Moss-Brothers Blog

When Your Home Is Destroyed By Earthquake Or Other Natural Disaster How Can You Receive The Best Possible Payout From Your Insurance Company (Without A Big Fight)?

Tens of Thousands of $, Even More, Could Be The Difference.

Has the Christchurch earthquake/s or another disaster destroyed your home?

We look at some of the photographic images of the destruction of buildings in Christchurch and the surrounding area and the jaw drops.

Imagine Coming Home To This?

Because information is easy to find on the internet, I’m contacted regularly from Valuers, Loss Adjusters, Insurance Companies and from people just like you who want to know how to get an accurate replacement cost of a or their heritage or period New Zealand home, homestead or building. In particular, as you can imagine, since the Christchurch earthquakes a steady flow of enquiries have come out of Canterbury – prompting me to write this article. But also because of the Christchurch disaster there has become a real awareness of not only ‘if it can happen in Christchurch it can happen anywhere and to me’ but also ‘am I sufficiently covered by my current insurance policy – even my current insurance company’?

In Christchurch, a raft of issues are raising their heads. Firstly, there is the general population that have been shell-shocked and traumatised. Then, there are the on-going after-shocks that terrorise people and reminding them it may not be all over yet. Then, there is the uncertainty over not just immediate living conditions but also the longer-term recovery – for themselves and their region. And finally, as the dust is starting to settle there are concerns about being adequately covered by insurance and settling claims without the added stress of having a fight with the Insurance Company.

Believing you’ve carried out due diligence and made every effort to make sure your house is adequately covered, some Insurance Companies, fairly or unfairly, have a reputation of ‘doing what it takes’ to minimize their loss. This is made worse by the fact that some of their customers are generally not in the right frame of mind after a disaster to best pursue and receive what they are entitled to. Obviously insurance policies vary from customer to customer and company to company but however, the process I’m about to suggest will arm you with facts and knowledge that will allow you to settle your claim with the fairest possible outcome in the quickest possible time.

You need to be able to say to your insurer, “here are the facts and replacement cost of my property as prepared by an independent and reputable third party”. I.e. a report that if not impossible, is very hard to argue against. This way there is no need to get into a fight or a price/payout argument. Just produce your facts and demand a settlement based on that – less stress and agro.

You Can Get A True & Accurate Replacement Cost

The question is, how can you find out the true replacement value of your historic or period home? It’s not as though there is a department of statistics for the current per square meter rate for the average building like that. Although I have heard that some insurers are trying to apply today’s average rate to older buildings in order to reach a reduced value settlement.

If you do have a ‘replacement policy’ and intend to rebuild on the same property, you probably wouldn’t want the exact same layout as you had before, but that is not the point here. You need to know what your home would realistically cost to rebuild so that it looks and feels the same, or as close as reasonably possible, as it did before. Remember that most people buy and live in older period homes because they love the look and feel of them – even if they are old, cold and hard to heat and require a lot more maintenance (note; new period replacements are the opposite to that – they are easy to heat and keep warm, easy to look after and almost maintenance free for the first decade or two). Having an original New Zealand period home is more of a love affair with the architectural style because the straight sharp lines of modern and contemporary alternatives leaves you cold – no pun intended. Generally there is only one aspect of a replacement rebuild that can’t be replicated, and that’s the use of native timbers – they are simply not as readily available as they once were.

When all or part of your heritage or period house (say pre 1950) is destroyed by fire, earthquake or any other natural disaster, here are the steps I’d take to get the fairest possible payout from my insurer – this assumes you are in fact insured:

1. Notify your insurer in writing of the damage as soon as you become aware of it – this goes without saying.
2. Confirm with your insurer your policy details i.e. have them forward you a copy of your policy – this assumes your copy has been lost or destroyed.
3. My next best advice – and this is an investment not a cost; Take your details to your lawyer and have them advise you on your entitlements. Don’t rely on your insurer. Point: Employing a professional to assist you here may even form part of your claim and could be included as part of your payout – and they’re emotionally detached. By not employing one, even for a bit of guidance, is a false economy.
4. Next, identify a reputable architect or architectural designer. In order for you to know exactly what the payout should be, you need to have concept plans and specifications prepared of the ‘written off’ house, even though you may have no intention of using these plans to rebuild with. Once you have these plans the rebuild can be estimated accurately.
5. The architect or architectural designer will provide you with a proposal or quote for their work to take to your insurer. You’ll need your insurer’s approval to employ the architect or architectural designer because your insurer will probably be paying for it as part of your replacement policy.
6. Assuming your insurer approves the architect’s or architectural designer’s proposal the architect or architectural designer will measure and take information from the old house and prepare plans and specifications for the same.
7. The architect will then forward the plans onto a quantity surveyor or builder for them to provide an accurate estimate at today’s values of the cost to rebuild your damaged house.
8. This is a service, ‘prepare concept plans and price the damaged or destroyed house’ that Moss Brothers are already currently performing for Canterbury folk, so we can help you too.
9. Armed with a concept plan and specification of your old house, and a price to rebuild, you can now confidently negotiate a fair settlement sum. As you can imagine, these facts and figures, providing they are prepared by reputable firms, are almost impossible to argue against.

