The urgency of the search and rescue response to the magnitude 6.3 February 22 quake was nearing an end and the operation is moving into rebuilding the city, Civil Defence said in a statement last night.
There were only a small number of buildings remaining in the city which need to be pulled down and it is anticipated the Usar team will be stood down as of Monday.
There has been criticism of Civil Defence from some building owners, who say their intact properties have been knocked down without their knowledge or permission.
Property owner Antony Gough, who co-owns 10 buildings in the CBD, told 3News at least three of them were demolished without his knowledge, despite him asking to be informed.
Much of the demolition is being done by Fruz, Southern and Ward Demolition. A contractor said they were told what to do and did nothing without having USAR specialists nearby.
In its statement last night, Civil Defence said part or all of the building may need to be taken apart to allow Usar teams to safely search a building.
Contractors might need to take apart one building, which could render adjacent buildings unsafe.
The decision to take apart adjacent buildings was sometimes made onsite by the USAR team, not the contractor, and was always made for safety reasons, Civil Defence said.
Buildings were only demolished after engineering and heritage reports by Christchurch City Council heritage planners and NZ Historic Places Trust.
Earthquake response officials would make every possible effort to contact building owners and property managers and the Civil Defence national controller had to be satisfied the efforts were made before a building could be taken down.
"It is however the building owner's responsibility to inform tenants and leaseholders of affected buildings."
In some instances, owners could not be contacted where contact details were not current or owners were living overseas.
So far 3691 buildings withing the city's four avenues have been inspected, with 852 getting red placards -- meaning it is unsafe.
Twenty-one heritage buildings have been approved to be taken down.
