Time has come to leave the East side!

The pics on this page are the highlights of living in my house,
the 'star highlight' being my kitchen drain, seems the overflow has stopped flowing under the house for some reason I don't think I want to know (don't look if you are eating) :)

Firstly, I hope you all had a great Xmas day!

Well, for me, I received confirmation on a house purchase late on Xmas Eve, so you could say that was my present!

But going back to some things I haven't got around to blogging.......

I have been able to keep up with most Insurance matters as I started voluntary work for www.insurancewatch.org.nz for the ICNews page. Fresh news articles I tracked down would be sent to my contact and the link was put up on this web site. Now I just do it randomly when I stumble across 'Fresh news'.

This web site started the Christchurch surveys for home owners, which were then compiled, and the results released. Since there has been one other survey as a follow up (The results of this are available on their site).
This is a web site you must have in your favourites, people together making a difference, and watching our backs you might say!

On the topic of Insurance companies:    
As November descended upon us, I made the decision to leave the house I am in, that I no longer was going to wait till maybe 2015 for a rebuild. Continual sickness and irritations helped towards this decision.....I HAVE FINALLY HAD ENOUGH!.

I signed my second Settlement Election Form (SEF) for re-election to buy elsewhere. To my surprise (NOT), I had another Case Manager.

So now I had gone through:
Two Case Managers with Insurance
Four Project Managers with Insurance/Arrow (Yet I hadn't gone a step forward yet)
Two Finance Case Managers (First one knew my history for many years)
Two lawyers

So now all dealings are with people who have no idea who I am (exception of the Finance persons).
Either I'm a scarey Mofo, or they change their minds as much as the 'Apportionment lone ranger EQC persons).              

End of November I received a call form Insurance asking of I had received the 'Pre-Design info'. Huh? They were talking about that generic email that was sent out, with NO NEW INFO, as we have become accustomed to.

However I let him ramble on for 10 mins, then stopped him, and stated that their departments need to talk to each other and get your facts correct. As I mentioned above I had already signed a new SEF to buy elsewhere, so was no longer on the Pre-Design list.

Sheesh guys, I have a team that could do a better job, although they are in a completely different industry.

A few days prior, one of the ladies at work received a call from EQC, which had her worried for a while on what they wanted. So she rang them back, and low and behold, they couldn't tell her what they rang for, or what Claim it could be, or even if it was about one of her Claims, on top of that they asked her to give them the info, but she was in the dark, and still is. After all that they still couldn't even confirm with her how many Claims she had lodged!                  

Going back to this house hunting, I was astounded how many people are looking for somewhere to live, you practically have to line up to look at an Open Home. Some advertising just didn't ring right, so one must be very careful! It is definitely a seller's market, prices as high as $200,000 over GV. (Wonder when CCC will get these updated). It was good to see that many of the homes had already had the EQC work done, but sad also knowing that so many others are still waiting, and wait they will for time to come.............

I found a house, pushed myself to get it, and I got it!!!!!! If nothing goes wrong, Insurance / EQC / Finance....then I should be in the new place beginning of Feb.

Now this brings about a new issue. With Insurance the SEF states that house will be demolished. Seems the company made an 'Executive' decision to put this on all SEF's, yet I see many people choosing to not have their house demolished, but rather sell 'As is, where is!'.

A couple of agents mentioned that some people were getting lost money back this way, and of course if you have a section for sale, it is always worth more with a house on it. People are buying these homes to rent them out, make money.    

In my case, the house may not be as good as the others, but if I have had to put up with the conditions with nowhere else to go, then we must call it 'Liveable'.

This is appealing to me as I will be in more debt than before the quakes (and not only due to buying a higher value house). But then I need to speak with Insurance about it, and if this is accepted, then I have to ready the property and clean the section, arghhhhh the list goes on. I don't actually know what to do, as I was in no hurry to sell my land (let's see what EQC have to say on the $$$$$, as they sent me the forms showing 'Entire site damage'. But EQC are not starting the return visits to price land damage till approx Jan/Feb, and god only knows how far down the list we are. (East covers a wide area)

                                                                 
And going back to the SEF, when I spoke with Insurance they mentioned that they amended the amount (as they had completed missed out my two chimneys although the side of the house is bordered up, and a greenhouse), and had added a measly $4,000 on top. Sheesh I seen one SOW that stated $30,000 just for the chimneys. At the same time, they failed to advise me of this.

I started receiving more responses form them via email, with my new 2nd Case Manager, as they tried to have my Settlement sorted by the time I was to purchase a Hotel out of town. Yes I never thought I would even think of leaving CHCH but things that were weighing down on us got heavier and heavier! This was the first time I decided to get out.

As for the 'Apportionment' still no mail as they said there would be, no contact about it, no confirmation. As mentioned in other blog, how does one 'Repair a Rebuild' - Oh right, over three attempts! :)

My June 2011 Claim must be in Cyber Space somewhere!!!!!

And last words today 'I may be going over to the Westey's, but I will always be an East'y!'