10.  Once the settlement sum has been finalised you can now concentrate on your replacement build. Assuming you can build a new house on the same property you should be free to go back to your designer and start the design and build process of the style and floor plan you want (check with your policy).

11.  And away you go.

You need to take these steps (or similar) because your insurer is not just going to hand over the cash – or if they are it will be less than the cost of the rebuild value. They are going to want to negotiate a settlement most favorably to them if history is anything to go by. You need to be armed with facts and figures from an independent and as I say, always get good legal advice.

You Can Achieve The Same Look & Feel Building New

This same process can be used for any natural disaster where your house is destroyed including fire, flooding and landslip etc.

PS: It annoys me when I hear on the news that insurance companies are screaming about the cost of the Canterbury disaster claiming they are going to have to put their premiums up to cover their losses. Traditionally the insurance business has been very lucrative so they should just sell off some of their business assets and stop using this as an excuse to put their prices up.

I just want to take the opportunity to dispel the myth and the concern that some people have that veranda roofs block the sun and have the effect of making the inside too dark and cold.

Corner Bay Villa by Moss Brothers

Over the last 25 years a huge percentage of the homes we’ve built have verandas. During that time not once have we heard, “Hey, we love our new home but it’s too dark inside”. That’s probably because aside from adding character and charm to a house the veranda has some real practical benefits like; while still allowing plenty of light they also provide shelter and protect the main body of the building – and beyond into the house through glass.

But added to the attractiveness and benefits they bring, which I’ll discuss in a moment, for those that enjoy an indoor outdoor lifestyle; the veranda is a great extension of living space too.

Trial and error and experience has taught us that the optimum size or width is about 1.8m or 6ft. Let me explain why. Wider than 1.8m and it will start to create more shadowing than desirable, and that’s what most people are concerned about. Any less and the veranda won’t have the desired visual effect. Besides, as soon as an ‘easy chair’ is placed on a narrower veranda traffic flow is instantly restricted.

The Veranda Dining Room

Even during the middle of winter, when we experience the shortest winter days of the year and the sun is lower in the sky, our Masterton show-home (as example), with a 1.8m wide veranda, enjoys full winter sunshine right across the floor, and up the far wall in places – that’s between the afternoon hours of 3 & 4pm. The fact is, even if you only had a standard 600mm eave you wouldn’t enjoy that much more late afternoon winter sunshine.

Another advantage with the winter sun coming in under the veranda roof is that the sun’s warmth is trapped for a while warming up the side and the inside of the house. This of course is not only passive solar heat but also helps to reduce internal dampness.

The flip side to this is that in the summer you get the reverse effect. That except for first thing in the morning and last thing in the afternoon, a veranda roof will block more direct sunlight. This is because it is higher or more vertical in the sky for longer periods during the day.  That means during the summer months your carpets, your drapes and your furniture will experience less fading and rotting caused by stronger more intense sunlight rays.

Another huge benefit of having a veranda roof is, for those who are considering building on rural land where there is no town or mains water supply, you’ll have a greater area to catch rain water. That extra roof catching space could be the difference between being self-sufficient or having to buy water in. That is of course unless have access to a bore.

Indoor Outdoor Living

Having access to bore water is a huge advantage but I’d still recommend a dual water system, i.e. split up the supply to different house requirements. All kitchen sink water, all hot taps and the cold feed to the shower are all supplied from the roof catchment and tanks while the toilets, and cold feed to the laundry and bath, and all outside taps should be supplied by the bore. I suggest this because of inconsistent water quality – on occasions bore water can and does become contaminated. Another word of caution; have the bore water tested for trace elements and minerals because some chemicals corrode copper and other parts of the water system.

