Local building contractors may soon be required to operate within a new regulatory framework that seeks to ensure that they possess the credentials to deliver on the expectations of their clients.
Stabroek Business has learnt that following claims of unsatisfactory service by contractors and what in many instances are contractual arrangements that leave clients little if any recourse in the law, the Ministry of Housing is mulling the creation of new rules and regulations that will register local building contractors and place greater legal onus on them to meet client expectations or provide compensation for unsatisfactory work.
Most client complaints reportedly stem from contractor failure to deliver jobs to specifications required, or else from what some dissatisfied clients say is the use of inferior building materials, primarily wood, in construction jobs.
However, Rafeek Khan, Executive Director of Wood Direct, a local company that manufactures hardwood products and exports tropical hardwoods, told Stabroek Business that while contractors have an obligation to honour contracts with clients, those persons investing in costly homes and other structures had a responsibility to seek to protect their investments by, as far as possible, familiarizing themselves with the processes in the building trade.
“In the case of lumber, value comes at a price. There is a need for intensified consumer education so that people can know, for example, exactly what it is that they are buying. Quality lumber, including that which is graded for the export market, is available locally. The issue sometimes is price,” he asserts. Khan says that given the size of investments involved in the construction of new homes, he believes many clients show a surprising lack of knowledge of wood species and wood imperfections. “Many people who make lumber purchases know very little, if anything, about wood defects like sap, wood knot and shake,” he added.
Khan told Stabroek Business that while he endorsed the proposed plan by the Housing Ministry to register contractors, he believes the creation of a reliable cadre of contractors required that government go beyond the issue of registration. “We need to ensure that we have qualified contractors. That means that systems must be put in place to determine their competence. Issues of training and upgrading should also be considered,” Khan says. Beyond the issue of contractors, Khan says that in the absence of a sufficiently rigorous regime for the inspection of new buildings there is always the likelihood that defective work will be delivered. He is advocating a multi-tiered building inspection system similar to that which obtains in the US.
“In the US, the county inspects every tier including the foundation, framing, roofing, mechanical and electrical and you cannot move on to the next phase until the current phase is cleared,” Khan said.
Khan told Stabroek Business that building regulations, specifications and codes were far more stringent in several other Caribbean Community territories. He believes that one of the reasons for the absence of stringency here is the fact that unlike several other Caribbean territories Guyana is not vulnerable to hurricanes and some other natural disasters.
Meanwhile, Khan whose company exports both lumber and value-added products to Europe, North America, the Middle East and the Caribbean said that he was not entirely sold on the idea of promoting lesser known species of wood for use in the building sector as replacements for traditional species. Khan said that while there were indeed various durable and beautiful species of wood, which were little known to local consumers he was not sure that, in many cases, enough research had been done to determine how these woods would behave in certain conditions and, more importantly, whether the species exist in large enough quantities. He says he believes that it would be unwise to have any sector that relies on large volumes of wood for production, depend on those non-traditional species. “What happens if there is not enough of that species around to sustain the particular industry?” Khan asked.
Noting that the building industry was witnessing significant changes in taste and preference Khan says many of the country’s non-traditional species may be ideal for use in the decorative aspects of the construction industry. “Some of those woods could be used to enhance the aesthetics of buildings since lesser volumes of wood are required for that purpose. Another good idea might be to determine whether some of these species may not be better suited to the craft industry where there is a significant value-added element. That, of course, would
