24th Jan 2013 - The ongoing Roll Coaster ride nearing the last phase! A new home, and Insurance finalization!.............................And Special thanks to Ferrymead-Brookhaven Assoc & Insurance Watch.....
Special thanks:
Around October last year I volunteered to assist with some News items on progress of different Insurance Companies in relation to all affected by the Earthquakes, for http://insurancewatch.org.nz/ . This site rapidly grew and has been an inspiration for all, helping us get some of the info we needed, and keeping us updated, this showed me that I had to help in some way, even if it was not much.
This gave me a lot of insight, and helped to realised you are not alone. I thank Insurance Watch for this, as well as the Ferrymead-Brookhaven Association, in particular David stringer, who was there for us right from the beginning, and who now is with Insurance Watch, a BIG Thank you!!!!
The Avonside Blog was also a force within itself, motivated by many Red Zoners, and this Blog has kept us all updated with Breaking News over this whole time, so a BIG thank you to them. I will always be a subscriber.
And of course all those who have put up with my luney rantings, and my friends who have helped where they can! xxx
Some of you have read my Blogs and may have kept up with the 'Red tape' issues, delays, and sorrows of many Cantabs. Now it is time to share my experiences over the last few weeks, to give caution where due, some tips hopefully, and a conclusion when it comes.
I feel that we owe each other our experiences, so it can assist others in their Course to have a normal life and get on with things, so I will not delve too much into what some of my prior Blogs have quoted, but will try to give you an idea of the processes, only in general at this stage and hurdles that are still to come, BUT can be achieved! I do not wish to hinder my current situation.
I will always treasure the 'Property' sign when I first purchased my home to remember how it was, and my thousands of pics to look over in many years to come.
There may be certain items I cant go into too much detail for obvious reasons, and to reiterate that my prior Blogs, and this post have all been in a factual manner, my experiences and thoughts, and nothing was over emphasized, nor was it as defamation, as fact cannot be defamation! I have all events documented so the below is based on this data.
Points realized:
1. Depending on the condition of your land, the more Geotech drilling investigation visits to your property, which inturn adds to the money deducted from your Final Settlement.
2. When buying another house, you retain your land, but remember you cannot do anything with it until your Insurer and EQC come to an agreement on any unsettled Claims and hand over any rights. Till then you will still be required to pay your rates. I did hear a whisper that the Council may start charging land owners for some services if they have to attend to assisting in keeping the property looking presentable. So with that under the belt, think I will need to keep visiting my site to ensure CCC arent doing any work on it without my knowledge.
3. My land was assessed and confirmed as 'Entire site damage', and they stated they would be re visiting sometime in Jan/Feb to assess land value damage. This will hopefully not be another long battle.
4. A Heat Pump I paid for a few months before the quakes has to stay in the house, along with the Heat Pumps installed at their instigation, and after EQC deducted these, as per Insurance clauses #1.
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After each CERA/Insurance Community Meeting, which left me feeling more ripped off each time, I can finally say I am progressing forward. It has come with many costs, but you will still find the Will to find the final resolution to get on with life. This may take a while to write as I want to make sure my info is some guidance to at least one person.
NB: Dates below are only generalised, there are many many more that are not mentioned below.
No water and no Sewage lasted a total of 12 months, one being 5 months, the other 7 months, exluding No power.
Nov 2011 The house was confirmed as a rebuild.
March 2012 I signed the Settlement Election form with Insurance to rebuild on the current site.
April 2012 Demanded Insurer update their records on the DRA as they had completely missed the two fallen chimneys, and the Greenhouse. I had to send pics etc to prove this. (Up to my 2nd/3rd PM by this time so never got to know any of them)
April 2012 Insurance Watch conducted their 'Insurance Clusters & House status Survey'
May 2012 Insurance Watch conducted the Survey of 'How well our Insurance companies are doing' for coastal Hills areas, Ferrymead through to Sumner.
May 2012 I emailed Insurance to advise I may look at changing my option due to ongoing issues.
