New Zealand’s Earthquake Commission (EQC) is piloting a new claims-handling process following last month’s Christchurch quakes.

The aim is to speed assessments by calling customers to obtain all the information needed to cash-settle a claim.

“We won’t necessarily be sending an assessor to the home, except where there is extensive damage, the claim is complex or a customer’s circumstances require it,” GM Customer and Claims Trish Keith said.

“The EQC will cash-settle most of the claims to enable customers to get onto repairs quickly.”

The commission says the new approach follows lessons learned after previous quakes in Canterbury, Cook Strait and Eketahuna.

“The new process is being piloted with a small group of customers before the EQC starts rolling it out in earnest, and early feedback has been very positive,” Ms Keith said. 

“Our goal is to make the EQC easy to do business with.”

Meanwhile, the EQC is calculating settlements for about 4400 Christchurch customers whose properties qualify for increased liquefaction vulnerability (ILV) land damage.

“We have made good progress so far, but there is still more we need to do before we can start making any payments,” Head of Canterbury Land Settlement Keith Land said.

The EQC expects to start settling ILV customers by the middle of this year.

“We recognise our customers have been waiting a long time for ILV settlements, but this is the first time this type of land damage has been recognised as insured damage, so the settlements involve ground-breaking work, which takes time,” Mr Land said.