Insurance Extended To Cover Landslips

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 24

Insurance Extended To Cover Landslips

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 16. Regulations have been gazetted to provide landslip damage insurance on the same basis as insurance under the Earthquake and War Damage Act for earthquake damage and extraordinary disaster damage.

This was announced today by the Minister in Charge of the Earthquake and War Damages Commission (Mr Rae).

Until now, damage from a landslip caused by earthquake was insured, but damage from a landslip caused by a storm or flood was excluded.

It had been necessary, Mr Rae said, to make application to the commission for special landslip Insurance and to pay

a separate premium to get protection.

The amended regulations providing automatic landslip insurance are effective from tomorrow, and landslip damage occurring on or after this date will qualify as a claim on the disaster fund administered by the commission.

“At this stage it is. not possible to predict the cost of landslip damage claims and the effect this will have on the disaster fund,” Mr Rae said. i The fund had suffered a serious setback in the 1968 Wahine storm, and now stood at only sl.7m, which was quite inadequate to meet another major storm or flood, let alone the additional cost of landslip claims. Initially, landslip cover is to be provided without an increase in the present rate of earthquake and war damage premium levied on contracts of fire insurance (5c in every $lOO of cover). If future claims made on the disaster fund were likely to cause the fund to fall into deficit, an increased premium would have to be considered, Mr Rae said. The new landslip provi-

sions will apply only to property which is insured under a contract for fire insurance, tn the same manner as the earthquake provisions. Loss of land by landslip or damage to paths, fences and gates is not included in the cover provided. Any cost incurred in stabilIsing land or resiting a build-

ing is not recoverable, and the cost of clearing landslip debris is also not included.

Under each claim for landslip damage, the insured person must bear 1 per cent of the insured loss, with a minimum of $2OO.

Mr Rae said the new provisions had been made necessary by the greater use of hillside and graded areas, especially for housing subdivisions.

Mr Rae said a new chapter on foundation standards was being prepared for the model building by-laws, which should assist in reducing the risk of landslip damage in the future. As far as the commission was aware, be said, New Zealand was the first country in the world to provide automatic landslip insurance. In addition' to landslip cover, the opportunity had been taken to amend the period of time for prompt notification of claims, which in the past had been restricted to 30 days. Under the new regulations, a claim may be notified, under certain conditions, within three months.