I knew of one couple who relied solely on bore water and had to replace their hot water cylinder several times. This is because the cylinders had either been made of copper or other parts, connections or couplings of the HWC are made or brass. What’s happened is, minerals in the bore water corroded these metals and that in turn caused leaks.

Another more visual affect is that some bore water contains iron. What happens here is when the toilet is flushed or a tap is run the water is broken up and iron in the water becomes exposed to oxygen. When this happens the iron begins to rust. It’s the rust that will leave unsightly stains on the toilet and bath that can’t be removed.

Still Plenty Of Light

I think it would be fair to say that most of us just love our verandas – it must be something to do with the indoor/outdoor lifestyle we prefer? Oh, and by the way, 2 more pointers;

If you really want to have an outside Dining Room that requires the veranda and veranda roof to exceed 3.6m you can always install skylights – Velux have a range of ideal units.

Always try to have your outdoor entertainments area on the east side of house. This is because most often we use our verandas and decks from mid-day on to early evening.  Having this area on, especially the west side of the house, means, as the sun goes down you’ll have nowhere to hide from the intense heat – sun burn being the end result.

For more photos of some amazing past projects click here

NZ 100 years ago – the speed of change – long-drop to pulling the chain.

We think the seed of change, especially in the current electronic/computer environment is hard to keep up with. Interestingly between 1880 and 1910 living standards went from using an oil lantern or wax (or even blubber) candle

wooden-throne-toilet

for lighting and the long-drop toilet in the garden, to having gas and electricity lighting, tap water to the kitchen sink and bathroom (in some cases even hot water from the coal range copper), and a pull-chain flushing toilet. Yee-haa.

And of course hot meant one could now have a weekly bath????? (The other days perfume will do the trick).

Coal often replaced the use of wood for heating as the towns grew. Coal ranges, and their fire boxes, were small which made coal ideal. On the flip side, firewood was getting harder to get because the source was getting further and further away. Small chunks of firewood burnt too quickly in the range.

Even though coal was (is) dirty and smoky, it was smaller, more convenient and easier to handle. Pollution, what pollution?

Yes, that’s right, it was about 120 years ago when they first started installing ‘the lavatory’ into New Zealand houses i.e. about 1890. It, ‘the earthenware water closet’ was usually added on to the laundry room or at the end of the back verandah, if the bathroom was too small.

2 things inspired the pursuit of cleanliness in the middle-class home: one was the death of the Prince of Wales from typhoid in 1871 (blamed on poor drainage – probably true); and the other was the Victorian fascination with mechanical devices.

But then of course, with all of this modern technology, how was the waste disposed of. As mentioned, the prince’s death was put down to poor drainage. 100 + years ago, most if not all sewerage went to a cesspool – like a bolder pit – hole filled with boulders. Problem was, with some folk, who were still relying on wells for their water supply, there was no certainty that in built-up areas seepage wouldn’t leach into that water supply – with contamination comes more typhoid etc.

The classic pull-chain water closet

And in fact, this is very much a concern today, especially on rural and lifestyle properties not connected to the town system. With modern drilling and boring equipment it’s possible to put a bore down 20m + quite easily. This meant that the septic tank and overflow to the boulder pit or drainage trench could be guilty of contaminating the neighbour’s water supply.

I personally live on a ‘lifestyle’ property and almost without exception all of the neighboring homeowners are on bore water, either directly or indirectly for domestic use. I don’t know or haven’t heard of anyone getting sick and that’s probably because we all have reasonably modern effluent disposal systems. This is with the bore and the effluent disposal system only being about 80m apart.

Because our domestic water is mostly rain water from the roof into a 5000 gallon/22500 litre concrete storage tank, on occasions, during the summer, the tank is backed up by bore. We know that every time it rains small amounts of bird poo ends up in the drinking water. But hey, I’ve been on tank water most of my life and I can’t even taste it now – seriously, rain water off the roof usually only affects the very young and the very old, or the occasional visitor that’s only used to sterile town supply.

Not sure if you’ve ever seen the latest and most innovative sewerage and efficient disposal systems – probably not, why would you?  Aside from being very complex and expensive they actually look like a piece of contemporary artwork, or a piece of sculpture. Many modern systems are designed in such a way that liquid effluent is disposed of in 2 ways; ½ via evaporation and ½ by penetration – please don’t hang me if the percentages are not quite right. What happens is, effluent is processed in the tanks to such a point that it can be pumped down small dripper lines running along the base of trees, plants or shrubs – just below the surface. That means in hot weather the plant will get a drink and what’s left will evaporate.

