“In 2016
State has been repeatedly hammered in the Christchurch media for its
sheer pigheadedness in one particularly egregious case – that of Sumner’s Cave
Rock Apartments. One Press headline (13/8/16) says it all: ‘Elderly Die In Wait
For Settlement’. This is a transnational corporation which is literally solving
the problem of having to meet its contractual obligations by delaying things
until its customers all die. And insulting them in the process – see the Press article
(17/8/16) headed: ‘Claimants “Stingy” – IAG Employee’”.
“The
evidence is not all about one block of flats (although it is all about
Christchurch). There is the case of the couple who took State to court and won
a more than $700,000 for the rebuild of their home. There are the people still
waiting for their homes to be repaired (‘They treated us like a couple of old
fools’ – Press, 21/3/16, ‘Long, Lonely Wait For Quake Repairs
Fix’), problems with the quality of work performed by the tradesmen contracted
by IAG~State to do the repairs, etc, etc”.
“But this
is not a matter of flogging a dead horse. Unfortunately this horse is very much
alive and still in need of a damned good flogging. As has been said before in
previous Roger Awards, what has happened, and is continuing to happen in
Christchurch, sets a very bad precedent for what the rest of the country can
expect from IAG/State and the other insurance TNCs in the event of a major
disaster. The people of Kaikoura and Wellington need to be very afraid of what
the future holds for them (and the huge number of Aucklanders who live in
apartment blocks and other multi title units should hope that no natural
disaster occurs in their city). The Christchurch experience continues to show
that the “cure” of insurance is quite often worse than the sickness of
earthquakes”.
