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MOSSEL BAY NEWS - A property valuer warns that bad building practice is becoming more and more prevalent in the Garden Route area.
Danie Zeelie is a independent, professional property valuer, registered with the SA Council for the Property Valuers' Profession (SACPVP).
PHOTO GALLERY: Bad building practices in the Garden Route area
A proportion of his work involves doing property inspections on behalf of different banks. There are many projects which have to be stopped because of bad building and authorities must be called in to intervene, he says.
Zeelie has 32 years' experience. He has lived in Reebok since 2016. Prior to that he lived in George. He works in the area from Plettenberg Bay to Mossel Bay.
Some of the contraventions Zeelie lists are using different type of bricks in one wall, which causes cracks. Also, he often sees gaps in walls, where the bricks do not meet. These gaps are simply filled with cement and plastered over, so no one knows about them. Later on these form cracks and the walls can collapse.
In windy weather, roofs take a battering and this puts pressure on walls that are badly built, where the roofs join the walls. Where walls are badly built and weak, they start to crack in windy weather.
Zeelie says: "Bad building is escalating in this area, because there is an influx of many people and lots of building taking place."
His advice is: "Make sure your builder is registered with the National Home Builders' Registration Council. All builders have to be registered. If you work through a bank, get hold of the valuer and ask the valuer what quality of work the builder is doing - the track record of the builder. But the valuer is not allowed to recommend or advise against a builder."
Zeelie says people can report bad building practice to the National Home Builders' Registration Council. There is an office in George. Also, complaints can be made online.
He has taken photographs of bad building throughout the area in which he works.
Zeelie says: "These days many people build to make quick money, not to produce a good product."
He complains there is little pride in work-manship these days.
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