Housing in Southern Africa November 2015

News

W ith building plans being such a common part of commer- cial property sales, and often included in due diligence clauses, a lot of people assume that commer- cial property brokers are qualified to perform their verification. This common misconception can result in serious problems for com- mercial property purchasers, accord- ing to JasonGregoriades fromRawson PropertyGroup’s commercial division. “Experienced brokers can often provide valuable insights and opin- ions on a wide variety of things. The problem is that those opinions are not usually backed by the relevant specialist qualifications and cannot, therefore, replace the services of the various industry experts.” Gregoriades illustrates his point by describing the difference between suitably qualified professionals, acting in their expert capacity in relation to building plans, and a well experienced commercial Verifying due diligence

broker. “Only a professional architect, quantity surveyor or other accredited industry professional can verify build- ing plans. If a broker offers to do it, don’t take the risk as it’s not worth having issues crop up later. Brokers who falsely represent themselves as building plan experts, or who make assertions to that effect, can find themselves facing legal repercussions should issues with the building plans later arise.” “It’s up to the purchaser to per- form due diligence, using their own resources and at their own cost,” says Gregoriades. “When it comes to

building plans that means hiring an architect, quantity surveyor, or simi- larly accredited industry professional to certify that everything is in order. Anyone else simply isn’t qualified to perform the duty with any kind of legally recognised authority.” Where a purchaser confirms to the seller that he is satisfied with the building plans (as part of the due diligence clause) without approaching such a well-qualified external party for their opinion on the matter, the purchaser may later find themselves in a difficult situationwith less right of recourse against the seller. ■