Consumers Guide on home-building to be launched

The Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission is developing a roadmap to help consumers in the process of building their homes.

This is after recognising that many persons desirous of constructing a house have to depend on contractors to walk them through every step of the process, and are often exploited.

The Commission Wednesday morning hosted a consultation process with relevant stakeholders in the construction industry with the aim of getting their views on what consumers need to do, from start to finish, in building a house.

Relevant information will then be compiled into a handbook to guide consumers. The roadmap will entail information on what is needed in first acquiring, legal procedures, and how to access basic utilities.

Some information to be included are:

1. Steps, processes and methods of constructing or renovating a private property
2. Correct legal procedures of the construction process
3. Ease of access to information of the relevant authorities, their requirements and documentation for every step in the construction process

The aim of the initiative is to also develop reasonable criteria to help consumers in selecting suitable and qualified contractors.

Feyona Austin-Paul, a Consumer Affairs Officer, told News Room that the overall objective is to empower consumers so that they themselves will know what is required, and will not have to depend solely on a contractor to tell them what to do.

The Consumer Affairs Unit is hoping to have the document compiled and launched within three months.

The goal is to have the roadmap available to consumers in hardcopy as well as online.