Huge bills for damaged Christchurch houses

More than 12,000 properties in Christchurch are likely to have suffered more than $100,000 worth of damage each following February's 6.3 earthquake, the Earthquake Commission (EQC) says.

EQC pays out up to $100,000 plus GST for house repairs and $20,000 plus GST for contents, with the homeowner's private insurers paying out the rest.

About 5200 of the 12,120 properties, identified through rapid assessments, had provided EQC with details of their private insurance and staff were tracking down those details from the others, EQC Chief Executive Ian Simpson said.

He was not aware of any homeowners who were not insured and said he would have been notified if there were many people in that situation.

EQC staff had completed more than 182,000 rapid assessments since the February 22 quake and assessors were now focusing on full assessments of homes to work out how much would be paid out to homeowners. Nearly 400 had been completed, Mr Simpson said.

"Full assessments are a thorough and time-consuming exercise, with assessors spending from between one hour and five hours in a house."

About 185 teams of assessors were working in Christchurch, with at least one qualified builder in each, he said.

Staff were also visiting homeowners who made claims before February 22 and following up with any homeowners who raised issues about their rapid assessment.

EQC had prioritised emergency repairs for properties with winter heating needs, with about 4000 heat pumps or solid fuel burners ordered, repaired or installed.

"Homes where the primary heat source has been lost through earthquake damage are having heating equipment replaced or repaired and other work carried out to ensure weather tightness," Mr Simpson said.

More than 1000 orders were being taken each week, he said.

"The heat pumps are being delivered about two weeks after the order, while solid fuel burners take a bit longer."

Homeowners who had lost their primary heat source through earthquake damage should contact EQC.

EQC had received 287,000 claims for the September and February earthquakes -- 103,000 for February alone -- and paid out just under $823 million.

People had until May 23 to lodge a claim for the February earthquake.