Efforts to rid Nigerian cities of illegal structures have revealed that most building developments (existing and ongoing) are without approval issued by government. Findings by New Telegraph further showed that in some situations where building permits have been granted, many home owners have built their property contrary to the approved plans.
This scenario, built environment experts said, has contributed to the incessant building collapse in Nigeria. They defined building permit as an official document issued by government agency to allow a builder or his contractor proceed with a construction or remodeling project on his property.
Describing the essence of mandatory building approval, they said it is intended to ensure that project plans complied with local standards for land use, zoning, and construction.
However, they blamed factors such as ignorance and bottleneck associated with building permit and issuance of C of O, high cost, poor land administrative system and lack of master plans, among others as reasons many property developers evade building plan’s approva process.
Case study
Ongoing special enforcement operations on illegal building developments in Lagos State being embarked on by the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development have further exposed property owners without building permit in the metropolis.
This negligence on the part of building owners has led to the sealing of more than 110 property in Ikoyi, Banana Island, Lekki and Victoria Island in Lagos. Worried by the development, Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Idris Salako, described the rate at which developers in elite areas flout planning laws as “disturbing”.
New Telegraph gathered this practice is also rampant in cities such as Abuja, Ibadan, Port Harcourt and many others.
Experts’ views
Expressing concerns, a former President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) and Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), Dr. Bunmi Ajayi, said that conservatively, over 60 per cent of property did not have building plan approval in Nigeria. He said: “People don’t bother partly because they do not understand the importance of having a building approval and also because of the difficulties encountered in government offices in getting the approval.”
He blamed factors causing delays in approval process on lack of masterplan for cities, lack of local plans, lack of appropriate cadastral maps, lack of clear cut planning regulations, hoarding of information by planning offices, corruption in planning offices, outright lawlessness of the average Nigerian.
On the importance of building plan approval, Ajayi said that a structure without an approved plan had no value if the estate surveyor and valuer did their work properly. He said: “A structure without an approved plan cannot ordinarily be used as collateral in financial institutions.
“Equally, a building without approved plan is not entitled to any compensation in case of public acquisition.” To encourage people to go for approval, he enjoined government to let people have information, make the planning process easy and ensure minimise corrupt practices.
A former President of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Mr Chucks Omeife, said that most people failed to follow approval process as a result of ignorance. He said: “A lot of people will rather start building a house with the money in their hand rather than commencing approval process.”
According to him, absence of documents or Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), which is a prerequisite for approval was also a contributing factor, adding that the cost and time required to get a C of O and then plan approval was long and costly . The former president of NIOB also blamed the situation on Nigeria land administrative and documentations process, which he said was bogged down with bureaucratic nuisance.
Omeife emphasised that a perfect house document could be used to raised loan from the bank to commence other businesses.
He added that it could also be used as a collateral.
The erstwhile NIOB boss wants government to streamline and simplify the nation’s land administrative system to encourage individuals to perfect their land documents and building plan’s approval process. Corroborating Ajayi and Omeife, Principal Partner, MOA Planners Limited, Mr. Moses Ogunleye, said that a substantial number of buildings did not have permit. According to him, evading permit is traceable to factors such as long period to get permit, unnecessary requirements for getting permit and bureaucratic tendency in which granting permit is centralised.
These challenges, according to him, discourage prospective applicants and left approving officer with little time to deal with applications. Ogunleye, who was the former President of the Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria, advised that planning permit process should be made efficient.
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He said: “The system should in all states target granting permit or approval within three weeks maximum.” He advised that permit should not be granted for development in a place without layout. Chairman, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Lagos Branch, Mr Dotun Bamigbola, said that apart from buildings without approval, some with permit have been altered from the approved plans.
Blaming ignorance and lack of enlightenment as major reasons home builders jump the building plan approval process, he said: “In one breath, there is the limited knowledge of how to go about it due to minimal public enlightenment by the authorities involved.” He noted that mostly, approval authorities under the Ministry of Physical Planning, in various stages, interfaced with the public at the enforcement stages to slam penalty(ies) on them.
“That should not be. It should be more of public information on the process and requirements first,” he said. Rather than making granting of permit entirely revenue generation competition for government’s agencies, Bamgbola said the process should be streamlined and reduced.
He said: “The time for the approval process should also be predetermined and penalties should be attached to delays by the responsibility officers along the process. “These are the issues why some evade building plan approval, especially after they might have made submission and there is delay.”
Last line
Some of the documents required for building plan approval range from architectural drawings to survey plan, title document, tax clearancence, development levy , structural drawings and five sets of mechanical and electrical drawings (if applicable) among others.
Curtailing Unapproved Building Devt
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