Awilda has lived in her own apartment for seven years and already wants to move. He bought a low-cost home in a project on the Duarte highway, and in the first years of living there he used the construction company’s guarantee to repair the apartment three times. Now he is plagued by a serious leaking roof problem. In fact, representatives of the national construction sector agree that leaks are “the headache” of the real estate branch.
“That is the headache in all the works, call it houses, buildings, industrial warehouses (…), of the owners, of the buyers, of the homeowners when they already deliver their works; that can come out in a year, in two years, in three and even in 10 years”, says the president of the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (code), Dolores Nunez. She attributes it to failures in the materials used, in the supervision and in the management of the project.
The walls of Awilda’s apartment are stained and paint is peeling off the ceiling, where there is a small hole through which water runs into the room. “And in the common area, which is the entrance to my house with the neighbor’s apartment, there is more water (which falls), like when you turn on a faucet,” says the owner. “In my room, in the walking closet, I have put a bucket, because water falls there”.
The lady and the three members of her family live on the top floor of the building and the asphalt tarpaulin on the roof is very deteriorated. The 96-square-meter apartment cost him 1.9 million pesos seven years ago. For repairing the leaks, he was quoted 100,000 pesos. “The whole house is very deteriorated…; the ending was bad”, she laments.
The president of code and the head of the Dominican Association of Home Builders and Promoters (Acoprovi), Jorge Montalvo, recognize that the construction vices are a problem in the sector at the national level. The first is blamed on professional irresponsibility and that of the developers, and the second mainly on the lack of technical preparation of the workers.
The construction vices are defects in the execution of a work or lack of maintenance during the useful life of the property. In the country they are registered in both the private and state sectors, for example, in public schools.
Between 2018 and 2021 alone, the National Institute for the Protection of Consumer Rights (Pro Consumidor) attended to at least 193 claims from homeowners who reported construction vices, the main one being leaks. They also reported problems with ceramics, electrical and deterioration of the wood of the cabinets, among other nonconformities.
The claims were for real estate with an estimated value between 1.1 million pesos and 25 million pesos. Most of the claims were for projects in the National District and the Santo Domingo province. In 34% of the cases, a prior agreement was reached, in 31% an agreement was reached, in 22% none was reached and in 12% it was rejected.
| Cap Cana | one | |||
| National District | 16 | 16 | 10 | eleven |
The president of code explains that when mistakes are made in a work, the consequences do not appear just after finishing it, but can be noticed after a year, two and even after a decade or two.
It indicates that these defects are called hidden defects –because they cannot be detected with the naked eye before buying-, and can occur due to errors made during the project design and execution phases or due to the total absence or deficiency in maintenance.
Among the properties brought before Pro Consumidor, construction had been completed in the same year as the claim or one two years earlier.
economic cost
A study of the impact of claims in the real estate sector according to Pro Consumidor, carried out in 2019 as a thesis for the master’s degree in Construction Administration Sciences of the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (Intec) found that, of 72 claims, breach of contract was the cause of greatest importance, with 58%, especially in the late delivery of the property and the lack of property title.
Secondly, there was the defective and flawed property, the most common of which was leaks and dampness in ceilings and walls, as well as sanitary and electrical installations that presented deficiencies a few months after the delivery of the property.
The study indicates that, according to Pro Consumidor, the economic return received by users for cases of conciliation and resolved by resolution was close to 50 million pesos, each case representing around 650,000 pesos in return, if the amount is divided in the form equitable. The figure is only of economic return expenses to the acquirers, without counting the legal ones.
Acoprovi recommendations:
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Evaluate well who you are going to buy from, so that something “as basic” as being delivered what was promised happens.
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Look carefully at the sales contract and the characteristics of the property that is delivered, to verify that the materials used are those agreed upon.
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Keep in mind that the promotional images of the project are often conceptual, to understand which part corresponds to an illustration and which have to do with the actual completion.
For another study carried out by engineers graduated from Intec on critical factors for success in construction, 90 engineers were surveyed, finding that the most important factor for these professionals is the contract, followed in order of importance by the factors project management, human, of the project and, lastly, external.
The two subfactors with the greatest impact were compliance with the required quality specifications and ensuring compliance with the planning during the project.
General customers selected the subfactor compliance with required quality specifications as the most important, followed by compliance with the agreed budget and also the State codes and regulations.
“In my apartment, the three floors of the three rooms have already been raised,” says Altagracia, a neighbor of Awilda. Six years ago she bought the 66.61-square-meter residence, with the guarantee that it was well built, but when she moved in she realized that the laundry room floor was uneven and drainage was difficult. She spent 20,000 pesos repairing the floor in her room.
“After a year of living there, the kitchen cabinets all caught woodworm (…) I have seen many dumpsters that are also with the cabinets, it seems that they have also caught termites and have changed them,” says Altagracia. She spent 75,000 pesos to change the cabinets. Also, she reports that she had to fix the sink, and in her building the bathroom of several apartments was changed due to leaks in the walls.
“There is a big problem here with the developers: here there are doctors building, here there are lawyers building”President of Code
Inexperienced build?
Engineer Núñez posits something complex as an additional cause. He says that the code has insisted on denouncing that people who are not engineers or architects direct construction in the country.
“There are development companies that are dedicated to that: to the purchase of land, building apartment buildings for sale, also low-cost housing, and that is what the majority is doing,” he says. “There is a big problem here with developers: here are doctors building, here are lawyers building.”
“Sometimes they say that it is not necessary to have an engineer -he adds-, and everything that is built in the Dominican Republic and in the world must be directed and supervised by a civil engineer, an architect”.
Do you think that is why so many vices are reported in homes? Free Journal. “Of course I do,” she replies. “The master builders are afraid of the civil engineers because they say that the works are more expensive.”
The president of code reports that the union has more than 43,000 registered, of which civil engineers would be more than 20,000 and architects around 18,000. “We have plenty of construction professionals,” he says.
But the president of Acoprovi It is less likely that there will be an inexperienced intrusion as reported by Núñez. Montalvo, who has been linked to the construction sector for 20 years, affirms that the vices are due more to the lack of a certification of the workforce. He also does not rule out poor quality in the materials sold and technical management problems.
“Many of the workers learn empirically, that is, their uncle was a jigger, their relative was a jigger,” he says. Because of this, he reports that Acoproviwhich brings together nearly 300 organized companies, signed an agreement with the National Institute for Professional Technical Training (Infotep) to include plumbing, electricity and masonry courses in the academic offer to train construction workers.
However, the above has a challenge: the sector has a high undocumented Haitian labor force. But, Montalvo takes refuge in the fact that he also has a regularized group. “It is important that the workforce can be certified,” he insists.
In addition, it hopes that in the coming months an inter-institutional agreement will be signed for a user manual and guarantee matrix – developed by Acoprovithe code and Pro Consumidor-, which would allow customers to know what is the proper use of a purchased unit and what their rights and duties are when making a claim.
