Christchurch earthquakes

[dangerous]

Im fucked if I know what they can do to fix the land to stop it happening again... its land fill and always will be.
Piles driven down 7m every 1m IMO is helpfull to stop sinking in non quake conditions, however its my thought they will be like feelers and absorb anny quake movment sending it straight up to the house.
What they have planned I dont know, mega drainage?

[KiwiPhoenix]

Goddamit! I just know what you're going to picture next time you do see me....

oh yeah, it's not going to be pretty! Just please make sure you have your trousers securely fastened when we do see each other!

[far queue]

... its land fill and always will be.

Yep, it was a swamp, then a dump, then they built houses on it! I looked at building a house there years ago when it was a new sub division and the sections were cheap. But I came to my senses and realised it was a dumb idea that wouldn't be cheap in the long run. One of my better decisions as it turns out.

[Oakie]

So the EQC boys arrived at home this afternoon and the upshot is that will get a lot of plastering, re-mortaring and repainting done and I'm pleased to have had confirmed that it's all superficial damage ... nothing really structural. All good. A very careful pair they were too, finding cracks that I hadn't even noticed.

[mashman]

"Earthquake Commission chief executive, Ian Simpson, says he doesn't want to comment on individual cases but is reminding quake-affected homeowners they're lucky to get land cover at all.
He says if property owners don't recover the land's full value, at least they are getting something."

What a cunt. Shit that after everything that's gone on, you still have to deal with cunts like this... especially after the SCF bailout... We will refund money, but property, just count yourself lucky... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Genie]

"Earthquake Commission chief executive, Ian Simpson, says he doesn't want to comment on individual cases but is reminding quake-affected homeowners they're lucky to get land cover at all.
He says if property owners don't recover the land's full value, at least they are getting something."

What a cunt. Shit that after everything that's gone on, you still have to deal with cunts like this... especially after the SCF bailout... We will refund money, but property, just count yourself lucky... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Mashie, that really does suck. Yeah I think I'd be swearing too, what does the Christchurch city Council say. That would mean your rates go way down, that's if they are based on land value. Bugga.

[AllanB]

Once people start being told their land cannot be built on and we will give you X amount of $ for it (predictably well under value) the media will kick in again.

I predict that the whole EQC thing will require revising and updating as it has never really been tested to this level before and it appears to be a bit undervalued.

I'd be happy if they doubled the amount paid as part of your insurance - it is piss all now. Plus they can scrap the bloody excess on EQC land and home claims - fine on the contents to help weed out the buggers making false claims.

[mikeey01]

Once people start being told their land cannot be built on and we will give you X amount of $ for it (predictably well under value) the media will kick in again.

I predict that the whole EQC thing will require revising and updating as it has never really been tested to this level before and it appears to be a bit undervalued.

I'd be happy if they doubled the amount paid as part of your insurance - it is piss all now. Plus they can scrap the bloody excess on EQC land and home claims - fine on the contents to help weed out the buggers making false claims.

Give that man a beer!

[neels]

I'm beginning to wonder what the point of EQC is.

I've talked to my insurance company 4 times since the earthquake, EQC have been around once, sent me a copy of their report with no conclusions and told me nothing. So we still don't know what's going to happen with the house, the loss adjuster got the details of the contents damage while he was here but we still haven't seen any money to replace what was broken.

I suspect that if it was being handled by the insurance company we might have some firm answers and some money for contents, given that they are ringing me asking if I've heard from EQC because they haven't heard from them either.

On the upside, all the stuff around the house that was on the books for this summer is indefinately on hold, so I guess that means more time for motorcycling.

[doc]

I'm beginning to wonder what the point of EQC is.

Talking to some people at the Guzzie rally some from Christchurch and one from the Mainland who owned a quarry. The South Islanders reckon it's going to take 10 years before everything is back to normal.
The quarry guy said all funding for roading projects up here are being squeezed cos of insufficient funds. I think thats how they are making up the shortfall from the EQC coffers.

Insurance is not about the risk to the shareholder . Increases are coming

[Shadowjack]

I'm beginning to wonder what the point of EQC is. I've talked to my insurance company 4 times since the earthquake...
On the upside, all the stuff around the house that was on the books for this summer is indefinately on hold, so I guess that means more time for motorcycling.

