New Zealand’s Earthquake Commission (EQC) and private insurers have agreed on a simpler process for handling home and contents claims from last November’s Kaikoura quake.

It allows insurers to act as EQC agents and receive, assess and settle home and contents claims from their customers, including on amounts below the usual cap of $NZ100,000 ($95,113) for dwellings and $NZ20,000 ($19,023) for contents.

Under previous arrangements, claims below the cap were handled by the EQC, while those above were passed to the private insurers. The process has been criticised as unwieldy and wasteful.

The commission will continue to assess land damage, which is not covered by private insurance policies.

“We are approaching this in the spirit of good faith to benefit homeowners who will have their own insurer manage their claim from beginning to end,” Insurance Council of New Zealand CEO Tim Grafton said. “This will deliver efficiencies for everyone by reducing double-handling and speeding up settlements.”

Customers are encouraged to lodge claims with their private insurers in the first instance, while the EQC will pass on those it has already received.

More than 21,800 claims arising from the November quake had been received by last Wednesday. The deadline for lodging claims is midnight on February 14.

EQC CEO Ian Simpson says the change makes best use of the nation’s loss adjusting expertise to deliver a better result for customers.

The simplified approach does not change customers’ entitlements under their insurance policy or the EQC Act.

The insurers involved are AA Insurance, Farmers’ Mutual Group & FMG Insurance, IAG (State, AMI, Lumley, NZI and Lantern brands), the Medical Insurance Society, QBE, Tower, Vero and Youi.

The EQC estimates it could receive up to 3500 land claims.

“We are working together with private insurers in information-sharing and to assess properties in areas where significant land damage is known to have occurred,” GM Customer and Claims Trish Keith said.

Geotechnical information is being used to identify locations that suffered the worst damage.

“From this we are able to identify and prioritise customer claims for assessment and settlement,” she said.