Christchurch City Council's Under-Insurance

Max Hall made this Official Information request to Christchurch City Council

The request was refused by Christchurch City Council.

From: Max Hall

Dear Christchurch City Council,

Regarding the mass under-insurance of Christchurch council’s buildings caused by poor valuations by private contractors, and its resulting losses funded by rate payers.

please provide:
1 - The number of Christchurch buildings affected by the poor valuations.
2 - List of valuation companies used by the council from 2005 and until 2023.
3 - List of actual cost of replacement of buildings compared to insurance cover, Please include:
- Building name.
- Insurance cover based on valuation (as of Feb 2011).
- Actual replacement cost (as of Feb 2011).
- Corresponding valuation company.
4 - Total cost of replacement of these buildings.
5 - Steps that the council taken to investigate and prevent such loses.
6 - All disciplinary actions taken against contractors / employees with evidenced poor performance.

In particular, the OIA is concerned about the cost to public because of poor valuations of council's poor insurance cover in the period before and after the earthquake.

Please provide full reports for each item.

Yours faithfully,

Max Hall

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From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council

Kia ora,



Thank you for your email.



We are handling your request under the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA). We have forwarded it to the
appropriate Christchurch City Council staff, and we will provide a
response or update within 20 working days of the date we received your
request. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will
notify you of an extension of that timeframe.



If you have any queries, please feel free to contact me. If any additional
factors come to light which are relevant to your request, please do not
hesitate to contact me so that these can be taken into account.



Kind regards,

 

William Bloemraad

Information Coordinator

Office of the Mayor and Chief Executive

 

This electronic email and any files transmitted with it are intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
The views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and
may not necessarily reflect the views of the Christchurch City Council.
If you are not the correct recipient of this email please advise the
sender and delete the email.

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References

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https://ccc.govt.nz/

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From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council


Attachment CCC 2010 11 Insurance Listing.xls
721K Download View as HTML


Dear Max

 

Thank you for your request regarding the under-insurance of the
Christchurch City Council Buildings.

 

You will find a response to your queries below. Please note we have
refused some questions under varying sections of the LGOIMA. These reasons
are indicated under each question.

 

 1. The number of Christchurch buildings affected by the poor valuations.

The statement “poor valuations” is an opinion. The valuations were carried
out by a registered valuer and Council was entitled to rely on their
professional advice.

 

 2. List of valuation companies used by the council from 2005 and until
2023.

Good Earth Matters until 2011

Knight Frank / Bayleys from 2012 until present

 

 3. List of actual cost of replacement of buildings compared to insurance
cover, Please include:

 a. Building name.
 b. Insurance cover based on valuation (as of Feb 2011).

The building names and insurance cover based on valuations is provided in
the attached spreadsheet. Please note this is just the insurance value,
not the total cost of the repairs/replacements.

 c. Actual replacement cost (as of Feb 2011).

This information does not exist for all buildings. For the information
that does exist, it is considered a large amount of information that will
take significant staff time to collate. Additionally, these figures would
have to be re-calculated into the February 2011 values, as they were
originally calculated in September 2014 values or later. Therefore this
question is refused under the following sections of the LGOIMA:

              17(e) – the information requested does not exist or cannot
be found

              17(f) – the information requested cannot be made available
without substantial collation or research

If you can refine this question, we can reconsider providing an answer.

 d. Corresponding valuation company.

This information is considered commercially sensitive. This information is
withheld by the following section of the LGOIMA:

7(2)(b)(ii) – to protect the commercial position of the person who
supplied or who is the subject of the information.

In the Council's view the reasons for withholding these details are not
outweighed by public interest considerations in section 7(1) favouring
their release.

 

 4. Total cost of replacement of these buildings.

Refer above to question 3c.

 

 5. Steps that the council taken to investigate and prevent such loses.

Council has created more detailed processes around verifying property data
and valuations, including year on year changes.

 

 6. All disciplinary actions taken against contractors / employees with
evidenced poor performance.

This information is considered commercially sensitive and private to both
external and internal employees. Therefore, this information is withheld
by the following sections of the LGOIMA:

7(2)(a) – To protect the privacy of natural persons.

7(2)(b)(ii) – to protect the commercial position of the person who
supplied or who is the subject of the information.

In the Council's view the reasons for withholding these details are not
outweighed by public interest considerations in section 7(1) favouring
their release.

 

You have the right to request the Ombudsman to review this decision.
Complaints can be sent by email to [1][email address], by fax
to (04) 471 2254, or by post to The Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington
6143.

 

Kind regards

Sean Rainey
Manager Official Information and Privacy Officer
Official Information Team

 

From: Official Information <[email address]>
Sent: Monday, 24 April 2023 12:54 pm
To: [FOI #22545 email]
Subject: Mass under-insurance of Christchurch council's buildings

 

Kia ora,



Thank you for your email.



We are handling your request under the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA). We have forwarded it to the
appropriate Christchurch City Council staff, and we will provide a
response or update within 20 working days of the date we received your
request. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will
notify you of an extension of that timeframe.



If you have any queries, please feel free to contact me. If any additional
factors come to light which are relevant to your request, please do not
hesitate to contact me so that these can be taken into account.



Kind regards,

 

William Bloemraad

Information Coordinator

Office of the Mayor and Chief Executive

 

This electronic email and any files transmitted with it are intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
The views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and
may not necessarily reflect the views of the Christchurch City Council.
If you are not the correct recipient of this email please advise the
sender and delete the email.

[2]Christchurch City Council logo

References

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1. mailto:[email address]
2. Christchurch City Council logo
https://ccc.govt.nz/

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