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CERA zones Canterbury's Selwyn District and most of Waimakariri District green to avoid insurance confusion, Brownlee says

Insurance
CERA zones Canterbury's Selwyn District and most of Waimakariri District green to avoid insurance confusion, Brownlee says

See the release from Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee

All of the Selwyn District and large parts of the Waimakariri District have now been reclassified from the white zone to the green zone, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee announced today.

"When the Government announced on 23 June that all of greater Christchurch had been mapped into four residential zones, these areas were in the white zone as they had been unmapped by geotechnical engineers," Mr Brownlee said.

"Based on advice from geotechnical enginners, we have now reclassified these areas as green as generally they have not suffered major land damage from the series of major earthquake and aftershocks in the region.

"The reclassification does not include the Kaiapoi ward area in the Waimakariri District, which has already been zoned into either the red, orange or green zones,” Mr Brownlee said.

"There will be some isolated exceptions in these newly classified green zone areas where properties have land damage and further geotechnical assessment may be required. This will be dealt with by EQC and insurance companies under normal insurance processes," Mr Brownlee said.

"For the most part homeowners in the green zone who have had their EQC claim assessed can get on with the process of repairing or rebuilding their home if it was damaged by the earthquakes.

"We’ve being hearing reports that some insurance companies were reluctant to complete assessments for properties in these areas as they were uncertain what the white zone meant. It was also confusing for residents.

"That’s why we have rezoned these areas into the green zone to avoid any confusion."

The special Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) website www.landcheck.govt.nzis being updated to reflect the new zoning and the changes will be live early next week.

A letter from CERA will also be posted to residents in the new Selwyn and Waimakariri District green zone with further information on Monday.

For more information about what the green zone means visit: www.cera.govt.nz

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