2 Mar 2015

Canterbury quake repairs to be inspected

4:00 pm on 2 March 2015

100 Canterbury homes will be inspected by the Government as concerns are raised about the quality of the region's earthquake repairs.

The inspections have been ordered after repairs to 14 homes were scrutinised last year and almost all of them were found be inadequate.

A Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment investigation found sub-standard repair of cracks, incorrect use of building materials and poorly installed brickwork.

The ministry will now inspect quake repairs at a further 100 homes.

The Earthquake Commission defended the standard of its home repairs, saying the results were not representative of the 65,000 repair jobs done since the quakes.

Its home repair programme general manager Reid Stiven said the commission continued to receive an 86 percent approval rating from customers and takes quality control seriously, but welcomed a broader survey of repair jobs.

"So we're really confident that our quality assurance programme is robust, but of course we take these issues seriously and wherever we have got an issue we've always said that we would put it right, and we will continue to do that."

Mr Stiven said the commission was working through 112 complaints relating to repair quality.

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