The Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 have had a major economic impact on the region and on New Zealand. The earthquakes rank as one of the costliest natural disasters for insurers worldwide since 1950. The Christchurch rebuild will cost the equivalent of around 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). With continuing aftershocks, damage estimates have increased to $30 billion.

MWH Recovery, a subsidiary of MWH Global, began working with insurance partners in December 2010 to repair and rebuild homes and properties in Canterbury for their customers following the September 2010 Canterbury earthquake. Since then, our insurance partner’s share of the property reinstatement claims in Canterbury has increased because of the continuing quakes.

As of March 2013, MWH Recovery was managing almost 15,500 personal and commercial claims referred to it by its insurance partner for more than 12,000 earthquake damaged properties in Canterbury.

MWH Recovery has assessed thousands of properties, provided detailed scopes of the damage to our insurance partner, made emergency repairs to thousands of homes, undertaken hundreds of repairs at properties and provides a Call Centre, which receives more than 1,000 enquiries a week.

The team has grown from a handful of staff to over 200. We are recruiting staff internationally to meet our growing needs.

Project Highlights

• Working with our insurance partner to rebuild Christchurch, New Zealand following one of the costliest natural disasters for insurers since 1950.
• Made emergency repairs to thousands of homes.
• Completed more than 10,000 residential building surveys.
• Completed assessment and scope of damage for more than 6,000 residential properties and 1,800 commercial properties.
• Hundreds of residential property demolitions completed.
• Repairs completed to driveways, paths, fences and structures external to the home for hundreds of residential customers.
• Increasing numbers of commercial and residential properties with significant damage have repair or rebuilding design or construction underway.