Earthquake Commission

The Earthquake Commission (EQC) was something that was supposed to help Christchurch recover.
A friend earlier this year (Who had been away on a trip, and is now entirely 'over' New Zealand, and prefers Europe and Europeans....) told me that he was sick of everyone complaining about EQC. That if everyone stopped calling and asking for their houses to be checked and let the 'assessors' get on with their jobs, everything would be done faster.

The first earthquake, a 7.1, occured on September the 4th, at 4:35am, 2010.

I know some people whose houses still hadn't been assessed, at all, two months ago.

I just didn't argue with this guy at the time. When people are stubborn, they're stubborn.

But when I came home in July this year, my parents were beginning to meltdown.

EQC had inspected our fridge, spa, and pool. They had decided that yes, all had been broken by the earthquakes, and they would send out letters so that insurance could be claimed.

Now, this fridge has been around since I was little, but it is in no way cheap to get a new one- these fridges cost seven and a half grand.

When the letter still hadn't arrived about the fridge, my parents rang, only to be told "There's no way an earthquake could have broken your fridge." My parents argued that the guy who checked it out had definitely said it was the earthquake. After ringing them for about five months, they finally sent out the letter.

And then there's the commercial property they own down the road. Mum had rung the earthquake helpline and was told to get engineers in to look at the property and she would be reimbursed. $800 later and after being told there was more than $100,000 worth of damage to the building, she rang them again only to be told, "What are you talking about? We would never tell you to get independent engineers in!"

EQC then sent in engineers, who confirmed that there was more than $100,000 worth of damage.

And then everything changed again and they sent in their own 'assessors.'
Now, the majority of the time, these 'assessors' have no prior experience. They are not engineers, and more than once I have had friends tell me how they would refuse to enter their houses, saying they can see everything from the outside.
I can tell you now, that's bullshit.

A woman I worked with didn't get her house red stickered for about four months, because the 'assessors' would look at the outside, and refuse to enter so she could show them how much the house had dropped, how much structural damage there was.

In the recent movie, When a City Falls, a worker from EQC is standing outside a house looking severely damaged and very likely to fall, and asks the homeowner, "And would you rate the damage as minor or major?"



I suppose I best explain the sticker system.
When a building is assessed here, it is given either a red, yellow or green sticker. Red means the building is absolutely unsafe, yellow means 'restricted use' (I think the landlord can go in to grab essentials, but no one else is allowed in except engineers and assessors; these buildings are waiting for repairs) and green means the building is fine.

We also have a coloured zoning system to evaluate the land.
A lot of Christchurch is built on old swampland, so everytime there's an earthquake, liquefaction appears in those areas. The land that is unable to be rebuilt on is zoned as red. There are white and orange zones, which both mean it hasn't been decided if the zone is red or green yet, (the majority of Lyttelton is white zone- I have no idea what the difference between white and orange is) and of course, green means the land is fine to rebuild on.
If you land is zoned red, you can choose to be paid out so you can move elsewhere. If your land is green zone, but you still get all that liquefaction, you're screwed. No one will buy your house, so you're stuck.

A few weeks ago one of my girlfriends had a knock on her door. There were two men in orange vests, and they said, "We just need to take a photo of this on your door."
She said, "You're joking. We've been red stickered?"
She was red stickered in late November. The men told her that she should have been informed three days prior to them turning up, and that they need to evacuate that very day because of potential rockfall.
Not only this, they told her that her house was red stickered because of the earthquake in February.
They had been living beneath unsafe rocks for eight months before the EQC got around to doing anything about it.

One of my guy friends is living in one of the worst affected areas in the Eastern suburbs. I've driven to his place a few times this year. His house and land was bad enough after September 2010, but now it's so bad that you literally have to drive at a maximum of 10km/hr down his street to protect your suspension.
There is liquefaction every single time there is an earthquake, and the road is so warped. There are so many potholes, the council just fills them in with dirt and everytime it rains, the dirt washes away and there they are again.
But what is awful, is his situation with the zoning.
Every single property on his street is zoned red, except his house. This means they can't be paid out and move on- they either have to try and sell a property that will be the only one in a very badly damaged street, or just live in a deserted area with terrible roads and liquefaction problems.
It's much easier to afford the latter.

My neighbours live in a house that is basically stilts.
They had engineers come in (sent by EQC) who told them that their house wasn't safe.
Then last week, EQC 'assessors' came back in and said the house was totally fine.
Our neighbour said, "You're telling me, that a trained engineer is wrong about this house being unsafe?"
The woman said, "Look, I've been doing this for a year."
He kicked her off the property.