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DESIGN: DEAR MR PLUMBER
DESIGN: DEAR MR PLUMBER
Are by-laws
compulsory
laws? Part 2
By Vollie Brink, Pr Eng
Before 1977 there were no common
national building regulations in this
country. Every city and town with a
municipality had its own chief building
inspector with building inspectors and
their own home-grown regulations. This
is a topic that has become important,
as by-laws are being ‘used’ as if they
are compulsory regulations and for this
reason, I am devoting the previous as
well as this Dear Mr Plumber to it.
In many cases the design of a project is referred to a rational
design committee where you are confronted with a group of
people who all have different opinions and don’t agree among
themselves. There is no such requirement in the National
Building Regulations (NBR).
In some cases, even an ordinary deem-to-satisfy-rule design is referred
to such a group for scrutiny and even then, there is no consensus. Many
developers feel they are ‘punished’ for developing in some towns. This
is certainly not conducive to promoting development and is far from the
original principle to have common, standard, regulations throughout
the country.
Why are we moving back to the old undemocratic system which did
not work?
In my opinion much of the original documentation which was extremely
valuable has been changed and is now creating a situation where people
are bullied to “do as I say, or I won’t issue a certificate of approval”. The
legal situation is that the owner is the legal responsible person who must
appoint a professional, competent person if he or she is not competent in
terms of the NBR.
Yet the owner appoints such a competent person in terms of the NBR, but
then this person is overruled by an official of a department, who rather
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February 2020 Volume 25 I Number 12