INTERVIEW

For a very long time, Kenyans have been buying residential properties without carrying out a professional inspection. While reasons may differ, most Kenyan property buyers concentrate mainly on the title, the location, and the price.

RAPHAEL OWINO OYEHO, a civil engineering technician with over 20 years of practice explains the importance of professional inspection before residential property exchange hands.

By Fred Oluoch

Could you give an overview of the need for inspection?

Inspection is very important for both construction safety and industrial safety. My concern is that in Kenya, the majority of people buy houses, and there is no formal inspection prior to purchase, so they end up with houses that have problems. If we can find a way to fix this challenge, then that would be a win for both the banking industry that finances the purchase and the insurance companies as well as the homeowner. Because as you are aware, we have so many new houses collapsing even before completion. The same can easily happen with completed houses.

Why is the information on professional inspection lacking in the residential property industry?

I think the problem is because we have sellers who want to dispose of the property as quick as possible, as well as impatient buyers. There are also cartel-like middlemen who want to close deals very quickly to cash in on their commissions. We need our parliament to legislate laws to ensure that we have a proper procedure for acquiring homes or properties so that an inspection is made mandatory.

Why does Kenyans lack the culture for inspection?

If you look at the Western world, every year a house has to have an annual inspection just to ensure that all the services are intact. But in Kenya, there are no laws compelling professional inspection before purchase.

Now, if it’s not captured in the law and there’s no culture of inspection, what does it say about the residential property industry?

That is why we are now advocating for inspection because we need to streamline the property market or property industry so that we have things done in a formalised way. For now, there is no formality.

As a buyer, you go identify a house, and the first thing you go look at is the title deed, the beacons, and the price, and you want to close the deal before somebody comes in. it is a sort of panic because people want to close the deals very fast, and they also don’t want to be scammed.

If you are doing an inspection, which areas should you be specifically looking at?

You should start off with the foundations or the basements. You look at if there are any moisture issues because if it was not well waterproofed, then the property will start seeping moisture, and with moisture, you’ll be degrading the structure of the building, and that may lead to collapse. This is because cement is basically a chemical, and if we have moisture seeping in throughout, then it will be weakening it.

And then from there, you will move into the floors and check whether there is any moisture coming out through the floors. That will be a telltale sign for you. From there, you’ll also look at the electrical works.

Was the wiring done correctly? Did they use the right size of wires or the right size of cables? Are the socket outlets placed at the right locations as per the code? Are they at the right height? In what areas do they place the ground fault circuit interrupters so that somebody does not accidentally get electrocuted in the house?

Then for plumbing, we’ll also have to look at the water heaters. Do they have pressure release valves so that the cylinder does not blow up? The International Residential Building Code requires us to control the hot water temperature to a certain level, not more than 50 degrees centigrade, to avoid scalding young children. But in our case, people are just installing and setting thermostats at 60 and 70 so that they get hot water very fast, and that’s risky.

How many days does it take to do a professional inspection?

A professional inspection should basically take a day if all the threads are there. You must assemble the plumber, the electrician, and all the rest so that they can work simultaneously because everything is interrelated. Remember, the plumber will look at the water heater and the water system. The electrician will have to see how the hot water cylinder is wired.

Does the law require the seller to provide all technical information to the buyer?

Unfortunately, for now, the law does not require the seller to provide all the technical information. What the law requires is that the legal documents, like the title plan and the deed.  

But with a home inspection, the inspector will be able to list the number of items that the buyer should get from the seller, like even the occupation certificate. In Kenya, before you occupy a house, you’re supposed to get what we call an occupation certificate. This is what the county government or the county authority allows that house to be inhabited. Unfortunately, less than 10% of the houses in the country have the occupation certificate.

What percentage are we seeing where houses occupied without inspection have failed or collapsed?

In the industry, we are looking at around 68%. That is a very high percentage, which means most people are living at risk. Some of the houses are put up without permits, thus contributing to the high rate of collapse. One would assume that it is an issue of Jua Kali contractors, but the real problem is an issue of the get-rich-quick mentality in the country, where you have the money and you really want to move very fast without waiting. The other thing is also the government system. The approval process takes a long time, so people tend to look for shortcuts.

Do most people assume that new houses are safe?

Yes, people assume that new houses are safe, and that is why it is important to look at the statistics.  68% of the new houses may not be safe. Our assumption is that they are safe, but they are not. In some cases, you find that there are cracks, but the developer or the contractor hides the cracks with very expensive tiles. So, when the buyer goes in, he or she sees a very good finish, but underneath, there’s a problem that will later cost the buyer a lot of money.

But again, we can overcome this by buyers being aware that it’s for their own benefit if the inspection is done because it is likely to reveal some underlying problems that may come up in future. The current inspection rate is only Ksh 50,000, which is little compared to the millions the buyer could spend in the future by avoiding inspection.