Media release

Vero assessors take to the air

16 September 2022

With each new natural disaster event Vero supports its customers through, our teams assess the most effective way we can reach our customers, identify what they need and support them with their rebuild and recovery as quickly as possible.
 

Vero’s Executive General Manager Consumer, Jane Brewer says as the recent flooding and landslips were unfolding in the Nelson and Tasman area, Vero’s teams were on the ground to support the community, and shortly afterwards their assessors took to the air to get an aerial view of the damage.

“Our first priority was to help those of our customers who were the most impacted or needed extra support and to make sure they had somewhere to stay and knew what they needed to do to make a claim.”

“In parts of Nelson and the Marlborough Sounds, landslips in particular have meant in some areas access by road is limited and to get our assessors out over the area in a helicopter, to where we know our customers are and get aerial footage of the damage, has helped us to more quickly work with our brokers and customers to progress insurance claims.”  

To make the most of the aerial assessment, we did customer mapping so our Vero specialists knew where to look for affected customer properties and technical experts were aboard the helicopters to begin the process of assessing the impact.

“These events are becoming more frequent and more severe, and this was a good way for us to assess the use of aerial assessments when land access is compromised and, in this case, it provided significant value.”

She says Vero assessors have also accessed properties following this event via boat and in some cases shared community marine transport as neighbours and community members help each other in the aftermath of the event.

“Year on year natural hazard events in New Zealand are becoming increasingly severe, increasingly frequent and in the case of land damage increasingly complex. As a business, our challenge is to continue to adapt and to find innovative ways to support our customers with the repair and rebuild process as quickly as possible.”