Canterbury Litigation Funding backs claim against The Earthquake Commission over earthquake damaged homes

Canterbury Litigation Funding is backing a class action against The Earthquake Commission (EQC) on behalf of tens of thousands of homeowners who bought earthquake damaged homes they believed were properly repaired by EQC. The litigation funder will deduct a fee of up to 15% (including GST) from any amount due claimants from EQC.

The class action alleges that many people who purchased these on-sold houses that were incorrectly or inaccurately assessed and/or badly repaired, relied on EQC’s settlement information that the house was correctly assessed and/or repaired.  They now find that further repairs are needed to meet the standard of repair required under the EQC Act. The class action further argues that affected homeowners should be able to receive a cash payment for the cost of the remedial work, rather than being required to undertake their own repairs and apply to be reimbursed under the prescriptive criteria of the $300m On-Sold Policy administered by the EQC.

On 23 August 2022, the High Court of Christchurch approved an opt in class action for EQC on solds. Grant Shand, the solicitor for the representative plaintiff in the case, commented:

“We believe that homeowners should not have to go through the stress and time required to remedy what are EQC’s failings.  Also, these homeowners should not be restricted by the Crown On Sold programme that is administered by EQC; they should be able to receive a cash payout if that is their preference.”

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