NZ Insurance Companies – The Newest Scam Artists

By now many of my readers would have read my previous post regarding the earthquakes in Christchurch and will have an understanding of what is happening.  Some of my readers are from Christchurch, many of them still living in the City and dealing with the on-going daily stress associated with this.  So far there have been troubles with the EQC (The Earthquake Commission), for those readers from overseas you can learn more about the EQC’s role in all of this by visiting their website.  In essence the EQC was founded in 1945 to cover people during natural disasters, it has been funded by collecting premiums through insurance payers and offers up to $100,000 towards damages.  However, there have been many problems with claims since the earthquakes in September last year, and February and June this year, many people still remain unpaid for their claims going back to September, many builders, plumbers and others associated with fixing peoples homes remain unpaid by the EQC.  To add to the already frustrating situation that is unfolding in Christchurch, it would seem that the insurance companies are now jumping on the bandwagon and defaulting on paying a number of home owners, specifically those within the Red Zone.  Residents in this zone learnt last week that the suburbs they live in, that fall within this area will be completely demolished with no hope of rebuilding them in the future.  The government has offered home owners compensation packages with two options, one the can take the full amount of the government valuation on their property, or they can take compensation for the land their home sits on and receive their insurance pay-out for their actual house.

Now in essence this has made many people happy as they have now received the closure they so desperately needed and can now move on with making the appropriate plans for their future.  There are homes though within the red zone that are only in need of repairs.  However, the government has made the decision that all those suburbs must go because they are built on unstable land that is not sustainable for future homes or rebuilding of homes.  This is where these insurance companies have managed to find a loophole in order to somehow get out of paying for the full insurance value of the home.  These insurance companies have stated that they are prepared to repair these homes that need it, but they will not cover them for the full replacement value of the home despite the fact that they fall within the area that is ordered by the government to be demolished.  In other words these insurance players actually have full replacement policies, they are entitled to it but the insurers have stated “they won't replace their homes, they'll only repair them, even though they're earmarked for certain demolition” (Campbell Live).  This has left many home owners in the red zone that have been faced with this new information from their insurance companies wishing that, A) their homes had sustained worst damage in the three major earthquakes or B) hoping for another large quake to destroy their home further in order to be paid out what they are owed.  How awful is that these people have been left hoping for desperate measures and further destruction of their homes, city and lives.

What amazes me is that a lot of these people have been paying insurance for the majority of their adult lives, for some people like my grandfather he has lived in the same house and owned it for fifty years, so what has happened to all that money he has paid in that time.  Why are insurance companies baulking at having to pay out so much money?  Its my estimation that there isn't enough money in the coffers to accommodate everybody, which highlights the question where is everyone's money?  Something needs to be done to stop these insurance companies from ripping off their consumers, surely under certain legislation such as the Fair Trading Act 1986 and the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 there are laws that are being broken, the government needs to step in and perhaps make changes to the way that insurance companies are able to operate.  It is my opinion that there needs to be even more regulation within the insurance industry.

According to the Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) there is the fair insurance code which states the following:

While the Insurance Council assumes no liability for its members, compliance with the self-regulation framework assures customers of quality service.  Insurance is a contract between the insurer and the customer based on the principle of "good faith". The customer (by paying a premium) depends on the insurer to provide a service and to settle claims fairly and efficiently. In turn, the insurer relies on the customer to act honestly, and to accurately disclose all information relevant to the insurer being able to provide insurance cover that meets the customer's needs.

The Fair Insurance Code was developed by the Insurance Council as a set of principles which aims to continually improve the standard of practice and service member companies provide to their customers. This set of principles is in additional to those obligations created by the law.

By the look of things the quality of service is lacking, claims are NOT being settled fairly and efficiently and the standard of practice and service is non existent.  Those effected by this ridiculous newly announced policy of many insurance companies need to fight for their claims and their rights that are pursuant to the various legislations that are put in place to protect both the consumer and insurance customers.  We need to demand that the government makes changes to both the legislation set forth and the regulation of this industry to protect future victims of natural disasters.  Watch this space and lets see what happens.

