Dear Tokyo,

As the Minister of Human Settlements, please will you scrap the National Home Builders’ Registration Council (NHBRC), take all its money (estimated at about R2bn) and put it into a fund that can be administered by a private insurance company and provide some real protection for consumers in South Africa.

You see we have the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) coming into force at the end of October and that Act appears to give buyers of new homes off-plan a whole load of protection that the NHBRC has been unable or unwilling to provide.

Also, in its current format, the NHBRC is doing little or nothing to protect housing consumers at all when they buy or build a new house.

You’ve seen the houses that have been built (and inspected) in various places such as the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga or any of the other provinces around the country. And, you’ve even conceded that some of them are so badly built that they must be condemned.

What’s so sad, though, is that all the bad work was done under the watchful eyes of your very own NHBRC who was supposed to be protecting you (and the homeowners) from bad building.

It was the NHBRC’s inspectors who turned their blind eyes to the bad building methods and the inferior materials used. It was the building inspectors who ignored the agreed specifications and failed to force the builders to comply with those specifications either.

Now, you and your Department have to pick up the pieces that the NHBRC failed to spot. You’ve got to pay different builders to do the work all over again. You have to do what we have been doing for many, many years.

And, I bet, that any claims that you may have lodged against the NHBRC have been met with the same bureaucratic stonewalling that we’ve endured too.

So please, Tokyo, let’s stop fiddling while our houses are falling down. Please will you take some decisive action that will rectify this mess? Please will you step in to stop housing consumers from being ripped off time and time again? And, please, stop the government being ripped off by its own agents as well.

For starters, why don’t you:

– Scrap the NHBRC and put all those people it employs to work in some other capacity where they might actually have some value;

– Take the enrolment fees that are paid to the NHBRC and put them into a fund run by a proper insurance company that will calculate the risk, fix the premium and then pay up when claims are lodged;

– Abandon the notion of having government inspectors (that’s actually what the NHBRC inspectors are) check individual properties and make it a municipal responsibility (as it is many councils') and let them take care of the inspections. If the building work is sub-standard, then they must say so without fear or favour.

– Save yourself – and all of us – an absolute fortune by preventing the NHBRC from siphoning our money without providing any remedial protection.

Please also insist that your Parliamentary legislators take the key functions of the Housing Consumer Protection Act (Act 95 of 1998) and incorporate these into the new Consumer Protection Act that is due to come into force on 24 October this year.

Then, under this new Act we, as consumers, will have many more rights and much more protection than we’ve ever had via the NHBRC.

While I agree that the NHBRC was a laudable notion – and one that should have worked wonders for all homeowners – in reality it has failed us on every level.

Let’s not dwell on that. Let’s move on and do something a lot more constructive and positive for the industry by opening up home building insurance to private sector companies that offer efficiency, quality and value.

Then, let’s licence our builders (as we have done with all our electricians) and let’s give the new legislation some real teeth so that individuals cannot go on ripping off consumers with their shoddy workmanship, poor materials, their lack of quality control and their complete ignorance of basic engineering.

You’ve suffered the indignity of wasted money; you’ve seen the plight of homeowners whose houses are so poor that they need to be condemned – in fact, you’ve even condemned some of them yourself.

And you have had first-hand experience of just how absolutely useless the NHBRC is. So let’s accept the NHBRC has failed us – forget the explanations, the reasons or the many other contortions. These are just excuses.

Then, from October, let’s have a way to properly protect consumers – through the CPA as the legislator and through private insurance underwriters as the insurer.

Please take this lead, Tokyo. You can insist that the legislation is put in place. You can open up the home building insurance for private industry. You can help to provide us with proper protection.

You might like to look at another privately owned service that’s available to estate agents and homeowners too.

There’s an organisation called Home Inspection Services, that sets out to provide protection for estate agents who are selling homes under the new CPA.

Essentially, what Home Inspection Services provides is a comprehensive audit of a property so that the estate agent can make a full disclosure to the buyer about any potential pitfalls in the property before the sale is concluded.

The audit notes all observable defects, no matter how minor these are, and then gives the seller the opportunity to remedy the defects or simply disclose them to the buyer.

At this stage, Kay says, his report satisfies the requirements of the CPA, but this will have to be tested in a practical sense once the new laws are enacted.

If I remember correctly, the NHBRC was set up to protect buyers wasn’t it? It was going to provide a combination of an inspection audit, insurance against poor workmanship, a register of all competent builders and it was backed by tough legislation to give it teeth.

But that all failed didn’t it. So let’s start again.

What do you say?

Kind regards,

Paddy

*Paddy Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com. The content of his columns constitutes his personal opinion and doesn’t pretend to be facts or advice. Contact him at paddy@neomail.co.za.

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Well said Paddy. The NHBRC has been a total washout for years now. I understand that 1.3% of the cost of every building built in SA goes into this fund (not sure if this figure is correct, but the NHBRC certainly does have massive funding in its coffers. I once heard an engineer say it was 15 billion rand – again, not sure of this figure.)

What bothers me is, given the reputation of the ANC, I wonder how much of this money is now actually still available, and how much has been siphoned off over the years as ‘expenses’, even though the NHBRC has clearly not been doing a proper job.

Can an independent audit be done on this situation because as someone who has paid into this fund through having had houses built, I would really like to know the truth.

