Making urgent repairs

After a natural disaster, you should first do all that you can safely do yourself to make your home habitable and protect it from further damage.

You can:

• Get essential services like toilets and water systems repaired immediately, but you should keep, document or record everything the repairer replaces (and keep a copy of the bill).
• Clean up spillages of crockery and glass breakages (but you shouldn't throw anything non-perishable away yet).
• Dispose of perishables like ruined or spilt food. You should list the items as you dispose of them.

If possible, take photos before moving and repairing anything. Check our Guide for Taking Photos to Support Your Claim

Any reimbursement for temporary or urgent repairs is subject to EQC's acceptance that your claim is valid in accordance with the EQC Act.

If your request for reimbursement is accepted, the cost of any temporary or urgent repairs will be included in the calculation of your overall entitlement. However, the payment may be made separately.

Important: Don't start permanent repairs until your EQC claim has been settled.

This means that, if you’re able to, you should do things like:

• turning off the water or gas if it may be leaking
• boarding up broken windows
• putting tarpaulins over holes in the roof or walls.

You should only do these things if it is safe for you to do so.

Take photos beforehand (if you can), keep broken parts, and keep copies of invoices from tradespeople.

To help the EQC assessor estimate your damage later on, you should try to:

• take photographs of the damage before you start cleaning up
• keep all your damaged goods and parts, except for perishable items (e.g. food that has been split or that comes from a broken freezer)
• make a list of your perishables – and take photos – before you dispose of them.

Make sure you dispose of perishable items safely.