The Insurance Council of New Zealand, the Earthquake Commission and eight private insurers, including AA Insurance, have been working together to form a new National Disaster Response Model (NDRM).

First piloted after the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, the partnership and agreement between EQC and private insurers will simplify the claim making process, making natural disaster claims easier by providing a single point of contact for customers.

Under this new model, AA Insurance will act as an agent of EQC for damage that has occurred from 30 June 2021. Anyone with an AA Insurance Home or Landlord Insurance policy, whose home or land is damaged in a natural disaster will have one point of contact at AA Insurance and we will manage the entire claim. This means that AA Insurance will assess, manage and pay home and land insurance claims for customers, instead of customers needing to claim with both EQC and AA Insurance. Once the claim has been settled and all claim-related payments have been made to our customers, AA Insurance will recover any applicable costs from EQC.

Included in this new agreement is the EQC claim for land damage, the EQC portion up to the statutory capped level of damage ($172,500 incl GST), and then any claim under the AA Insurance Home Insurance policy to cover additional losses up to the sum insured. For multi-unit buildings, a lead insurer will be appointed for customers to liaise with.

For further detail, please see the EQC website.