adminsome owners can be when adding value to a property.
Building or renovating a property is not something that should be tackled indifferently as present actions have an effect on future pricing.
Many of us hire uncles and neighbours who we believe have some knowledge relating to construction without evidence of such, in an attempt to save as much as we can.
Engineer Maponga of ISM Construction is of the opinion that it is more expensive to hire a non-registered private contractor as opposed to registered companies.
The difference is only that you pay less in the beginning and more in the future, whereas with a registered company one pays slightly more in the beginning, but enjoys value retention in the future.
There are many advantages in using registered companies, besides the obvious of having a registered office.
This at first glance does not seem so important, until one needs to get hold of their contractor after a problem has occurred.
Some construction companies offer discounts to their clients on building materials as the companies normally buys their materials in bulk.
When they buy in bulk, they are able to get the materials at relatively lower prices and the client benefits from these low prices as an incentive for contracting with the particular company.
The Construction Industries Federation of Zimbabwe regulates the standard agreements offered by registered construction companies to their clients.
They normally offer client focused liability clauses, which protect the client if the workmanship at the site is not up to standard. It is open to the client to negotiate, where possible, the extent of liability one can have with the contractor, and the fact that one still has recourse to go to CIFOZ is a good enough reason to sleep at night.
Such standard agreements offer among other things retention funds.
These negotiable funds range between five to 10 percent of the total bill.
The client gets to keep the agreed percentage on completion of work for a previously agreed period.
The sole purpose for retention is that the construction company will have guaranteed that should there be any defects on the work they have done on the property during that period they will not receive that percentage.
However, if there are no defects then the money can be paid after the agreed period.
Construction companies normally employ qualified personnel, ranging from quantity surveyors to the builders on site.
They even go further to check what grade or class the builders they employ are, which is reflected on their trade cards. The grades range from one to four with one being the best grade.
The builders and carpenters are graded at the Department of Manpower working together with the National Employment Council of Zimbabwe in the section specialising with construction work.
For the client this is a guarantee that the workers on site are qualified for the work.
On a normal project, the personnel deployed will be a site supervisor, accompanied by the builders, carpenters, plumbers, electrician, general hand and any other specialist that may be necessary.
The site supervisor makes sure that work is performed to the highest standard and monitors all work.
The availability of expert personnel working together on one project under one company in the end works out cheaper than employing individual specialists at different stages of the project.
Some people in the process of building or renovating their properties may not have the capital to pay a construction company all the money as a lump sum.
However, most construction companies offer options that are commensurate with the client’s budget or cash flow.
The industry itself has adapted to the lack of capital on the market and endeavours to do what is conducive to the client
Registered construction companies with a registered address offer assurance of quality of work. In most cases, they encourage the client to employ an independent architect, engineer or quantity surveyor to act as project manager.
The benefit of using professionals is evidenced when selling and the value retention of solid work is the added bonus.
l Vengai Madzima is a property consultant and analyst with Wisdom Properties. He can be contacted on 0772 468093 email: [email protected]
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