The NZ insurance industry is facing a big number of business interruption claims following the Christchurch earthquake.

“We haven’t had this number of business interruption claims for a very long time,” Commercial Loss Management Director Andrew Holdcroft told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

Mr Holdcroft says there will be a number of issues with business interruption claims and a lot will depend on whether the business was damaged in the initial earthquake or has suffered from loss of trade due to disruptions.

“Insurance has covered damage to their premises, but not every business is covered for wide area damage,” he said.

Claims will be exacerbated by the large amount of damage to Christchurch’s central business district, but Mr Holdcroft says people outside this area will face some delays with their claims.

Lumley NZ CEO John Lyon says business interruptions claims are “quite technical”.

“We will need people with degrees of accounting experience to sort through them,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“At present we are giving people an initial payment of $NZ10,000 ($7,844) when they make a claim.”