The home building industry regulator, National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) is embarking on a roadshow to rural and far flung areas. This is as part of its efforts to increase accessibility and service delivery through its two mobile office units in order to support consumers and home builders who are unable to access its products and services in the main urban centres.
âWe are concerned about the low levels of awareness with regards to home owners or housing consumers. Consumers need to be aware of their rights and obligations. Hence the main objective of acquiring these mobile office units is to take NHBRC services to the people as our goal is to assist and protect housing consumers from being exposed to contractors who deliver housing units of substandard design, workmanship and/or the use poor quality building materials,â said NHBRC Business Services Executive, Ms Thitinti Moshoeu.
The NHBRC is mandated to protect the interests of housing consumers and to ensure that builders comply with the building industry standards by using quality approved materials during construction.
âAlso, our insights indicate that many people, especially those live in the rural areas have very little knowledge about the NHBRC and its services. Equally, those who know about the NHBRC have to travel long distances in order to access our services, which can be costly and time consuming. This led to our strategic endeavour to launch the mobile office units as a measure to remedy and circumvent these realitiesâ, said Moshoeu.
The mobile office units are equipped with the latest technologies that enable the NHBRC to remotely attend to consumer complaints, whilst offering technical assistance, homebuilder registrations, home enrolment, training of home builders and consumer awareness.
The two mobile office units are scheduled to travel to all the nine (09) provinces with a dedicated NHBRC team. The mobile units are currently in Limpopo and Northern Cape for the Month of July and will move to with the North West and Western Cape in August.
| MONTH | LOCATION |
| July 2017 | Inland: Limpopo
Coastal: Northern Cape |
| August 2017 | Inland: North West
Coastal: Western Cape |
| September 2017 | Inland: Gauteng
Coastal: Eastern Cape |
| October 2017 | Inland: Mpumalanga
Coastal: Kwa Zulu Natal |
| November 2017 | Inland: Free State
Coastal: Northern Cape |
| December 2017 | Inland: Limpopo
Coastal: Western Cape |
| January 2018 | Inland: North West
Coastal: Eastern Cape |
| February 2018 | Inland: Gauteng
Coastal: Kwa Zulu Natal |
| March 2018 | Inland: Mpumalanga
Coastal: Northern Cape |
| April 2018 | Inland: Free State
Coastal: Western Cape |
| May 2018 | Inland: Limpopo
Coastal: Eastern Cape |
| June 2018 | Inland: North West
Coastal: Kwa Zulu Natal |