After a six-year insurance battle and a further three-years of re-design, repair and strengthening, Murray Woodward, Chairperson of the Body Corporate for Christchurch’s Cambridge Terrace Apartments is excited at the prospect of finally moving home.
Due for completion in September 2019, Woodward will join 28 other owners as they gain access to their Avon Riverside apartments - almost nine years after the devastating Christchurch earthquakes.
Challenged with directly negotiating the repair strategy and settlement with the Earthquake Commission (EQC), Woodward admitted the Body Corporate faced repeated roadblocks.
“It was a very difficult process in the initial phases, as individuals like us were unable to deal directly with EQC,” he said. “This made it extremely difficult to get anything resolved.”
In mid 2015, some four years after the February 2011 earthquake, Woodward was introduced to Nathan Lang, co-founder and Director of Christchurch based project management and quantity surveying company Focus Project Services (Focus).
“When I first met Nathan, we were wallowing, we were just stalled,” explained Woodward. “But his work ethic and ideas were so impressive. We felt that he knew what to do – someone to look after us. He had the knowledge.”
Accepted by the Body Corporate to complete and manage an extensive quantity surveying and engineering assessment of the apartment block, Focus issued an alternative, comprehensive costed scope of works to challenge the existing EQC assessment.
This new report pushed the cost to repair the damage well over the capped value that EQC was liable to pay, and into the hands of the insurance company. In December 2017, after a protracted and technical negotiation, the insurance company paid the Body Corporate an agreed cash sum – a figure that was considerably higher than the original EQC offer.
Woodward credited the increase in payout to the tenacity, diligence and industry knowledge held by the Focus team. The Body Corporate was now in a position to manage and direct the repair process itself, and so turned to Focus to get the job done.
“If we didn’t find Focus – a company that provides such a complete service - we wouldn’t have achieved nearly as much as we have,” he said. “I've learned through this process just exactly how valuable a good project management team is.”
Once settled, Focus switched from negotiation to project management mode. Taking an alternative approach to the more common contract tender exercise, Focus worked to a collaborative design and construction process and negotiated with a contractor to undertake the repair based on an open book tendering and recommendation process for the subcontract trades. This approach was used in order to achieve the required price tension for the project, whilst ensuring a team approach working towards the common goal of ‘best for project’ outcomes.
“I have never seen this before in my business life,” Woodward said. “Through great leadership and management, they pulled together a smart contract, kept costs relative, continually reassessed the process and kept us fully updated.”
“They completely took the stress away from us and from having to deal with it ourselves.”
Woodward also explained how valuable it was that they were kept informed every step of the way.
“You imagine having to manage and communicate what is going on with 29 owners,” he explained.
“Yet the detailed reports that Focus provided at the beginning of each month meant that I didn’t have even one query from any of the apartment owners.”
“Everyone knew what was going on at all times. What a fantastic achievement.”
Having been heavily involved in the repair process over the past year, Woodward was confident the apartment would be safer and stronger than ever. He marvelled at how innovative Focus had been throughout the entire process, offering the best solution at each stage of the repair.
“The team is so professional with what they do,” he said. “Everyone takes responsibility for all aspects of the process, even the smallest detail. Their responses and actions are immediate; no matter how minor the issue, they are always on it.”
Working with Focus for the past five-years has somewhat transformed the repair experience for Woodward.
“From what I have seen, they could do any size project. They look at both the macro and the micro – they see the whole thing,” he said.
“And through my position as Chair, the extensive and open communication from Nathan made this process so much easier than it was when we tried to deal with it ourselves.”
As to whether Woodward would choose to work with Focus again? Without a doubt. He said it was the personal, yet professional level of service provided by Focus that he would remember the most.
“Nathan’s commitment to regular eye-to-eye meetings gave us complete confidence that we were dealing with someone we could trust,” he said.
“The Focus team are immensely passionate and enthusiastic about their work, and their attitude is outstanding,” he concluded. “We are just thrilled to bits”.
The 29 apartment owners look forward to the official opening of the building in September 2019.
