The Earthquake Commission has admitted to 1 NEWS there could be thousands of homeowners in Christchurch whose homes have extensive quake damage, that they're unaware of.
Mike Stewart and Julia McEntyre are one of a growing number of Christchurch families who've bought homes since the earthquake, with documentation from EQC stating the property had been fixed.
Julia says the couple had done their homework, and got a property inspection.
"The big thing for us, was it had the sign off certificate from EQC Fletchers, saying all the work was completed," she said.
"We felt confident the work was done and it was worthwhile investing in this property."
But after two years, when the couple came to sell it, a new assessment revealed much of the initial damage had barely been touched.
Mike Stewart told 1 news this has left them on the brink of financial collapse.
"We're just in limbo. So our insurance has been declined. It's classes as undisclosed damage, because we didn't know about it. But we can't cancel the insurance because that house has a huge mortgage over it," he said.
The EQC admitted fault and agreed to pay the couple $85,000 for the repairs. The problem though, is that the repairs are more than $300,000.
The EQC's CEO Sid Miller says its hands are tied due to their liability cap.
"We will do everything that we can to ensure people get their entitlement up to the EQC cap of $100,000. The problem is when is goes over cap they're dealing with their own private insurer who may take a different view."
However, most insurance companies claim it's not their responsibility either.
Peter Woods, a partner at Christchurch law firm Anthony Harper has many clients who’re battling with insurance issues, and says the reasons are varied.
"The insurer may say, 'because you're a subsequent purchaser, we only have to pay indemnity value'," Woods says.
"In other cases the insurer will say 'we're off the hook it's EQC's problem they messed up, they should fix it'.
"In other cases they're saying 'it doesn’t matter you're too late the limitation period's expired anyway'."
Mr Woods said many people are being caught out, even those who’ve done their homework.
"We've seen a lot of cases where people who have got a pre-purchase inspection before they've bought. And they've still got problems.
"So if you're looking at a house that has had an EQC fix, you need to really do careful checks on what was the damage and how it has been repaired.
"Otherwise there’s a whole section of the market that will suffer."
The EQC's head admitted it doesn’t know how widespread the issue is, with potentially hundreds or thousands of homes with damage unbeknown to its owner.
The government is working on getting declaratory judgments to clarify where liability sits in such cases.
For those affected, like Mike Stewart, he says he would never buy a house in Christchurch, as it's just "too risky".
SHARE ME