My Beautiful Christchurch…

Its been a couple of weeks since I’ve written anything, mostly due to having some nasty virus that knocked me on my arse.  Two days after my previous post, Christchurch was once again hit by two nasty quakes; a 5.6 and a 6.3, only to be once again followed by its own sequence of aftershocks.  I only learnt of the quakes when I received a tearful phone call from my mother who was beside herself that our beautiful city had once again been hit by some form of devastation.  After the February quake that took the lives of 181 people both myself and my mother left the city, mostly due to fear and the mental effect this was having on all of us.  I chose to get further away by moving to the North Island, whereas my mother decided to move to a small town about 30 minutes south west of the city.  While she is away from the majority of the aftershocks that are felt regularly within Christchurch, anything above a 4.0 is felt out there.  On June 13th she definitely felt the quakes that once again ravaged Christchurch, she was also on the phone with her best friend when the quake hit and had to listen in horror as her friend dropped the phone and screamed hysterically,while mum could hear her friends house rock, shake and crash.  Its no surprise that by the time my mother called me she was near hysterical, and I must admit my first reaction to the news that it was happening all over again was just to cry along with her.  And as I write this somewhat of a tribute to my beautiful city and all that has happened to her, I can feel the emotion and the tears begin to rise once again.  The recurring nightmares of destructive earthquakes have returned once again for me and I’m not even there dealing with the day to day fear anymore.  But in some ways for me personally it is harder being here, I live in fear and terror for my beloved family and friends that have chosen to remain there, and feel completely helpless as I’m stuck here and can’t do a thing.  I simply wait, pray and be an ear for anyone that needs to talk about things.

For any reading this who may have spent the last 9 and a half months living under a rock and have no idea what is happening on our side of the world, it all began at 4:35 am September 4th 2010 when we were literally thrown out of our beds by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that hit Darfield, which is a town outside of Christchurch.  But by god did we feel it here in the city, I thought that was the day I was going to met my maker.  Now I’m almost thirty three (in 6 days…ugh), twenty three of those years have been spent living in Christchurch, a proud and true one eyed born and bred Cantabrian and in all that time I’ve experienced about 6 earthquakes there.  The other ten years have been living in the Wellington region which is far more active when it comes to seismological activity, in fact Wellington has always been predicted to be the next place to experience the wrath of the earth, NOT Christchurch.  So you can imagine all of us were extremely surprised to be experiencing something of this size in Christchurch.  I still have the flashbacks to that moment where I was thrown awake to see the bedroom wall in front of me being lurched back and forth violently several feet at a time, I’m not quite sure how with that sort of movement it was able to remain attached to the rest of the house.  I remember screaming “EARTHQUAKE” and making a run for the doorway, a very difficult process as I was being thrown back and forth while trying to run.  Just as I ran past it the 29 inch TV in our room came crashing down behind me.  I clung to the doorway, as groggily James made his way to the door very put out that his sleep had been interrupted by something he considered to be so trivial, I don’t think he realised right at the moment the severity of the situation.  All I could do was pray as I watched across the hallway to my little brother and mum clinging to the other door they where standing under, “Please God, not now, I’m not ready yet, PLEASE GOD NOT YET”.  I really did think out two storey town house was going to fall away underneath us as the violent rocking seemed to go on forever, it felt like it was never going to stop and then the aftershocks started immediately afterwards.  I remember crying and looking at my mum as she kept saying “Its still going”, at that point my next concern was to get the hell out of the house, I became hysterical as I thought of my pets, my three cats and one dog, my fur children.  I’m forever thankful for my mum and James who managed to get me calm enough to get out of the house, they opened the doors and let the animals just run outside as the aftershocks kept coming.  This is a once in a lifetime event the experts told us, this is something you will only experience once and now the appropriate aftershock sequence will follow.  They were wrong.

Flash forward to February 22nd 2011 at 12:51 pm.  No more than half an hour earlier I’d been sitting in one of the malls having lunch with one of my best friends, her mother and her little daughter.  We’d been discussing all the predictions that were being banded about that there would be another major quake and this was not over.  I claimed it to all be nonsense, preferring to listen to the experts and the scientists so my opinions lay in the camp of the geologists, I proclaimed that according to Science this wouldn't happen again and that we were safe.  The experts weren't wrong, they just didn't know as this has never happened before in the history of seismic recording, what they didn't know was that the September quake which belonged to a previously unknown fault line had now activated another fault line and it was at 12:51 that we discovered the ferocity of mother nature once again.  This time though it was during the day, there were many people in our Central Business District working and shopping, it was lunchtime so there were a lot of people outside on their break, right in the path of falling building facades.  I was inside a store in the mall with my friend, her daughter and her mother when it hit, luckily for us we were in the clothing department, which meant there wasn't a lot to fall on us, but I remember us all clinging to one another as we struggled to stand, the building rocking and rolling violently, we watched the roof above us, the lights dancing a fit as we wondered is it going to crash down on us, is this our final moment.  For the second time in less than six months I thought my time was up again.  Then there was mayhem as the quake ended and the alarms screamed at us, it was pure insanity as everybody bolted and ran for the doors to escape, I’ve never seen such a terrified stampede of people before.  A normal twenty minute journey home took two hours and it was the scariest two hours of my life, massive aftershocks were rocking the roads and I feared many times on the way home that the ground was going to open up and swallow me and my car.  We left the city that day, only to return to pack our belongings up and say goodbye to family and friends.

