Survey of Canterbury repairs underway

  • Nick Smith
  • Gerry Brownlee
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Building and Housing

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith today welcomed the commencement of an independent survey of the completed residential repairs in Christchurch.

“The Earthquake Commission’s Canterbury Home Repair Programme is nearing an end and good progress is being made by the private insurers. It makes sense for the Government to have an overview of the standard of the repairs that have been carried out, and there is now a sufficient number of completed repairs to allow an appropriate sample of homes to be inspected,” Mr Brownlee says.

As at 13 February, the Earthquake Commission has repaired 93 per cent of the 68,652 homes in the Canterbury Home Repair Programme, while private insurers have settled 57 per cent of claims. 

The survey, which is being managed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), will be carried out by a team of independent technical experts and involve about 100 homes. It will focus on new building work that has been exempted from requiring a building consent, and will consider whether this exempted work has been finished to a standard compliant with the Building Code.

“The Government wants to ensure that homes are safe and durable, and as such, the survey team will concentrate on structural work, rather than reviewing cosmetic repairs such as the quality of the finished paint job. It will give reassurance to Cantabrians that the rebuild is a quality one,” Dr Smith says.

Properties will be randomly selected from information provided by the Earthquake Commission, Housing New Zealand Corporation and other insurance companies and their Project Management Offices, which have undertaken a significant proportion of repair work exempted from a building consent. The inspections will also include a small sample of homes repaired after opting out of the Canterbury Home Repair Programme.

Letters to randomly selected homeowners seeking their participation are being sent this week with inspections due to begin by the end of March. Results are expected to be available from July.