Court order halts Brackenham building
The National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) asked the court to stop an unregistered builder of a Brackenham house from continuing with construction.
‘USING an unapproved builder without proper references, or skimping on quality building materials, can literally have catastrophic consequences for a property owner.’
So says local civil and structural engineer Johan van den Berg, who has more than 40 years of experience in the engineering and construction industry.
He was responding after an interdict was granted in the Durban High Court when the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) showed its teeth by asking the court to stop an unregistered builder of a Brackenham house from continuing with construction.
The property owner, Vusimuzi Mdletshe, and builder Frank Manyisa, were ordered by Judge Jerome Mnguni to stop construction.
According to the interim order, Manyisa and Mdletshe were interdicted from building on the property until a registered home builder was appointed, the home was enrolled with the Council or the Council approved an application for exemption from the requirements.
Senior home inspector Khanyisani Nzuza reportedly found the property at an advanced stage of construction and served a notice of non-compliance on Mr Manyisa, which he refused to sign.
The Council’s legal compliance manager, Julia Motapola, said in the application that if construction continued, the Council would be unable to establish the structural integrity of the foundation as further construction would have hidden it.
The NHBRC was established in 1998 in terms of the Housing Consumers Protection Measures Act to protect consumers and regulate the home building industry.
The Housing Consumers Protection Measures Act requires all new homes to be enrolled 15 days before construction starts.
The exception to the rule is if you are an owner builder, but only if you have obtained prior exemption from the Minister of Housing and agree that you understand the implications of the exemption and the house not being enrolled under the requirements of the Act.
The owner must agree that he will occupy the property and not sell the house within five years.
Such a house will not have a warranty protection laid down by the Housing Consumer Protection Measures Act and selling the house in future will also present a problem because resale require conveyances to request NHBRC enrolment certificates.
