21 Oct 2015

EQC to miss botched repairs target

5:55 pm on 21 October 2015

The Earthquake Commission is admitting it will take longer than March 2016 to fix shonky repairs carried out as part of its repair programme in Christchurch.

The foundations of a Christchurch home, which have to be repaired for a second time.

The foundations of one of the affected houses, which will now need to be repaired for a second time. Photo: RNZ / Conan Young

In August, a report found a third of unconsented structural repairs surveyed did not meet the Building Code.

The commission has promised to re-assess the defective work and fix any problems.

It has predicted it will receive 6736 inquiries from concerned homeowners but that not all of these will involve remedial work.

Most of the work involves foundations and the commission is planning to carry out 80 underfloor inspections a week.

Nobody at EQC was willing to be interviewed on how long the remedial work would take.

But, in a statement, it said not all of it would be completed by March next year - its original target.

It has set up a team of 35 staff to deal with defective repairs.

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