Posts by Sacha
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to BenWilson,
Yes, I meant it was never asked of the people
Initial polling showed qualified public support. Taking it to the next stage politically would have required parties working together. Ideologically the government was never going to do that when they had a golden excuse to slash public services.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to BenWilson,
The question of a levy has never even been asked. It would definitely be something Labour could campaign on.
It was asked very early by the Greens - and if Labour would get over their tribal animosity, something useful may have been done before now about jointly promoting that option to voters. Waiting until just before the election won't cut it either.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
I especially like the bit where Brownlee told Hutching that "there may not be a log-jam because he calculates quite a number of Red Zone residents will head off to rest homes, others will leave town..."
Gee Gerry, which rest homes would those be?Sheesh. Does the clown think they're hotels or something?
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Ross Mason,
And IF NZ Inc can afford another hit if it happens!
To be fair, that would have been part of the recent negotiations too. I don't envy the government there (just wish they were better).
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to DexterX,
re-locate older repairable dwellings and building of architectural merit to a suitable “new” location – the creation of new heritage suburb
Great idea.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to rcg25,
EQC could be expanded to provide full replacement cover
Best suggestion I've seen is to make it part of the rates system, so all properties are covered.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to rcg25,
I don't understand why the reinsurers would be able to threaten legal action against the ChCh council.
Seems they were doing so (see the Fran O'Sullivan quote in my earlier post). Alleged regulatory incompetence is enough to be starting with if it means potentially saving 9-figure payouts. Worth a crack.
They could threaten not to make insurance available in the future
Seems they're already doing that too. Must be quite some negotiator, that Brownlee chap.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Thomas Johnson,
maybe use CERA to force full payouts on insurance companies. There needs to be an understanding that there would be a consequence of such actions beyond "sticking it to the man".
True, never without cost.
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Hebe,
Who would be liable: elected officials, council staff, the council itself?
Part of the secret negotiations was probably agreement from the insurers and reinsurers to drop any legal action against Council, in exchange for allowing dodgy loopholes like the one the Hay/Haywoods now face. Effectively people like them are indemnifying Christchurch ratepayers against some of that other expense.
Doesn't really match the fine words from government about all New Zealanders sharing the burden, does it?
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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Meanwhile, does this mean that Tower just might have been shamed into doing the decent thing?
I'd love to think so but isn't it just re-stating their current position?
In a statement issued this morning Tower Group managing director Rob Flannagan said the company had received queries from a number of concerned customers and reassured red zone residents it would honour contracts.
He said it would honour them whether customers chose to accept the Government offer of purchase for the entire property at 2007 rating value or to accept an offer for the land only and deal with their insurers about their house.
"We understand that this is a complex and emotional decision for our customers - especially those who have damage to their homes that we would repair under their policy if the land was not in the red zone," Flannagan said.