June 2012 Coastal Hills Survey results published and survey opened to the rest of Christchurch.
June 2012 Council released article on New rules allowing for rates to be readjusted if house demolished.
June 2012 First Survey results in from Insurance Watch on the first baseline Survey.
June 2012 Notification sent out for anyone who wanted to get their land zones re-classed.
Sept 2012 TV3 Campbell Live features a piece on Brookhaven-Ferrymead with David Stringer
Sept 2012 Insurance Companies progress chart put up on Insurance Watch web site.
Sept 2012 I requested access to Geotech database - Denied of course :)
Oct 2012 Started looking at the possibility of buying another house, seeing what was out there, the loop holes etc.
Nov 2012 First follow up Survey to the Baseline survey, notification sent out.
Nov 2012 OIA request form released online for applications.
Nov 2012 Received email regarding my application under the OIA Act, stating the second date I had requested this 30th Nov.
Nov/Dec 2012 Still living with munted pipes, and overflowing drains along with ongoing conditions.
At this stage everything was coming to a 'head', life was quite overwhelming, and countless hours fighting our case, only bad news was known to us. I decided then that I wanted out. Emailed Insurer that I needed a figure of what the payout would be as I needed to plan our lives, but found that you do not receive the final amount with all deductions till the VERY END, which has an impact also due to being a persuader on any decisions you had to make.
No longer would I hold on to the hope of rebuilding on this site, wake up each morning and see the inspiring Port Hills in their wake, and wasn't going to stay in the area I had grown to adore. I threw myself into moving totally away from Christchurch and starting a whole new life way out in McKenzie country: I hardly believed my own thoughts, the thought of leaving CHCH was unthinkable.
I had now signed my second SEF with the option to buy another house.
Nov/Dec 2012 during the process of possibly leaving CHCH, I struck up a good relationship with a Property Broker. He had had his fair share of EQ matters, being the owner at the time of a building that was being investigated by the Royal Commission due to two deaths that had occured. (It opened my eyes to what Commercial building owners were having to deal with, their own battles were just as rough as any other Cantabrian). We still keep in touch, and it is sad to see the difference to what this person was before, to the now. His friendship helped me immensely.
Nov/Dec 2012 The move out of town was to be no more, in a way it came as a relieve, as I fully realized now it was a rash decision at the time, pushed by the burden of 'not moving ahead'. The support I had from my boss was awesome, and gave me guidance also.
Dec 24th A bid I put forward for a lovely house was accepted.It should have been a grand day, but that day will be grand when all open items are completed. I wont count my chickens before they hatch.
Jan 2013 The process of buying another house has been extreme in the least, the mountain of paperwork and chase ups is exasperating.
* New Insurance is hardly to be seen, so Transfer of Insurance is really the only option available. The old process of signing a few forms to obtain Insurance is no longer, instead it is replaced with approx 6 forms to fill in.
* Form for register Building Inspector, or similar to fill
* Forms to assign over any open Claims
* Standard personal form to fill in
* Any EQ related work sign off forms
As at today, the Vendor of the house I am buying is yet to submit a Deed of Assignment to complete the Finance date.
Finance Companies:
I was very lucky to have known my Finance company for many years, and they were very supportive over the last few years, and are still supporting me. I must mention there name as they really do look after their clients (NZ Home Loans).
This company also required a bit of paperwork, and proof of EQ work sign off, house info, and Transfer of Insurance conditions, which was expected.
Insurance: - NB: I did have to explain to Insurer that they must amend the DRA due to missing such things as two fallen chimneys and a Greenhouse. This was only amended when I pointed it out to them. This did not really make much difference in the final amount. There is a considerable amount in total that was deducted over and above the usual deductions, for the costs of professional sitting a table to talk over re-design, geo etc. Insurer are looking into why the Geotech investigation was so high, althought they backed this by saying it was due to the land conditions on site.
* Current Insurance/Settlement Forms consist of Acceptance that all open Claims are assigned over to
Insurer.
