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HOUSING CONSUMER PROTECTION BILL UPDATE
- 29 April 2024
- Parliament
- SA Legal Academy
Despite not having formally met since 27 March 2024 – when members considered and approved a legacy report for South Africa’s next Parliament – the National Assembly’s Human Settlements Committee has endorsed technical changes to the Housing Consumer Protection Amendment Bill recommended by its NCOP counterpart and adopted by the House on 25 April 2024. This is according to a committee report included in the latest set of parliamentary papers.
It is not clear what the next step will be, especially since the National Assembly rose at the end of March 2024 in anticipation of the 29 May 2024 elections. Perhaps the Bill’s ‘D’ version will be allowed to lapse – to be revived after the elections by the next Parliament and sent to the President for signature only then. Perhaps National Assembly rules allow a Bill to be passed behind the scenes in such circumstances and sent for presidential assent.
Whatever the case, once enacted and operationalised this new piece of legislation is expected to ensure adequate protection for housing consumers and more effective home building industry regulation – among other things by introducing ‘enforcement mechanisms and … appropriate penalties or sanctions to deter non-compliance by homebuilders’. According to a memorandum on the Bill’s objects, it also:
- provides that any warranty fund surplus may be utilised in developmental programmes aimed at addressing shortcomings in the industry’s ‘economic transformation’ process, and
- introduces ‘contractual provisions’ intended to create an enabling environment for new entrants to the home building industry by facilitating ‘their sustainability in the market’.
Please click the links below for more information:
- committee report (page 3 of these parliamentary papers)
- Bill’s ‘D’ version
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
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