Payment Soon On Storm Claims

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31658, 19 April 1968, Page 22

Payment Soon On Storm Claims

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 18. Payment of thousands of dollars to property owners for claims on the Earthquake and War Damage Commission after last Wednesday’s storm will begin early next week.

The individual property damage reports, comprising official assessments and the owner’s agreements, are beginning to reach the commission’s office from its assessors. The secretary of the commission, Mr J. Gill, said today that cash settlement would be made as soon as possible after the reports were received. The commission and its assessors are making good headway in dealing with more than 2000 claims, in spite of being hindered by what Mr Gill described as "hundreds of needless telephone calls.” He said that people who

had lodged claims were calling to find out when they could expect assessors to visit them. A number of enquiries have been mistaken as new claims and duplication has resulted. "Apart from the confusion they are causing these people are congesting our telephone lines and preventing others with claims from contacting us,” Mr Gill said. The commission has 24 assessors and furnishing consultants in the field in the Wellington and Hutt Valley areas and it is expected that an assessment will be made of every claim within 10 days.