Two years on from the Christchurch earthquakes, a local author says the insurance industry has failed in its response to the disaster.
The Earthquake Recovery Minister, Gerry Brownlee, says he's lost patience with the private insurance industry over delays in settling quake related claims.
Blog of Sandy Lees, a genealogist, taphophiliac, and ephemera collector. Reflects her interest in Canterbury history. Includes a section on the insurance woes the blogger had after the Christchurch earthquakes.
Official figures show the Christchurch City Council's legal bill to settle its earthquake insurance claims is sitting at nine million dollars, and climbing.
Christchurch people who have had to battle insurance companies over the repair or rebuild of earthquake damaged homes are welcoming the Labour party's idea of an earthquake court to settle disputes.
The Christchurch city and Waimakariri District councils have from today got no insurance cover for future earthquakes after their existing policies expired at 4pm.
Overlapping claims and general confusion are delaying money payable to New Zealand for damage from the Canterbury earthquakes. The money involved is payable through reinsurance schemes taken out by insurance companies in this country, with firms overseas.
The insurance company, Tower, has strongly criticised the time it's taking to settle Canterbury earthquake claims and says the insurance system for handling such disasters is broken.
Shows snarling rats labelled 'insurance companies' in a cityscape. Context: Concerns about shortfall in insurance cover have arisen in response to the Christchurch City Council's draft annual plan, which proposes a 7.5 per cent rates increase to fund earthquake rebuild (Stuff 23 April 2012). Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
A louse labelled, Insurance companies, is shown eating something labelled, Huge premium hikes. A definition of the louse as a scavenger and a parasite is given below. Context: Insurance premiums rose New Zealand wide following the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury Earthquakes Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
The "Lyttelton Harbour Review" newsletter for 15 July 2013, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
The insurance arms of Suncorp New Zealand have reported lower profits off the back of the Kaikoura earthquake and a rise in Canterbury earthquake claims. .
Seventy Canterbury homeowners have found unreported damage.
The cost of insurance could rise by 20 per cent as a result of the Government bailout of AMI Insurance and the mounting cost of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Christchurch woman Pam Sharpe has endured earthquakes, fires and dealing with insurance companies, but then she received a parking ticket. She tells Checkpoint what happened next.
The Christchurch earthquakes could prompt a further shake up of the insurance industry. Home owners are already being hit with premium increases of up to 30%.
Listed general insurance company Tower has reported a bigger first half loss on lingering Canterbury earthquake claims and a write down in its computer systrems.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 16 July 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
Insurance premiums look set to rise by up to a third and even more to meet the cost of the Christchurch earthquakes and other disasters overseas.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 17 December 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
Cartoons about political and social issues in New Zealand and overseas. The cartoon has the words 'Tsunami Warning cancelled' in the centre. Above are the words 'The end is nigh... insurance running out! No more cover!' Below the word 'cancelled' are the words 'We have reinsurance!' Context - Civil Defence has cancelled a tsunami warning after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the Kermadec Islands this morning (7 July 2011) The tsunami image is used to illustrate the problems that could arise from lack of insurance in Christchurch. When their policies run out on 30 June Earthquake-hit Christchurch and Waimakariri councils are in danger of having no property insurance because as the CEO of Civic Assurance, which insures most councils, says, 'the company cannot buy reinsurance'. There was also a potential problem for home-owners when AMI Insurance, the largest insurer of homes in Christchurch, was threatening insolvency. However, AMI has announced that it has re-insurance cover for earthquakes and other natural disasters from tomorrow (1 July 2011) for the next year. The Government feared AMI Insurance's directors would wind up the company affecting a huge section of New Zealand's insurance market and derail the reconstruction of Christchurch, official documents confirm. AMI said it had doubled its cover for the year to June 2012 after three large quakes in the year to June 2011. (Stuff 30 June 2011) Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
The insurance industry says overseas insurers have become wary of New Zealand after Monday's earthquakes in Christchurch and higher premiums across the country are now almost inevitable.
Tower Insurance has increased the amount it is willing to pay towards repairing an earthquake-damaged Christchurch home, but is still refusing to pay for a more expensive rebuild.
A Christchurch man has been left stunned after his insurance premium rose by 440 percent after his insurer decided his property was at a higher risk from earthquakes.
The Earthquake Commission and the Insurance Council are going to the High Court for a ruling on who's responsible for 10-thousand claims from the earlier Canterbury earthquakes.
We aim to investigate the role of insurance in business recovery following the devastating Christchurch earthquake in February, 22nd, 2011. We analyze data from two business surveys conducted after the earthquake to examine how insurance affected business operation in the aftermath of the earthquake both in the short-term and longer-term. For the short-term analysis, we use a combination of propensity score matching (PSM) and linear probability model (LPM) to analyze the data. We first estimate the propensity scores for insurance take-up of each firm conditional on the firm’s individual characteristics. Stratification based on the estimated propensity scores is used to match the treated (insured) and the control (uninsured) firms. We then estimate the probability of firms’ continuing operations with a set of control variables to account for the level of damage and disruption caused by the quake in each stratum. We find little evidence of any beneficial effect of insurance coverage on business continuity in the short-run. For the longer-term analysis, we analyze the available survey data using logistic regression. The result suggests that business interruption insurance significantly promotes increased level of long-term productivity for surviving firms following the earthquake.
A group of angry Christchurch locals are considering legal action against one of the country's biggest insurance companies because they say their earthquake claims are taking too long to settle.
The Canterbury earthquakes caused huge amounts of damage to Christchurch and the surrounding area and presented a very challenging situation for both insurers and claimants. While tourism has suffered significant losses as a result, particularly due to the subsequent decrease in visitor numbers, the Canterbury region was very fortunate to have high levels of insurance coverage. This report, based on data gathered from tourism operators on the ground in Canterbury, looks at how this sector has been affected by the quakes, claims patterns, and the behaviour and perceptions of tourism operators about insurance.
A central-Christchurch property owner says attempts by insurance companies to limit the amount of money they end up paying out for earthquake damage, is just part of doing business.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 10 December 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.