2024-05-10 06:50:03
As a result, situations arise when the existing apartment owners live in ignorance of the general technical condition of the house, potential owners are actually buying a “cat in a bag”, but those living in neighboring houses cannot be sure that the building next door will not collapse and thereby endanger them as well.
The fact that there is no publicly available information on the technical condition of each building also distorts the real estate market, as property appraisers lack the objective data necessary to compare the appraised and sold properties.
What’s more, if the Building Authority, on the basis of an examination, has determined that a building is dangerous for operation, information about such an encumbrance is not automatically entered into the state’s unified computerized land registry system. This means that there is an opportunity for someone to sell and for someone else to buy an apartment in a building that is forbidden to stay in or that needs to be demolished.
Such gaps in the circulation of information are unacceptable and must be immediately eliminated, experts of the “Sustainable building management” think tank emphasize.
Latvian laws oblige building managers to carry out regular surveys of the technical condition of buildings, but there is no publicly available database where data about each apartment building is reflected in a way that everyone can understand.
The BIS database, like others used in the industry, was initially intended for use only by professionals. It is too complicated and opaque for the general public. Statistics show that the number of apartment owners who use it is close to zero, so entering data into this system is a big administrative burden for building managers with little utility.
In fact, a system similar to the annual inspections of road transport should be implemented to assess the technical condition of buildings. In the technical inspection, vehicles are given one of four ratings: “0” – if no defects or damage have been found to the vehicle, “1” – if there is a minor defect or damage that does not directly affect traffic safety, the vehicle can continue to be used, “2” – if significant damage has been detected deficiency or damage that affects the surrounding environment or may affect traffic safety, – in this case, the vehicle may be used, but one month is given to eliminate the defects and pass the technical inspection again, “3” – if a dangerous deficiency or damage is discovered that endangers the environment environment, human health, life or traffic safety – the operation of such a vehicle is prohibited until defects or damage are eliminated with a subsequent new technical condition check.
It is essential that all detected damages are shown in the tram vehicle inspection report. More importantly, every registered user can get detailed information on the annual technical inspection of any car registered in Latvia by entering its license plate on the CSDD website. Even more, the history of mileage in Latvia can be seen there.
A similar system should be implemented regarding surveys of the technical condition of multi-apartment buildings. Taking into account that personal data should not be included in such a survey, the creation of a relevant database should not be nearly as expensive as the already mentioned BIS or e-health system, but the benefit from the availability of information would be worth many hundreds of millions. It should be noted that:
1. More than half of Latvian households live in apartments in apartment buildings. The absolute majority of these buildings were built during the years of Soviet rule and even earlier. Only a small part of them have been capitally renovated in the recent past. This means that the risks of accidents in most of these buildings are high.
2. If the apartment owners of the buildings will not have easily accessible and comparable information about the technical condition of the houses, it can be predicted that they will lack the understanding of the need to make timely investments in the renovation of the load-bearing structures, which can accordingly lead to many situations like the one currently in Ogre, when operation of the building is dangerous and prohibited. It can be even worse if a building inhabited by people collapses.
3. Just as a used car in poor technical condition can be dangerous in traffic, the poor technical condition of buildings can also be a danger not only to the people inside them, but also to others, including those living in neighboring houses or those on the street. This means that information about the technical condition of buildings must be publicly available. Even more so, if there are still a large number of apartment owners who categorically refuse to respect experts’ opinions about the dangers of buildings – if they themselves do not realize the risks, at least the wider public will have the opportunity to put pressure on them.
The think tank “Sustainable building management” is a format for the exchange of experience and knowledge of managers of apartment buildings, building owners, associations of apartment owners, construction specialists, as well as experts in various fields of building management.
2024-05-10 06:50:03