* Your acceptance of all that Insurer has established as owing with all costs/deductions taken out, their
terms on what you can take with you, Geotech report details (some of which is incorrect but do not
want this delayed any longer)
They did warn that I would be held culpible for any costs associated with any Geotech drillings conducted, and any man hours spent on my case. The Settlement forms once again had to be signed by all 'Interested parties', and the prior $$$ Settlement was reconfirmed.
Interestingly enough, no dates for the Geotech investigation refer to actual events I witnessed over the time, excluding one visit. Map does not indicates points of drilling that were evident.
Geotech report refers to my house being in the vicinity of a river, which is not the right river. This was explained as possibly due to an out of town engineer reporting this.
I do have to mention that I found that once I was assigned an Insurance Case Manager who seemed to care about my plight, a relationship was struck, and since, she has been in contact with me at every turn. If I had been assigned another (this lady being my 3rd), I dont know if things would have progressed as they have over the last two months, and are thankful for this.
So do not be disheartened, request another Case Manager if you are getting nowhere, hopefully you may come across my one! :) I have much resentment in terms of treatment over the time by Insurer, but the new Case Manager helped to ressurrect them a little, in my eyes.
Unfortunately at times we may have to shut our mouths about some of the errors we see coming through, just to move on with life! Other DO's and DONT's I cannot comment on at this stage till the end is completed, and then I hope to be able to assist others more in their endeavors.
Moving on, my own personal advantages:
* Now when my tummy rumbles I know its me, and not the pipes :)
* Being able to put sheets back on the bed
* Our cats not coming in to the house smelling of silt, and bringing in germs from under the house.
* Cats wont be able to roam under the new house via the broken/cracked and open Foundation vents.(Yay no cat fights under your bedroom floor either).
* Dirty blow flies can hang around this house but they wont be visiting me at the new house.
* Trusting the drinking water on the other side of town.
* Moving away from the horrible dead cat corpse and other slimy germy critters under the house.
* Never having to walk under my patio roof again!
* Rescuing items from my slanting garage and trying to restore these back to how they were, no more silt for these things again.
* When unpacking in new home, finding items I havent seen for over a year and a half, and using them for their purposes.
* Not having to buy continuous amounts of light bulbs, and being able to ultilise switches, and having an oven to cook with.
* Finally be able to enjoy some privacy and space.
* No more countless hours spent fighting with authorities, while trying to get through each day with pther normal life things.
* Ill have to get out of the habit of checking my drain after running the water in the kitchen sink
* No more having to carefully climb around the patio to get to the other side.
* No more loud stress cracking to listen to as lateral spread does it work.
*Be able to park the car straight, without it leaning to the side.
* A shed to be able to use for its general use.
*No more racing the blocked pipes when showering.
* Not having to worry about the germs under the new house, and some of my phobias which have become a hindrance may go away.
* Plants may one day be a good thing in my mind, instead of wanting to weed kill anything that grows or moves.
* No more spraying my house each night with a home made concoctions to counteract germs etc.
* Washing dishes more regularly without concerns over the drains/water filling up under the house.
*No more weird type shrubbery that started appearing in the last two years.
* Able to turn on any light switch without risk of blowing the whole house.
* No longer watching your home slowly die.
* Last but not least is we finally get away from the POO monster in the 'other' toilet that puts any loo from any horror movie to shame!
On stating the above it is a time where reality hits, packing the rest of your stuff: happy to be leaving, but memories left behind, a new beginning with sad prequills of all that one has lost, all the people I met in the neighbourhood, the stories they told me, and those who came to the rescue after the large quakes, leaving my pet favourite river, the Heathcote: who bought me many peaceful and extroadinary adventures, and of course the bestest Hill in the world, Nipple hill (See my other Blogs), of whom I will dearly miss!!!!
I will be back to update this with more details when it is the right time, and will also look to creating a Blog with my memories over the last two years.
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http://avonsideblog.org/2013/01/26/eqc-settling-land-damage-claims-a-progress-update/
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