Canterbury Homeowner Advisory Group

Terms of Reference

Members

The Canterbury Homeowner Advisory Group was set up in 2018 to provide advice and support to the Greater Christchurch Claims Resolution Service (GCCRS), the precursor to the NZCRS. The Group was formed by members of the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake Customer Reference Group.

The Canterbury Homeowner Advisory Group continues to support the effective resolution of the remaining claims resulting from the Canterbury earthquake sequence. It is chaired by Tom McBrearty, who is also a member of the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake National Reference Group.

Chair – Tom McBrearty

Tom McBrearty has 45-plus years in business as a Manager, Director, Board Chair CEO and Business owner across a number of companies, both nationally and internationally. Tom was a founding member of the Canterbury Community Earthquake Recovery Network (CanCERN) and has been intricately involved in both the wider Christchurch and local earthquake recovery. He was the Economic Development Manager of Enterprise North Canterbury and a member of the Community Forum. In recent years, as well as being a Director of McBrearty Ballantyne working to improve Business Practice and Ethics, Tom has spent time working in both the business community and the city community supporting and advocating for businesses, individuals and families where at times they believed the challenges had become just too hard.

Dean Lester

Dean has been an insurance professional since 1986 and has developed extensive insurance acumen built over 3 decades of experience in the New Zealand insurance market. Dean understands the varying needs of insurers, reinsurers and the insured customer. With a keen interest and global understanding of the insurance profession he is able to break down and analyse insurance matters to identify stepping stones in the process of delivery. With particular commitment to all aspects of the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery, Dean is growing his knowledge and interacts actively with all insurers and Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake, covering over 1,000 Cantabrian claim progression. He is a recipient of the 2012 CCC Christchurch Earthquake Award for pro-bono insurance advocacy, and nominated for the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Award.

Phillipa Moore

Phillipa has worked in public, commercial and private organisations including the health and building sectors. Previously the director of a structural steel manufacturing company she has an understanding of some of the drivers behind the building sector’s approaches to the earthquake repairs. Phillipa has experienced multiple claims herself. The first repairs were handled correctly, so she knows Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake and insurers have the ability and potential to do well, however subsequent claims have been difficult and full of errors. Phillipa wants to see the standard for all repairs to be full, fair and equally accessible to everyone, regardless of a person’s emotional or financial ability to hire expensive experts to prove a claim, or negotiate/argue with Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake/insurers. She wants to see an improvement in systems and transparency. Phillipa firmly believes change is needed, if Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake and insurers are to reduce distress, enable people to put the disaster event behind them as quickly and efficiently as possible, and enable claimants to move on with their lives.

As a Christchurch based claimant Phillipa has helped and supported others with claims and is optimistic the GCCRS will provide help and support to those who have been struggling to get an appropriate insurance response. She also has a special interest in emergency preparedness.

Linda Ngata

Since 1993 Linda has been overseeing the operations of Te Rūnanga o Ngā Maata Waka drawing on her financial, operational and general management skills to successfully lead out initiatives, projects and programmes in the education and training, social services, health, housing, economic development, Māori, community development and building financial capability sectors. She was a founding member of the Earthquake Support Coordination Service and instrumental in setting up the Recovery Assistance Centre based at Ngā Hau E Whā National Marae.

In an ever-changing disaster recovery environment her knowledge, expertise and understanding of the issues, disputes and problems homeowners have experienced in progressing their insurance claims has been critical to the on-going development of services that support the wellbeing of vulnerable communities.

Daniel Langford

Daniel Langford is a Director of Project Structure Ltd, a Structural Engineering Design Consultancy located in Christchurch. Daniel has lived in Christchurch since 2005 and studied engineering at University of Canterbury, graduating with First Class Honours. He has a range of civil, geotechnical, and structural design experience, and for the last decade he has predominantly focused on the structural design of new and earthquake damaged residential buildings. He also has commercial and residential project management experience, and this experience in project management has made him aware of the importance of contracts and collaborating with other designers and stakeholders, which is helpful when undertaking earthquake damage assessments and reinstatement designs for buildings.