Then on June 13th as earlier mentioned it was once again hit with a 6.3 and the cycle started all over again.  The only saving grace this time is that no one was killed because town is still shut down and is part of the red zone, meaning only construction and demolition are allowed in there.  A lucky twist of fate as another one hundred and forty something buildings were damaged further or collapsed that day.  It has been a long nine and a half months for Christchurch and the people that call it home, and according to geologists it may not be over just yet.  In this last week we learnt which suburbs and streets are considered to be the red zone, this means the houses will be pulled down and they will not rebuild there, whole suburbs are going to be demolished back to the land they once were and the owners of those houses will be compensated.  I struggle to comprehend the drastic changes that will take place to my once beautiful city.  Many have stayed strong and stood firm, proclaiming that Christchurch will rise from the debris and it will be beautiful once again.  But, for me the city I love and adore no longer stands and for that reason I have mourned for her and continue to do so.  I feel like I have lost a friend, I adored the beautiful architecture of our heritage buildings, they were the history of our city and also of my family who on my fathers side had a hand in the design of them.  I’ve always loved Christchurch for that very reason, its historic beauty always captured my heart and took my breath away no matter how many times a week I would see these buildings.  I’ve been known to sit and stare at the buildings within the art centre while visiting it for the weekend markets.  In fact I loved it so much that almost thirteen years ago myself and my then husband had our wedding photos taken there, it breaks my heart now to know that the art centre is now falling down where it once stood proudly.

I mourn the loss of those who died within our city limits, two of which I knew, granted they were not close friends and family but they were people that I had known either growing up or through study and they had left a lasting impression on me years later and my heart breaks for their families who have lost them.  I am left with regret that I hadn't kept them close and remained in contact over the years.  I feel the pain of my brothers and sisters of Christchurch, the fear and mental wearing on them is hard, but I am proud at how much strength they all show, I ran away much sooner than they have and I’m proud at their loyalty to our home town.  My heart is broken and I feel like I am living in a nightmare that has no hope of ending, I still struggle to believe that this has all happened to the place I love with all my heart.  I don't think that I will ever return permanently, the trauma and damage done has been too great for me and I want to remember living in the beautiful City she once was.  But, I will always and forever remain a Cantab at Heart.

WELCOME HOME MARTYN PAYNE

For my readers outside of New Zealand, many will be unaware of the recent immigration battle of this chap.  Martyn Payne and his family moved to New Zealand from the United Kingdom six years ago, where on his arrival he invested 700,000 into a garage and petrol station in the Northland town of Kapiro.  Since owning the business he has paid his taxes and brought revenue into the New Zealand economy.  However, because of an earlier surgery on his heart the immigration department declined his application for residency and promptly booted him out of the country six weeks ago.  According to Payne’s doctors the previous issue with his heart that resulted in surgery, was not one that would be on going.  The Immigration department decided though that even a slim chance of needing further surgery to the cost of $25,000 was enough to force him out of the country.

The irony of this entire debacle is that foreign visitors to our country, not foreign residents, owe a total of 19 million dollars for treatment received while visiting our country.  The largest bill racked up by an individual patient was in Auckland and cost the District Health board there more than $500,000.  So it would seem the government are happy to allow tourists to place our already teetering economy into further debt in the name of tourism, but refuse to allow a man who works hard and brings money to the economy, residency on the off chance he may need 25,000 dollars worth of surgery.  How the immigration department can even justify such an argument is beyond me.  What annoys me the most about this entire thing is that we have many immigrants in this country, a number of which once here go on to commit crimes and end up spending time inside our jails.  The amount of money spent on corrections in these particular cases is horrendous, and yet these people are not deported they remain in New Zealand free to drain our economy as repeat offenders.  It would seem to me that the NZ government has their priorities wrong and need to sit back and take a good hard look at there legislation.

Mr Payne has spent the last six weeks staying in Brisbane while people on this side of the ditch fought a hard battle in his corner against the immigration department.  Mr Payne’s daughter claimed that her family hadn’t cost the tax payers a single cent of money for healthcare since immigrating, stating that if one of them is sick they visit the doctor and pay their way just as every other Kiwi does.  More than 1200 supporters have signed a petition regarding Mr Payne’s situation and the Motor Trade Association (MTA) have hired an immigration agent to fight his case.

Thanks to the efforts of so many that supported this event, especially the hard work of both the MTA and Campbell Live on TV 3, Mr Payne has been granted an eight month temporary work visa.  This has enabled him to return to New Zealand, the place he now claims as his home.  During those eight months he will be able to apply and offer proof of health in order to attempt to obtain permanent residency.  We as Kiwi’s are battlers and generally all round good buggers, and Martyn Payne has proved himself to be both of those.  He may have an English accent and originally come from the UK, but he has proved himself to be a Kiwi at heart.  All your supporters, including myself, are behind you 100% and will continue to fight in your corner until you are granted permanent residency.

Haere mai ki to mātau kāinga.  Ka whakakaha mātau kia toa ki te riri.  Kia Kaha!

(Welcome to our home.  We endeavour to win the battle.  Be Strong!)