ABSTRACT
The Canterbury earthquakes resulted in significant personal injury and trauma, and the destruction of homes, jobs, businesses and infrastructure. The Earthquake Commission (EQC) primary objective is to administer New Zealand's first loss national disaster insurance scheme through the Natural Disaster Fund. Natural disasters raise complex and significant human rights issues, both in the initial response and in the recovery phase. This chapter explains the absence of any suitable complaints and disputes resolution mechanism litigation has been rife, adding to the cost and delay for affected individuals. It explains the private insurers asserted that there was a separate indemnity for each of the claims. The chapter discusses in response the insurance industry, along with EQC, devised an apportionment process. If the apportionment process shows that the cost of repairing damage to the house will be less than the cap for each relevant event, the house is repaired as part of the Canterbury home-repair programme.
