Chairperson, hon members, I suppose Home Affairs and Housing are almost the same with not much difference. I was in China some time ago and was advised by one Chinese gentleman that I met there, when he was told that I was a Deputy Minister of Home Affairs; he advised me to keep my affairs as far away from home as possible. [Laughter.]
Chairperson, I am privileged on behalf of the Minister of Housing, the hon Lindiwe Sisulu, to table this amendment Bill before this august House. This Bill is important in that it addresses itself to the measures to protect the rights and interests of housing consumers.
The Bill seeks to rectify certain interpretations and implementation problems encountered since the promulgation of the Housing Consumer Protection Measures Act, 95 of 1988. It addresses the issues of the owner- builders and clarifies the application of the Act with regard to this category of builders.
Owner-builders are persons who build homes for occupation by themselves and as such do not necessarily need protection against shoddy workmanship by the builders. In the amendment, allowance is made for the late enrolment and the non-declared late enrolment of houses. Such being houses enrolled with the National Home Builders Registration Council after construction has already started as against the desired prerequisite that houses must be enrolled with the council prior to the commencement of the construction. In the past these issues were dealt with in regulations and they are not defined in the Act.
The Bill provides for the insertion of a definition of late enrolment and makes specific provision thereafter in clause 14(a). Definitions for the National Housing Code and the People's Housing Process projects have also been inserted as they are contained in substantive provisions proposed in the Bill.
Section 7 of the Act dealing with measures that the council and the Minister may prescribe is amended in order to include measures pertaining to late enrolment, nondeclared enrolment and late enrolment fees. A new section 10A is being inserted to enable owner-builders to apply for exemption from section 10 - that is, with regard to registration of homebuilders, and section 14. A new section 14A is inserted to provide for and to regulate late enrolment and nondeclared late enrolment.
Section 17 of the Act is amended in order to extend the cover provided by the council's warranty scheme to include roof leaks and to enable the council under certain circumstances to make payment to the housing consumer in final settlement of a claim.
The list of the contraventions in the Act that constitute offences, as set out in section 21 of the Act, is amended to include the section 18(2) duty of a conveyancer to ensure that a home builder is registered before attending to the registration of a bond.
Section 22 of the Act is being amended by the insertion of a new subsection that enables persons who are aggrieved by a decision of the council in terms of section 29 to lodge an appeal with the Minister. This is necessitated by the amendment of section 29. Section 29 is also being amended to allow the council to grant or refuse applications for exemption currently in the power of the Minister.
This is necessitated by the amendment of section 29. A safeguard in the form of an appeal process is, however, built into section 22 of the Act in order to ensure that exemptions are not refused unreasonably.
The Bill was published for public comment on 25 August 2006.
Invitations were also extended to various institutions, including the National Home Builders Registration Council, the Banking Association of South Africa, all the major banks, the national Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, the nine provincial housing departments, the SA Local Government Association, the Master Builders Association, the Building Industry Federation of South Africa and the SA Property Owners' Association. Thank you. [Applause.]