A home owner in Christchurch cannot do that, because if they have a partially damaged home, nobody wants to go for it until there is a clearance from the assessors for what exact level of damage there is, and the buyer may not get insurance policy transfer depending on the outcome of the assessment, so the owner is lumbered if they want to sell up, they have to sell at a massive loss, and even then nobody will buy the properties. So they try to rent instead. Then they get taxed on a low rental that is beneath the cost of rates and a property manager because they have had to leave town to recover from the chaos and get a job somewhere else for a while. If they rent the family home, they will be taxed because it's a rental. Not all people live in the family home, they rent it and then rent elsewhere for themselves and still are not making ends meet.