Strong interest in residential red zone offer

Interest in the government's offer to purchase homes in the residential red zone in Canterbury is high, with 2824 consent forms returned by the end of July, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

On 23 June the government announced that around 5000 properties were in the residential red zone because their land was unlikely to be suitable for residential occupation for a considerable period of time.

"To help people move on with their lives, the government said it will make an offer to buy their property and take over either all of the homeowner's insurance and EQC claims, or the EQC land claim only, leaving homeowners to continue to deal with their insurer about their homes.

"Two weeks ago the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) wrote to those homeowners with insurance in the residential red zone asking them to complete and return a consent form by 31 July.

"These consent forms give the homeowners' authorisation for the Earthquake Commission (EQC) and their insurance company to share information with CERA. This will allow CERA to develop the offer letters," Mr Brownlee said.

"At the time of the announcement the government committed to writing to those homeowners with insurance in the residential red zone with an offer by mid-August. We are on track to meet that timeframe for those people who returned their consent forms on time.

"Homeowners can take longer to return their consent forms if they wish to seek advice, but they should bear in mind that will impact on when they receive their letter of offer.

"Our other priority since the initial announcement of the land zones has been working to reclassify the around 10,500 properties in the orange zone to either green or red.

"Our first focus is on the orange zone areas of Waimakariri. We hope to be able to make some announcements around the orange zones in Waimakariri within the next three to four weeks," Mr Brownlee said.