Helderberg
Year 16 • Tuesday 7 August 2012 | Tel. 021 853 0211
Housing headache
NICOLE MCCAIN Not even a year into realising the dream of living in their own homes, residents of Lourensia Park, a low-cost housing project in Somerset West, say they are watching their hard-won houses fall into disrepair. Residents have complained of leaks, and mould growing on the walls. Some even say the walls of their homes have started to crack – and all of this after being in the houses for under six months. Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg, the City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for Human Settlements, says Asla Construction, the building contractor in
charge of Lourensia Park, has carried out repairs on leaking roofs, windows and water pipes in response to the complaints the City has received. However, says Sonnenberg, “the City’s Human Settlements Directorate has not received any complaints of cracked or cracking walls”. Sonnenberg says there is a one-year guarantee on roof maintenance on the new homes, and a five-year National Home Builders’ Registration Council warranty on structural elements, which would include cracks. Sonnenberg says the Lourensia Park project is enrolled with the National Home Builders’ Registration Council, whose personnel regularly inspect the work; the
council will de-register the contractor if it should fail to rectify any poor workmanship, he adds. Sonnenberg says residents can report any concerns over the quality of construction to their local housing office; it is the contractor’s duty to repair any faulty building work. Asla Construction had not responded to Gazette’s queries by the time this publication went to print.
Lourensia Park resident Chris Fairbairn shows the cracks in the walls of his mother’s house.
PHOTO: NICOLE MCCAIN