The Board of the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake is pleased to present the final annual report of the recently renamed Earthquake Commission, as it brings to a formal close the Crown entity’s 80-year legacy of work under now superseded legislation.

Despite no major incidents, such as earthquakes, tsunami or significant weather events, the Government’s natural hazards insurance provider has had a busy year.

“The relatively quieter financial year claim-wise has allowed us, in conjunction with our insurer partners, to focus on the recovery effort brought about by the impacts of the 2023 North Island Weather Events,” said Board Chair Chris Black.

“Despite the challenges inherent in the high number of claims involving land, we exceeded our timeliness measures for the North Island Weather Events and 4000 other claims for natural hazard events between January and December 2023.

“While we were pleased with the steady progress in settling claims from these events, what the North Island Weather Events did highlight is the general lack of awareness around the extent of land cover provided under our insurance scheme. We have begun work to address the underlying issues, including by providing information on why land claims often take longer to settle than expected and building understanding that the level of cover a homeowner receives will sometimes not cover the full cost of reinstatement,” he said.

NHC Toka Tū Ake met most of its performance measures, including successfully implementing its new governing legislation, the Natural Hazards Insurance Act 2023. This involved implementing new obligations to ensure homeowners have a good experience when making a claim and processes to use if they do not.  

“Resolving reopened claims for damage from the Canterbury earthquake sequence remains a priority,” said Black. “These claims often involve previously undiscovered damage. Despite these challenges, we reduced the balance of reopened claims by 21% through putting homeowners at the heart of our work and focusing on creating a positive claims experience for them. 

“In addition, 241 rebuilds and repairs were completed under the Crown’s On-sold programme for eligible Canterbury homeowners. We settled a further 161 applications, which is excellent progress towards presenting settlement offers to all remaining applicants.”

Other highlights for the year included launching the Natural Hazards Portal, which had close to 50,000 unique users in its first year, securing a record level of reinsurance of $9.2 billion, and investing $10.5 million in research grants and sponsorships. 

“We also supported the development of the first Funding and Risk Management Statement. This estimates the cost of providing natural hazards cover and projects the amount in the Natural Hazard Fund for the next 5 years,” said Black.

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