Nobody will take responsibility for the repairs Georgina Hanafin's Christchurch home needs, after she bought it when she was told EQC repairs were complete. John Campbell spent the day with her.
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The Earthquake Commission is powerless to act when homes sold with quake damage EQC either missed or poorly repaired require remediation work costing more than $100,000, its chief executive says.
Christchurch woman Georgina Hanafin bought her Linwood house in 2013 based on the real estate agent's assertion "ALL EQC REPAIRS COMPLETED", written in capital letters on the auction pack.
She told Checkpoint she had emailed the auction pack to her bank, insurance company and lawyers, and none saw any reason to believe otherwise. She did not get a building inspection and went ahead with purchasing the property.
"We thought we were buying our future," she said.
"There was 100 percent no sign of any damage that would have made us concerned for the integrity of the repairs."
The Harcourts auction pack advertising the house Georgina Hanafin bought in 2013. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
The paintwork was smooth and there were no visible cracks, but they started appearing in the months and years that followed.
The house had been destabilised. Aftershocks were moving it and the foundation repairs were cosmetic rather than structural.
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Cracks in the ring foundation, around the exterior of the house, had simply been filled in.
"If this kind of damage had been visible at the time of the open home, we would have turned around and walked out," she said.
EQC chief executive Sid Miller Photo: Supplied / ACC
Her insurer Vero said the "repair work to date is substandard", and that the responsibility lies with EQC, but Ms Hanafin said the amount EQC was offering fell far short.
"To put it simply, we have a house with a $300,000 mortgage on it. We've been told that we have $260,000 damage and EQC has just offered us $48,000 to fix it."
EQC chief executive Sid Miller said the agency was working with Ms Hanafin and would continue listening to her concerns, but it is bound by the EQC Act which stipulates it pay for repair work or rebuilding work up to a cap of $100,000.
"We reach a point with the act where we get to a cap, and that is, within the legislation, as far as we can go," he said.
"We will continue to work with Georgie within the act and up to that cap. I can't do anything more than that."
He said he was working with Treasury, other agencies, and EQC Minister Megan Woods who was looking at what options may be available to Ms Hanafin and other homeowners in a similar situation.
"Until that changes or anything comes out of that that alters the direction, then we have to work within the act I'm afraid. There's no other choice for us - that is the law."
Watch: EQC chief executive Sid Miller on Checkpoint -