Finally, another personal story; I remember when I first got married; this is in my previous life. I built a 2 storey cottage on a 15 acre property. Because money was so tight most of the construction was from second hand materials.  Water was our biggest problem. I purchased a second hand 600 gallon galvanized water tank and placed it on a stand 3m high off the ground. Up there we caught the rain water from the second storey of the roof. Upon getting the first dump of rain it could only fill to half way – where the solder was that joined to tank together – bugger. Unfortunately the leaks weren’t caused by a faulty joint but from small rust holes – bugger again. That meant we could have about 50mm of water in the bath – just enough to get our bums wet. I think back now and laugh but at the time this was serious stuff.

How to build a new home that looks 100 years old – view the website.

There is no such thing as a house being maintenance free, and it’s not uncommon to hear that timber weatherboard houses are high maintenance. I think it’s true to say that 100 year-old weatherboard houses are high maintenance and this is due to a combination of age and neglect. Or, what maintenance that has been carried out was done poorly and on the cheap.

It will be interesting to see what state of repair the average house built in the last 10 years (or even more broadly, the last 25 years) is in, lets’ say in 50 years time. Let’s face it; we are faced with a leaky building problem that is seeing some dwelling condemned after just 5 years. I believe traditionally built weatherboard houses are unfairly singled out when many of the modern new-builds have been such a disaster.

But I don’t want to dwell on the negatives. I want to focus on the positives of how a beautifully painted house looks. If a timber weatherboard dwelling is painted by competent tradesmen exercising care and using paint fit for its intended purpose (let’s not use the word ‘quality’ because it’s used too loosely) then it should look amazing for at least 10 years, providing it gets a wash down annually and then sprayed for insects.

What causes paint to fail prematurely or prematurely look dreadful?

• The colour is too dark. Dark paint plays havoc on timber exposed to the sun.
• Poor preparation. As the saying goes; proper preparation (or planning) prevents poor performance.
• A lack of the tradesmen’s attitude, experience and skill, which includes the ability to cut corners without the owner knowing.
• Paint applied too thinly and too few coats applied
• Low-grade paint and paint brushes i.e. cheap
• The absence of the annual wash-down and insect spray.

To finish off, Farrow & Ball, UK paint manufacturer and supplier, have a range of stunning traditional paint colours. I not suggesting you necessarily order paint from the other side of the planet but their colour chart may help with your next project.

This is a true story and I don’t think it comes from Farrow and Hall. There is a paint shop/supplier in the UK that will not sell paint to men unless they have a note from their wife/partner giving approval.

No one can deny that the Canterbury earthquakes are a (architecturally) tragic event. The damage and loss of/to the heritage buildings (a subject very close to my heart) in and around the region is something that was naively largely unexpected. In reality, of course, it is always going to happen somewhere in this country of ours.

Light-weight brick chimney

But every cloud has a silver lining and this one has many. Firstly and amazingly; no loss of life. And it’s a wake-up that if it can happen in Chch then it can happen anywhere – therefore be prepared. Another silver lining is, in times of adversity people generally pull and work together – I say generally because I did hear that there were some rat-bag looters.

Of course the old masonry, in particular chimneys, took a hammering. Having bricks falling from above makes it even more remarkable that no one was killed. As the business owner of Moss Brothers my career has evolved and now I spend my time working on the business instead of in it.

And that means, yes writing blogs, but also chatting to people, many people.

Several months ago I was having a chat with a couple that came into the Waikanae show home. We were talking about open log fires and chimneys and how good they look (although very inefficient) with period (older New Zealand) architecture. I explained that, aside from being inefficient, there is horrendous cost in building a brick fire place and chimney. You see these days, to avoid them collapsing in EARTHQUAKES they are built from reinforced concrete. The foundations are set well into the ground so that the last thing standing in the event of a disaster is the chimney.

Shiest stone chimney

Although I did say ‘reinforced concrete’ they are usually dressed up with other products like used bricks or shiest as e.g. So long as the veneer is correctly tied back in accordance with the building code she can shake, rattle and roll all she likes (sorry in advance for any she’s that take offence) and generally things will stay put. How much for such a structure? From $20k – usually much more.

