If you live in an apartment or townhouse, or have shared ownership of some part of your residential property, you’ll need to prepare differently for the effects of a natural disaster compared to people living in a stand-alone house.
Some types of shared property ownership arrangements include:
There are many details to consider as the owner of shared property.
Seek legal advice to help clarify the nature of your ownership arrangement in the shared property and your rights and obligations, including how you will insure your property.
If you don’t already have one, you or your lawyer can order a copy of the Certificate of Title for your property from the Land Information New Zealand website to confirm the type of property interest you have.
Your Body Corporate secretary or manager or your local council may have this information. If not, consider engaging an appropriately qualified professional such as a structural engineer to provide advice on the strength of the building and how it might perform in the event of an earthquake.
Councils are required to assess buildings that have two or more storeys and include three or more residential units to determine how susceptible they may be to earthquake damage. If your apartment building is listed on a council register as ‘earthquake prone’ it may require strengthening in the near future to bring it up to the required NBS, which could be costly. Consider getting advice on your obligations from appropriately qualified professionals such as a structural engineer and lawyer.
Read information for owners of potentially earthquake-prone buildings on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) building website.
If the owners of shared property each have different types of insurance (or no insurance at all) and there is damage to the shared property, it may complicate any claims for the cost to repair that damage. There were a number of claims arising from the Canterbury earthquakes where owners of shared property had different insurers, different levels of damage and varying levels of insurance cover (ranging from no cover at all to indemnity value, specified sum insured and full replacement).
EQC provides automatic natural disaster insurance for homes, contents and land, so long as the home or contents are privately insured with a policy that includes fire protection. Land cover from EQC comes from the home policy.
Natural disaster insurance explains what we cover and how to check your private insurance.
Some of the complexities around insurance of shared property include:
Depending on the type of shared ownership, you may be required to have your property insured in a particular way. Check with your lawyer, your insurance broker (if you have one) and/or your insurer.
Owners generally need to insure their own contents, regardless of whether the building insurance is combined or separate.
You’ll find information about insurance responsibilities in a unit development on MBIE’s tenancy website.
Multi-unit buildings has information about how EQC settled Canterbury claims for earthquake damage to properties with shared ownership.
Slopes and retaining walls includes information about land structures that may be shared.
This might include:
It’s worth getting to know your neighbours – being on good terms can make a big difference in preparing for, during and after a natural disaster. It might also make it easier to avoid or resolve disputes. Ask your council for information about local community groups.
You can read about body corporate governance on MBIE’s tenancy website.
Extra steps to reaching agreement
If multiple owners find it difficult to reach agreement, you may need mediation or dispute resolution services.
Provisions for resolving disputes might be part of your ownership arrangement, for example:
Your lawyer, Body Corporate coordinator or building manager may be able to advise you of your options.
You can read general information on building safety in earthquakes on MBIE’s building website.
Some work might be restricted because it affects other owners or the building as a whole. For example, you might want to change or secure ceiling tiles in the hallway outside your unit, but first require approval from the body corporate or other management structure.
If you’re a tenant you might be further restricted if the landlord doesn’t want you to do certain things (for example, fix heavy furniture in place).
Tenants has information on how to make your rental safer, specific actions to discuss with your landlord, and contents insurance.
Homeowners has information about natural hazards and more ideas for making a home safer.
Is your interior fit-out safe?
Apartment buildings may be designed to move during an earthquake. This may mean you need to take particular care with your interior fit-out, and find ways to limit damage. For example, heavy hanging light fittings may swing in a wide arc during an earthquake and cause damage to themselves or anything in their wake. Something as simple as a bottle falling onto a benchtop or floor and breaking can cause significant damage because of the liquid it contains. Heavy benchtops may move off their base, potentially injuring residents or damaging other property.
You could make your unit or apartment safer by making some of the following improvements:
Tall and heavy furniture has the information you need about securing these items.
