Expert seeks involvement of estate surveyors in building development process

Following the incessant building collapse in the country, one of the professionals in the built environment is making a case for the involvement of estate surveyors and valuers in the building development/construction process.

According to the Principal Partner of Timi Afolabi Consulting, a surveying and valuation firm, Mr Lewis Afolabi, there should be an expressed legislation making the estate surveyor and valuer part and parcel of the building development team from the inception to completion.

Justifying the position in his article titled “The collapsed Ikoyi 360 Degrees Towers- Vital Lessons on the Roles of The Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Afolabi argued that as valuers and managers of buildings throughout their life cycle, estate surveyors must be integral part and parcel of the process that produces buildings

He added that estate valuers have been trained and registered by the Estate Surveyors and Valuer Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON) to give opinion of value on all types of buildings.

Speaking about the recent collapse of 21-storey building in Ikoyi in Lagos, he said: “From the incident under review, there are vital lessons that can be gained on the roles of estate surveyors and valuers in preventing future occurrence of building collapse.  The estate valuer is trained and registered by ESVARBON to give opinion of value on all types of buildings.

“As valuers and managers of buildings throughout their life cycle, they must be an integral part and parcel of the process that produces the buildings. Hence there should be an expressed legislation making the Estate Surveyor and Valuer part and parcel of the building development team from the inception to completion.”

He emphasized that from the conceptualization to design stage , a management structure for the upkeep of the building cannot be overemphasized, saying  that it’s suicidal to put up a building of  21-storey  without expressly engaging the expert that will manage and market the building for it to be in a state where it can deliver effectively the purpose for which it was constructed as well as command the appropriate market value.

According to him, statutory involvement of the estate valuer would make it easy for a thorough background check on the developer, adding that the essence was to confirm his or her antecedents in the development of similar project.

He listed some of the roles of estate surveyors during conception, design, construction and post construction of building project

Explaining further, Afolabi said it would have been easy to investigate the funding base capacity of the project at that stage to avoid sludge funding, project abandonment or cutting corners owing to scarcity of fund..

He said: “It is critical for the estate valuer to investigate and ensure that the building plans are drawn by certified professionals like the architects and engineers, and are indeed approved by the government approved authorities.

“This must be double checked. He or she should do a critique on the plans to ensure that functionality is not sacrificed for aesthetics which may lead to the introduction of functional obsolescence with its attendant huge maintenance cost implication.”

“It is the estate valuer’s duty to do a background check on all the consultants and contractors listed as designers, supervisors and executors of the project in order to establish their antecedent in similar projects,” he added.

While the place of insurance cover for the project must not be taken for granted, Afolabi said the responsibility is upon the valuer to probe and ensure the project is adequately covered by an insurance policy “so that where and when circumstance as the one under review arises the apartments subscribers can look forward to making claims for their money.”