Not that the damage at my place is bad, but the floor and ceilings are slowly developing more and more bumps and hollows. I contacted the EQC a couple of weeks ago - I'm in a queue, apparently. Ah well...

Yer right, though, Neels, no point in painting and papering if it's all going to be redone - the weathers been good lately, and I've put a few weekend kms on the 8fiddy.

[mashman]

Mashie, that really does suck. Yeah I think I'd be swearing too, what does the Christchurch city Council say. That would mean your rates go way down, that's if they are based on land value. Bugga.

They did mutter about a rebate (vague memory), dunno what happened to the idea. Every little would help in many cases I woulda thought.

[Grumph]

[QUOTE=Shadowjack;1129899032]Not that the damage at my place is bad, but the floor and ceilings are slowly developing more and more bumps and hollows. I contacted the EQC a couple of weeks ago - I'm in a queue, apparently. Ah well...

At the time of the quake the water table was high in Selwyn,Waimak and a lot of ChCh. As the aquifers have cleared and the water table has dropped to the normal level for this time of year, many areas have started to subside...
We had the EQC out quite early on & they reckoned ours was probably fixable. With the SW corner sinking slowly now,and the north wall leaving us for a holiday, an engineer we got out on Sat reckons it's now a writeoff. EQC are coming back tomorrow.
Given a choice I'd say don't worry about not seeing them promptly - it's taking time for all the damage to appear and it makes no sense to start a fixup and find it's a fuckup....
Our insurance - AMI - don't want to know us yet. Only when EQC say it's over 115000 will they step in. They have however made it crystal clear that they won't pay relocation expenses....

[far queue]

Our insurance - AMI - don't want to know us yet. Only when EQC say it's over 115000 will they step in. They have however made it crystal clear that they won't pay relocation expenses....

My insurance - AMI - insisted that they wanted to come and see me, despite my telling them there was no point as EQC haven't made their decisions yet. So they came out last Thursday (an assessor over from Oz) and did their thing. The assessor was quite open and honest and told me that he had to come up with a price while he was there, and that AMI expected that I should accept the amount offered which would would then be paid out for me to make my own arrangements for repairs, etc and that would be the end of AMI's involvement. He also said that the rates that AMI were using to work out the cost of fences, paths, drives etc had been set by EQC and were quite generous.

So, he had a look around, did his measuring and his calculations and gave me the figure. I asked if the figure had an expiry date, and nope that's it, it won't change. I said I wouldn't accept it until such time as I had my own independent quotes in to repair the damage and see how our figures compared, plus I needed EQC to complete their work and get back to me, plus I needed things to stop moving in case damage increased. He agreed with me but said AMI would be putting the pressure on me to accept the figure and close things off. I also asked - what if I don't want to accept any figure from AMI but just want them to fix the place up like it was. He said I was entitled to do that but that AMI wouldn't be happy and would put pressure on me. I told him that I had no problem with telling people to fuck off

So, fun and games to come by the sound of it.

One other thing he said was, that he was surprised that EQC had already seen me, as I was his 80th inspection and only the 4th where EQC had beaten him. He said it was AMI's intention to get their inspection done before EQC so they had an idea of what EQC was likely to assess the claim as.

Last week I also got a copy of the checklist that EQC did on their initial visit. They've assessed the house damage as minor in parts and medium in others, the land damage as major, and the garage/workshop as major to be demolished. Waiting on their geotech people to assess the land now before they can make their decisions.

No rush, AMI can wait.

[Grumph]

Thanks for the feedback on AMI - we'd already begun to suspect they're not the best company around....
The EQC estimate costings are quite generous - the cosmetic repairs on ours, regibbing, repainting etc were costed at 56000 but without an engineer they couldn't start on esimating structural costs.
We know of friends whose house was condemned by the EQC engineer but the insurance co has found two engineers who say it's repairable. If they don't like what one says they just keep sending engineers until they hear what they want.
The sticking point appears to be achieving current standards on older houses.
The media will catch on soon to what's going on around here and the shit will hit the fan big time....