However there is, as always, other alternatives and they come in the form of illusions – something we are very good at. We simply create the same look and feel out of permanent light-weight materials. This also means they are very very much cheaper to build but you can’t tell the difference in appearance. The chimneys you see in the photos here have all been built on period replica Moss Brothers homes.

One final comment: As you will see in an earlier blog Moss Brothers are contacted regularly in regards to values of period and heritage buildings. Well, I remember earlier this year I was contacted by from someone in the Christchurch City Council. They were asking me about the construction of some the chimneys they saw on our website. There final comment was – don’t call us, we’ll call you if we need any more help. They never did contact me or the licensed Moss Brothers architect based in Canterbury as suggested.

Light-weight chimneys can easily pass for the real thing. See even more examples  on our Past Projects page.

Waterproof and earthquake proof

How To Take The Mystery Out Of Valuing Or The Cost Of Replacing A Period (Pre- 1940) Building If Its Destroyed By Fire.

Over the last 5 years in particular, Moss Brothers have been regularly contacted by Insurance Companies, Loose Adjusters and Registered Valuers (combined – ICLARV) from around the country. What they are asking is, “because you specialise in designing and building New Zealand (and some English) period (pre 1940) architecture can you offer any help to accurately value an existing older building, or how do we cost an old building that has been destroyed by fire”? I suppose you could say we’ve become the ‘go to’ firm for this kind of information.

1918 Masterton Homestead

I’m not sure how many types of insurances policies are available for covering the replacement of a building in the case where it is destroyed. But however, the 2 that come to mind are ‘total replacement’ without a specified sum, and other based on a ‘set value’ or sum. And I can imagine there would be many variations to these 2 and personal circumstance would be a contributing factor.

As well as the ICLARV contacting us, home owners whose property has been destroyed by fire have also done the same. Their concern generally is that the insurance company is only willing to replace size for size and not replacement. If you’ve had an old period home and love the look and feel of it and it’s is destroyed then you’d be expecting it to be replaced – right? Well – you’ll be in for a fight to get that.

What I’m hearing from the owner is, “The insurance company doesn’t want to replace a house with 10 or 12 foot ceilings/stud. They don’t want to replace the house with all of the ornate decorations. And they don’t want to replace the house using native timbers. I feel I’m being taken for a ride or forced into something I don’t want”.

I personally believe it’s fair, reasonable and know it’s possible for the owner to have their old period home, homestead or building that is destroyed by fire or in an earthquake to be replaced and have it look and feel (almost) the same as what it was before the disaster. However it not fair, reasonable or possible to have it rebuilt using the same materials – they’re simply are not available.

One Moss Brothers enquirer agreed with us to the point they followed our advice to the letter. And because of that and being hardnosed and persistent, they got the outcome and payout from their insurance company they believe they deserved.

There is only one way to know exactly what your replacement will cost and have the facts and ammunition to fight if need be. A couple’s 1915 villa was destroyed in a fire. They employed our architectural design service to prepare concept plans and specifications of the original house. Remember, I said the same look and feel but not the same materials. Yes the client invested about $15k in concept plans and specifications but having the documentation meant we could also provide them with an accurate rebuild/replacement figure. In the end not only did the insurance company pay for the design fees but as mentioned they also paid the replacement value based on the costings (or similar) we provided.

The other, very much cheaper way is for a Valuer, an insurance company representative, and the owner get round the table and agree to a figure and what should be covered. It may also be useful to have a reputable builder or an architect sit in of the meeting. Obviously the lower the value the lower the premium but this could have enormous repercussions if there is a disaster and the sum agreed is $100k short, which it could easily be in the case of a substantial building. But unfortunately, even worse, from what I am hearing most people are not even doing due-diligence and taking the cheapest option of just guessing what a replacement value should be, hoping a disaster will never happen to them. Or another option; Moss Brothers can prepare a report for you.

View From Entry Foyer

I must confess Moss Brothers did not design or build this. The architect was English but the builder was William Upton – my grandfather (building runs in the family) – built in Masterton about 1918. I’ve been asked what it would cost to have it replicated – as a guess round $1.5m – stunning though?

Moss Brothers design and build very authentic New Zealand period replica settler’s cottages, corner-bay villas, historical-looking homes and grandeur homesteads throughout  the country that truly capture the character and charm of yester-year – visit the website.