I wonder if Tokyo is up for this? A real can of worms could be opened up if it is investigated. Still, if Selebi can actually be found guilty, maybe there is still some hope for proper justice in this country. – Doug

I cannot agree with you more.

The NHBRC was just another ANC job creation exercise for its cadres.

I was compelled to pay almost R20k to this body, even though I stated that I did not need or want it, as I will take my own risks, for a property I bought in Big Bay a few years ago.

In my book this was theft!

Dissolve this useless body IMMEDIATELY. – Andre Swanepoel

Well said Paddy. Please can you get a comment from Minister Sexwale on this one!!!!! Wonder what his response will be?????? If any!! NHBRC Inspectors a disgrace to the industry as well as NHBRC administrative personnel. I have been trying to get to Minister Sexwale myself without any luck. Even his Chief of Staff, Tilly Gasela, makes comment like “haven’t got a magic wand” to me. Now I ask you, is a comment like that in the best interest of public relations, coming from Chief of Staff of the Human Settlement Department??? Maybe we should turn to Hellen Zille to make fire under this lot!!!! Seems like she is the only one that can make things happen regarding matters concerning the general tax paying public!!!! – Carmen Carstens

NHBRC is the biggest farce that has ever hit South Africa. NHBRC – Nothing Has Been Repaired Certificate. – Arrie Laing

Well done Paddy!

There could hardly be a bigger farce or useless drain on the construction industries economy. – David Untiedt

I had the most pathetic experience with probably the worst parastatal in SA. I am sure that they changed their legislation after my spell with them as owner builder, who did not need to be registered at the time. Everybody, including owner builders had to register not long after my clash with them. I was hassled for ever and a day. I lodged a complaint with the ombudsman. Even he gave up in the end.

It is actually frightening just to think how useless people who have to serve the public, really are.

As far as I am aware, they have only settle two claims since inception.

It is only a anc effort to create work and rip [richer] tax payers off. Why do we sit with so much corruption in low cost housing projects – houses falling apart. Where was the NHBRC when the anc cronies secured the construction tenders. Promise you they were at one or other seminar, bosberaad, function, so called training session. Ask me I have gone through the exercise. Nobody, never available.

You think I paid the ridiculous and laughable R54,000. NO I DID NOT. I chased the inspector and threaten to have him locked up if he trespass on my property - probably still running. – Andre

The arrogance,incompetence and inefficiency of the Port Elizabeth office can't be matched by the worse company this world has ever seen ! The NHBRC is nothing else than LEGALISED THEFT ! It does not contribute to anything else than increasing building costs and add to extra delays in an industry already under pressure and threat ! It has no right to existance! – Anonymous

My house has been leaking for 3 years. I was told about a year and a half ago by the NHBRC that ‘unless it is about to fall down’ they are not going to do anything.

I am about to try again – I have a report and photographs from a structural engineer. I paid for this report.

Should they fail to take action this time… legal action is my only recourse.

This is not the ‘NEW’ house I have paid for.

Well said Paddy. – Rene

Well done Paddy.

The NHBRC is a joke and I speak from experience. They are indeed a farce and should be scrapped ASAP. - Frank da Canha

Well put Paddy!!

I have been trying to get our national franchise HomeSafe Home Inspection www.homesafeinspection.co.za a licensed division of HomeSafe USA LLC www.homesafeinspection.com off the ground in SA since 2006 and we were asked by previous Dept. Of housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu to present our unique technology and globally patented inspection system to a technical committee in 2008.

Both the DOH as well as many " Real Estate industry champions" in this country have paid great lip service to the need for disclosure and consumer rights in real estate , but no attempt was made to adopt a professional report into the real estate process. In fact loose comments like " this flies in the face of the real Estate Process " , were made by a CEO of a big property group. Many others said what a great idea but there Is no need for it right now ????

Unbelievably our most successful inspector out of 8 licensed areas resides in Gaborone Botswana where financial service providers Botswana Building Society ( BBS ) grabbed the opportunity to use HomeSafe as a protection of their investments in mortgaged assets.

Why do we in SA not take lead from developed countries and at least recognize the need for such processes that have been proven since the mid 1970's in countries like the USA where 95% + of all homes are inspected on the insistence of Real Estate professionals in the transfer process , due to pressure provided by consumer protection and disclosure laws.

Simply put and in a nutshell , Agents cannot be technical evaluators , and they cannot be apportioned the blame when a deal goes wrong due to technical concerns. However ,as deal facilitators and "professionals" why then do they not take the opportunity to provide a report on their Show House desk as part of their portfolio before the deal has any chance of becoming a nightmare deal that ends up in a law suite. A 26 page comprehensive technical evaluation , municipal plan with approvals , zoning rights ,and then you are buying with knowledge of the biggest investment you may make? Possibly even a energy efficiency rating for the home , easily included in our report?? Or am I getting ahead of myself here ??

The scope of the NHBRC is so narrow ( only newly built full home construction) that it is destined to fail. Renovations resale's , rezoning and all property transactions need to be covered by way more than "Voetstoets " and Buyer Beware or Roukoop . Roll on the CPA and a more professional real estate environment!!! Those industry players who adapt in time will reap great benefits going forward and the consumer will be the winner for once. – Kevin Harris