Daniel was working in Christchurch City during the 22 February 2011 earthquake event and was awarded a Christchurch Earthquake Award for his rescue efforts at the collapsed PGC Building site. Since 22 February 2011, he has personally undertaken earthquake assessments of hundreds of houses and many industrial buildings for both insurance companies, and homeowners. Daniel and his team at Project Structure Ltd have also designed hundreds of repair strategies for earthquake damaged homes and buildings.

On many occasions Daniel has been an expert witness for the courts, engaged by both insurance companies and homeowners to assess and report on earthquake damaged buildings, attending joint engineering meetings, and preparing joint engineering reports for the courts. During his role as expert witness, he has worked with many lawyers, discussed and analysed policy standard of repair for various types of structural repair strategies. Daniel also has a passion for learning and understanding complex problems. He has attended numerous professional development courses to gain a better understanding of New Zealand building regulations and law, insurance policy, and effectively communicating complex technical topics as an expert witness. In 2018, Daniel also helped Engineering New Zealand develop their standard letter of engagement for engineers undertaking earthquake damage inspections.

Latest meeting minutes – 2 October 2024

Meeting Administration

Conflicts of Interest

1. No new conflicts of interest were declared.

Minutes and Actions

1. Update provided on outstanding actions.
2. Change to previous minutes (26th June 2024), item 2.1; Canterbury Claims, requested by NHC Toka Tū Ake:
   • An update on the cases that are on sold but not in the Treasury programme provided to the group. There were 761 claims originally transferred from the Treasury Programme into NHC’s claims management team. 20 of those 761 are open with 5 of those opening recently. Timeframes varied depending on complexity, with 80% settled and closed within 6 months of coming into the Claims Management team.
3. The Chair acknowledged the passing of Jules Dorrian and recognised the significant contribution Jules made to NZCRS and homeowners around Aotearoa.

NHC Toka Tū Ake – Update

Canterbury Claims  

1. September saw an influx of claims with close to 400 received. NHC Toka Tū Ake noted, majority of these claims related to drainage issues.
2. The group discussed guidance for homeowners on “settled.govt.nz” website does not include information on natural disasters, for example, effects of Section 72 notice against a property title. NHC Toka Tū Ake to approach Real Estate Authority who manage this website about including natural disaster information.
3. NHC Toka Tū Ake presented their primary objectives and renewed focus for under and over-cap claims. NHC Toka Tū Ake to distribute new homeowner collateral to the group for their feedback.
4. The Director thanked NHC Toka Tū Ake for the presentation and opportunity to provide feedback on homeowner documentation.  

In On-Sold Programme Update

1. An update on Treasury on-sold programme was provided with 593 claims active. Of these claims, 240 not settled, 65 settled but not signed, and 288 signed waiting for building consent. 854 claims are complete with homeowner back in their homes.
2. NHC Toka Tū Ake updated the group on the work they are undertaking with Treasury to progress homeowners through the on-sold programme. Review and recategorization of reporting data undertaken to determine reasons for bottlenecks. Service level changes from this review will be communicated with the group, homeowners, and other stakeholders.
3. NZCRS Director noted that many claims seem to be reviewed at the very last minute with engineering often reviewed even though previously agreed. This has caused significant issues with the homeowners as expectations already set by previous conversations and difficult to revisit the engineering and related scopes.
4. Update provided on operational changes taking place at NHC Toka Tū Ake and adaptability of the teams to this changing environment.

NZCRS

NZCRS Operational Update

1. The Director noted demand for services is trending downwards with this being the longest period between a natural disaster event (excluding Wairoa).
2. Update provided on NZCRS claim numbers and average caseloads per Case Manager.
3. The group were advised the October quarterly Directors report to be emailed once complete.
4. The group discussed number of claims with insurers and reporting available. Director to include data in the Directors Report on systemic issues NZCRS are experiencing with insurer open claims.

Satisfaction Survey & Homeowner Charter

1. The group discussed memos distributed on amendments to NZCRS Satisfaction Survey and Homeowner Charter. Minor wording updates provided, and memo recommendations approved by the group.

Meeting closed: 11.36am

Next Meeting

10th December 2024