Housing in Southern Africa

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With 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
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. ■
Verifying due
diligence
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