12 Nov 2014

Residents vindicated by engineer report

8:00 pm on 12 November 2014

Christchurch residents who complained about a senior Earthquake Commission (EQC) engineer say they feel vindicated by a report into his conduct.

Quake damage has left Christchurch with a chronic housing shortage.

A quake-damaged Christchurch house. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski

Graeme Robinson went before a Chartered Professional Engineers (CPENZ) disciplinary hearing in August over complaints regarding bullying and poor assessments of quake damage to 11 properties.

Radio New Zealand understands the findings are highly critical of the EQC and of Mr Robinson's conduct.

Complainants are being consulted on what measures they would like to see taken against Mr Robinson.

One of them, Michael Tierney, said he could not talk about the findings but, while the hearing was terrifying, he was ecstatic with the outcome.

"At the end of the day, we need justice, we need this man to stop being allowed to go around the country telling people that they have no damage or its historical damage," he said.

"It's just rubbish."

Mr Tierney said he was hoping the CPENZ findings would force EQC and insurer Vero to re-assess his damaged home.

Fellow complainant Andrea Laws said she could not talk about the findings but that she and the 10 others were being consulted on what measures the wanted take.

"It really is just annoying that even if he was found guilty on absolutely every charge under the sun, they really have no power to do anything," she said.

"The very worst case is he gets struck off, and that would be like very worst case scenario for him."

Ms Laws said complainants had 28 days to make submissions on the findings.

EQC said in a statement it would meet Robinson, who was on scheduled leave, next week to discuss the findings.

It was working through the details of the report and would start assessing any ramifications it could have for EQC, staff and customers, the statement said.

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs