New online tool reveals 25 years of property disaster claims

Kiwis can now easily find out if a property has been damaged in a natural disaster, over the past 25 years, using a new online tool.

Launched by the Earthquake Commission (EQC), the online portal allows anyone to type in an address and see whether there's been an EQC claim made against it.

The commission's chief resilience and research officer, Jo Horrocks, said it will be particularly helpful for homebuyers, property lawyers and councils.

"One of the reasons we created the portal is that a couple of people in my team actually were buying a house themselves. And despite knowing a lot about natural hazards, they actually really struggled to find all of the information they needed," Horrocks said.

"We thought if they were struggling to find that, then other people certainly would be. So, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for New Zealanders to understand the natural hazards around them."

While a lot of claim information is already publicly available, it's not always easy to find and can cost to view. It also sometimes requires contacting EQC.

"It was the worst thing to see people post the Auckland flooding or Cyclone Gabrielle to say that they weren't aware that the property was in a hazard zone of some kind," Horrocks said.

However, potential homeowners are still urged to do their own research, as some damage won't be covered by EQC and therefore won't come up on the website.

EQC covers natural disasters, including earthquakes, landslides and some flooding.

Horrocks also warned that a previous claim wasn't necessarily a sign there was an ongoing issue with the property.

"The portal really is just a prompt to tell you that something has happened in the past. It might have been large, it might have been small. It might have been a long time ago, it might have been recent. And that's just your signal to go and ask more questions to go and find out more."

Speaking to 1News, property lawyer Kristine King said information about previous damage can be hard to come by even for professionals. King is the deputy chair of the New Zealand Law Society's property law section.

"I think it's a good tool in the toolbox for both homebuyers and property lawyers. So it gives us access to information that we couldn't easily access before."

King said the portal is particularly useful for looking at particular areas or suburbs.

"You might find that you look at one property and there's no claims history whatsoever, but the surrounding properties do have it. It could indicate that the area is susceptible to damage from a natural disaster, or it might mean the property you're looking at, the owner completed the repairs privately."

In Nelson, resident Yoann Martichon's Nelson home remains red-stickered after it was hit by a landslide during a storm last August.

He learnt after the storm that a similar landslide had hit the home before he bought it in 2011.

"We feel like it's been hidden from us because it wasn't mentioned whatsoever by any party," he said.

Martichon said he wanted more information made available online, like pictures of the previous damage, but said the new portal was a good start.

"It's about time. Obviously some homeowners are not going to like it because they think it's going to devalue their property but for me, it's a fantastic tool."

Martichon said that — while he probably would have bought his home regardless — it would have been helpful to know, particularly during last year's storm.

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"It was pretty scary, when you see the whole hill collapsing on your place," he said.

"If we knew this happened already we could have watched closely and said look we might just going to go somewhere for a few days until the rain stops."