Last week Crombie Lockwood together with NZI held an informative and candid community forum for Christchurch clients with earthquake claims.
This was an opportunity for our clients to gain insight into Crombie Lockwood’s claims solution and to hear from the senior leaders of the NZI Canterbury Recovery Team on the processes and re-build programme and how their claim fitted in.
Myles Noble, Head of Claims & Earthquake Response presented Crombie Lockwood’s unique claims solution which guarantees customers receive quality repairs or rebuild by professional and qualified builders with robust procurement strategies, strong reputations and the ability to handle the workload. “I was concerned in mid-2012 that the delays our clients were experiencing were unacceptable and that we would need to present our own solution to underwriters to ensure our clients received the solution that they deserved” said Myles.
The solution consists of an exclusive partnership with Pattersons Insurerbuild. Pattersons were established in 1995 and have pioneered revolutionary changes within the home and commercial industry, setting the benchmark for quality, customer service and cost management. Pattersons opened their Christchurch office in May 2010 which allowed their builders to provide immediate response capability when the Christchurch earthquake struck.
Pattersons offer a dedicated building resource for Crombie Lockwood clients. This solution also encompasses two dedicated seismic drills - a resource for TC3 properties that require geotechnical assessments prior to building – dedicated loss adjusters and an NZI staff member embedded with EQC to apportion (i.e. determine if over or under cap) our claims.
This initiative went live in November 2012 and has to date allowed many of our clients to receive priority service and advanced their expected repair times by months and in some cases years. We have at least 140 homes which require rebuilding, and at least 185 major repairs, of over $100,000. Of these:
-
57 clients have moved into homes we have helped to rebuild, purchase or repair
-
22 new homes have been built
-
18 major repairs have been completed
-
85 new homes are in some stage of construction
-
126 major repairs are underway
Crombie Lockwood has a realistic target date of October 2014 to have all of our customers EQ repairs completed (notwithstanding some TC3 properties where land issues may prevent this) which is well ahead of the rest of the market.
NZI supports the relationship with Pattersons. Karl Armstrong, Executive General Manager; Renee walker, Canterbury Recovery & Head of Communications, and Annette Purvis, General Manager Personal Lines Canterbury Recovery; from NZI (IAG) each presented customers with insightful claims statistics, discussed settlement options and helped customers understand technical information on TC3 compounding challenges and other complexities such as, apportionment, flood management zones, EQC land settlements, cross lease properties and retaining walls.
Crombie Lockwood’s Head of Personal Insurance, Christchurch Branch Director and local brokers, as well as NZI’s senior local leaders were there to meet and answer any questions our customers had.
Keeping the lines of communication open between Crombie Lockwood and clients enables a smoother claims experience and ensures customers feel comfortable with the progress on their repair or rebuild. Crombie Lockwood is committed to helping our clients move forward.