Tauranga businesses affected by the Rena's grounding take the next legal step in their compensation battle by starting mediation with the ship's insurers today.

The Tauranga Business Action Group, representing 53 Tauranga businesses impacted by the grounding on October 5, 2011 and subsequent oil spill, is seeking more than $5 million in compensation.

A group of business owners outside Baypark about to head into negotiations with the Rena's insurers.

Rena on Astrolabe Reed in 2012 as the stern section began to sink.

No business owner has yet been compensated for losses suffered after the cargo ship, owned by Daina Shipping and insured by The Swedish Club, struck the Astrolabe Reef.

Spokesperson for the ship's owners, Hugo Shanahan says the two-day mediation process with the group follows particulars for business claims received in February and March.

The owner and insurer invited all claimants to the mediation process in an effort to try and save time and cost, says Hugo.

Tauranga Business Action Group member Bruce Crosby, who owns Papamoa Top 10 Holiday Park, says business owners remain pessimistic they will reclaim any money in what is already a two and a half year wait.

The 53 small business claimants include commercial fishers, accommodation providers, fishing charter companies, adventure sports, boat tours and sports clubs.

Bruce says the business owners want 'nothing more and nothing less” than where they would have been if the ship had not run aground. If a settlement is not reached, the group will continue towards a court hearing.

'We have been told it's a bit like a horse trading event and I think that's a very unprofessional way to deal with our valid claims. Why should we put up with a horse trading event to decide without valid claims?”

'The system is against you, you can't win. You have got massive legal costs, lost all that interest on it and they want to horse trade your claims and they don't want to pay anything to start with they said that.”

The Business Action Group is pursuing a claim against The Swedish, which has limited the total amount that can be claimed against them for ‘property damage and losses' to about $11 million.

The total of $11.5-12 million is made up of the Business Action Group's claim of $5.5 million and the claims from an additional 15 claimants.

Of the total $5.5 million being claimed by the Business Action Group's 53 members, the smallest claim is for $18,000 and the largest is for $520,000.

'A lot of people are over it; it's just dragged on and on and we have had to supply all sort of documents to back up our claims, which is fair enough,” says Bruce.

'But the mediation - alot of people are under a misapprehension that it's to divvy up the $11.5million cap, but it's not. These insurers don't want to pay land base claims one single cent; they want our claims thrown out.”

The containership Rena struck the Astrolabe Reef, about 25km off the coast of Tauranga, on October 5, 2011. The ship leaked more than 350 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the environment and broke up, spilling containers and cargo into the ocean, washing up on beaches across the Bay of Plenty.