQC's deputy chief executive for Canterbury and external affairs, Renee Walker, said they were forecasting a spend of another $322m for future re-repair settlements. That amount would not include settling cases going through the courts.

The re-repairs are a hangover from the widely criticised managed repair programme run by Fletcher Building. EQC is still considering legal action against Fletcher, but will wait for the outcome of test cases it hopes will clarify liability.

So far, there have been 17,000 re-repair claims lodged, of which EQC has accepted 11,600. Of those, 1300 have exceeded EQC's $100,000 legal cap and been passed to private insurers. 

There are signs of progress at EQC since it was harshly criticised in a report from ministerial advisor Christine Stevenson in June.

The rate at which the commission is settling claims is rising, and is now close to 1000 a month. At the same time, new claims for re-repairs are being lodged at a rate of about 750 a month.

"I'm still hearing a lot of stories, and ours is one of them, where people aren't getting progress because those doing the assessments aren't budging from EQC's old, outdated and unacceptable repair strategies," she said.

"It's important that people aren't going to find themselves down the track with repairs that have failed."

The report made several recommendations, including establishing a separate Canterbury unit, giving claimants their own case manager, providing regular public updates on progress with claims, and improving the culture and how staff treated customers.

As of this week, EQC is managing 3137 claims, down from 3600 in June. All are for previously repaired homes.

Walker said claim settlements were speeding up as a result of several changes made in line with Stevenson's report, with some having "more impact than others".

They now had enough case managers so each could see claims through to settlement, and were fast-tracking simpler claims, she said.

"That way, those claims that are just a cash top-up are not getting stuck in behind a lot of more complex claims."

Walker said they were passing over-cap claims on to insurers earlier. Another change was asking claimants with legal action under way to defer court claims for six months to attempt out-of-court settlement.

EQC hopes the first test cases can go to court in the first quarter of next year, and is working with a law firm now to identify suitable cases. These should help clarify issues such as liability for repairing on-sold homes.

"What we are looking for are test cases that do test the most points of law," Walker said.

She acknowledged the culture at EQC had been "very reflective of an organisation under siege", and said turning it around was an ongoing process.

 

 - Stuff