Rural insurer, FMG, has received more than 900 claims related to the weather events in Tasman since 25 June and about 60 clients were hit more than once.
Head of transactional claims, Mike Cameron, says FMG expects the claims to total more than $13.5 million in damages such as buildings and contents, vehicles, farm fencing and culverts.
As an insurer, FMG works on behalf of Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake (NHC and formerly EQC) which covers damage to insured land from floods and storms, plus damage caused to homes by landslides.
It doesn’t cover flood or storm damage to a home apart from landslides, policies with private insurers pick that up.
NHC chief executive Tina Mitchell says it has received 267 claims from the three rainfall events – including the two major floods – since 25 June, with 130 claims for flood damage, 65 for storm damage and 72 for landslips.
Eighteen of those properties have had a claim lodged for both the 26-28 June and 10-11 July weather events.
She says it is too early to give any cost figures associated with the claims but, for context, the Nelson-Marlborough weather event that caused flooding in August 2022 generated 1,507 natural hazard claims, with about $90 million paid out. At FMG, Mike says it’s important to note that claims data does not give a full picture of the true impact experienced by farmers and growers.
“We’re really feeling for people in the upper parts of the South Island affected by recent weather. We’re here to support them get back on their feet.
“Certainly, it brings back some memories of the sort of damage we saw from Cyclone Gabrielle. There’s quite a lot of silt around, there’s a lot of damage to growing structures and fencing. As with Gabrielle, we are seeing the loss of effective hectares on farms, hops and horticultural land.”
He says New Zealand is one of the only countries in the world with access to residential land insurance, provided by NHC, but it has limits. This cover is generally a contribution to repairs, and Kiwis can’t buy extra land cover through their insurer.
