((First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine September 2013)
Recently a reader contacted the Consumer News Namibia magazine to
complain about the housing. Various consumers have complained about the high
cost of housing, the skyrocketing of rents and generally the lack or shortage
of housing. This consumer had a very different complaint and led to some
in-depth investigation to understand the issues involved.
The reader states “I have recently moved into a complex that was built within the last
four to five years. The previous tenants were students and therefore I accepted
there were some shortcomings on the property and the landlord and I agreed to
deduct the costs of renovations or replacements to the building that I may
incur. Once I moved in I started realizing there were problems that were not
made by tenants, but rather structural problems in the way the property was
built. To name just a few:
·
The geyser outlet pipe on the first floor is directly above the back
door on the ground floor. This means when the water overflows it drops directly
over the backdoor leaving a pool of water. As the geyser is on the first floor,
it is very difficult to get to the outlet pipe and will need a professional to
fix this problem.
·
The backyard of the property has no drain at all. There are two taps
for the washing machine and the washing machine outlet is there, but the
additional tap in the backyard has no drain into which it flows. Further, as
there is no drain, all the water has to drain out through the neighbours
backyard through a very small opening. I am sure this will cause a major
problem when the rainy season starts.
·
The stairway is to narrow and not high enough to pass a double bed
upstairs. We had to hoist the bed over the balcony to get it into the bedroom.
I contacted the consumer and got the
details of where the flat is situated and was able to get more information
regarding the developers.
Neither the developers nor the builders
have responded to any questions in this regard so I decided to take this up
with the relevant authorities. This was not an easy task. The law that is
applicable is apparently not the Namibian Standards Act of 2005 as this Act
clearly states in Section 35 (3) that "Any standard building regulation
which was framed and published in terms of 14bis of the Standards Act, 1962 ..
and which was in force immediately before the commencement of the Act, remains
in force..."
Thus the Namibian Standards Institute is
not the relevant authority.
Not having access to the Standards Act of
1962, I then contacted the City of Windhoek (where the property is situated)
and was informed the Occupational Health and Safety Section of the Health
Services Division is involved in the registration of businesses and the
approval of building plans. The most I
could confirm with the Municipality that the building complies with the
regulations at the time of sale and a building compliance certificate should
have been obtained if the property ownership was transferred after 19 August
2011. These new regulations were introduced by the City in an effort to bring
in a control system to enforce correct and approved building plans.
As the property in question was built
before this date, it might be that certain elements in the building do not
comply with the regulations. If this is the case, the City of Windhoek assured
me that when the owner wants to sell such a property, they will have to rectify
these issues.
Unfortunately, the investigation is not
able to address the reader’s complaint and find a solution. However, we would
like to caution our readers who might have properties to sell, that they as the
present owner would be responsible for the cost of rectifying these mistakes
when the wish to sell the property.
