The New Zealand Earthquake Commission (EQC) will start assessing earthquake-damaged houses outside Canterbury this month.

EQC Canterbury Event Manager Reid Stiven says the earthquakes in September 2010 and February and June this year were felt widely and brought about 2000 claims for damage outside the Canterbury region.

Although most of these came from the neighbouring region of Otago, there are also claims from further south and from the top of the South Island.

EQC field officers will visit the properties this month and Mr Stiven expects the assessments to be finished by Christmas. The EQC is also on target to complete the few thousand homes in greater Christchurch still to be assessed before Christmas.

The commission has received more than 408,000 claims and has so far paid $NZ2.6 billion ($1.97 billion) on all events, including aftershocks, in the earthquake series.

This includes $NZ1.1 billion ($830 million) in claims from the September 2010 earthquake, $NZ16 million ($12 million) from December 26, $NZ1.3 billion ($985 million) from February 22 this year and $NZ62 million ($47 million) from the June 13 event.