About 1000 Christchurch residents held a protest yesterday about insurance responses to the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, marking the eve of the worst quake’s fifth anniversary.

Protester Cameron Preston says about 18,000 property and 3000 dwelling claims remain unsettled by the government-run Earthquake Commission (EQC), and about 7000 still unsettled by private insurers.

“We’re calling for the EQC and insurers to settle all claims by the end of March,” he said.

“People’s lives have been put on hold for half a decade.”

Mr Preston, a Christchurch-based accountant, says many people feel insurers are delaying to force a cash settlement.

“A lot of protesters are being forced to accept a global cash offer because it has been five years, rather than pay for a rebuild.”

Insurance Council of New Zealand CEO Tim Grafton says in many cases delays are beyond insurers’ control, and he has reiterated his call for all future quake claims to be lodged first with private insurers, rather than the EQC.

“This would mean the worst-damaged houses would be identified by insurers early, instead of receiving almost 1500 properties from the EQC during [last year],” he said.

Mr Grafton attributes repair delays to the extent of the land damage and the need for geo-tech testing and new building codes and zones.

He also blames council inspection processes, skills shortages, poor underground services and contaminated land sites.

Mr Grafton says remediation for liquefaction-affected land had to be researched and developed from scratch, along with ways to compensate people for land damage.

“We understand the frustration experienced by people who have suffered from such a major event,” he said.

He says many insurers have now moved to a sum-insured approach, instead of open-ended-replacement policies.