Claims for damage caused by the Canterbury Earthquake have been lodged from as far afield as Northland, with more than 1000 claims lodged from the Southern region.
Homeowners who had properties damaged by the 7.1 earthquake on September 4 and subsequent aftershocks have until Saturday to lodge a claim with the Earthquake Commission (EQC).
More than 138,000 claims had been lodged by yesterday, with thousands more expected over the next two days.
The majority of claims have come from Christchurch (108,807) and the Canterbury region, but claims for minor damage had been lodged from as far away as Northland and Southland, a spokeswoman confirmed.
More than 1000 claims have come from Otago and Southland, including Dunedin (466), Waitaki (263), Queenstown-Lakes (126) and Central Otago (77).
Just over 11,000 claims totalling more than $311 million have been paid to date, with EQC paying up to $100,000 (plus GST) for buildings and $20,000 (plus GST) for contents and land cover.
EQC declined to answer how many claims had been rejected.
"With a further 87,000 claims still to assess, we don't want to speculate.
"We are auditing claims randomly to preserve the integrity of our process."EQC had initially expected about 100,000 claims totalling less than $2 billion, but with the number of claims exceeding 138,000, the final figure was likely to be more than estimated, the spokeswoman said.
Despite the number of new claims, EQC was still working towards settling all claims under $10,000 by Christmas.
CLAIMS FOR DAMAGES
• Christchurch (108,807)
• Selwyn (10,498)
• Waimakariri (9877)
• Timaru (3496)
• Ashburton (2969)
• Hurunui (634)
• Dunedin (466)
• Waitaki (263)
• Waimate (184)
• Grey (132)
• Queenstown Lakes (126)
• Mackenzie (121)
• Central Otago (77)
• Wellington City (51)
• Kaikoura (48)
• Marlborough (44)
• Westland (42)
• Nelson (34)
• Southland (25)
• Clutha (24)
• Invercargill (24)
• Buller (23)
• Tasman (22)
• Lower Hutt (17)
• Gore (15)
• Other (263)
