5 - Upgrade
Module 5 explores how you can work with government to upgrade what you have been able to achieve up to now.
The following steps are involved in the upgrading phase.
Decision questions: After working through this section you should be able to answer the following questions:
- What funding will be used for the upgrading
- Will you upgrade your tenure and what process will you follow to do this
- What level of services will you upgrade too
- How will you upgrade your house, what will your upgraded house look like and what construction methods will you use?
Exercises
Exercise 1:
If you part of a group, discuss amongst yourselves what you take from this section as important and /or interesting. If you doing this alone, spend a few minutes reflecting on what you have read.
Exercise 2: tenure upgrading
Read Pamela’s story on upgrading tenure found here
The following are different steps in the land transfer and tenure upgrading process. Put them into the order they would be followed to upgrade tenure:
(a) The conveyencer opens a township register at the deeds office that shows individual erf (property) numbers.
(b) The Surveyor General approves the general plan and returns it to the land surveyor.
(c) Households get title deeds to their individual property.
(d) A land surveyor goes onto site and measures in detail each individual plot that was created in the basic development phase.
(e) The conveyencer transfers property to individuals at the deeds office.
(f) The land surveyor produces a general plan showing each individual plot and submits this to the surveyor general.
(g) The land surveyor gives the general plan to the Conveyancer.
See the suggested responses section and compare you response to those suggested.
Exercise 3: services
Read Pamela’s story on Upgrading services.
What did Pamela’s group upgrade their services from and to?
See the suggested responses section and compare you response to those suggested.
Exercise 4: house
Assume that some of Pamela’s neighbours built houses on their plots in the following way:
- Neighbour 1: shack towards the back of a bigger plot
- Neighbour 2: shack in the middle of a small plot
- Neighbour 3: well build slab with quite nice shack next to it
- Neighbour 4: well build house with building plan approval
What options does each neighbour have for how they can upgrade their house using government housing top structure subsidy funding?
When making choice consider the following:
- Do you want to ‘throw away’ all the money and effort you spent in building the first house
- Will the municipality approve the plans of the extension if its added onto an unapproved interim structure
See the suggested responses section and compare you response to those suggested.
Assignments
Assignment 1: housing subsidies
Read the following two chapters of the housing code
Reflect on and/or discuss in your group which of these two subsidy methods you think is most appropriate for your situation. Would it make sense to combine the two approaches? For example, get the municipality to use the UIS for the services and tenure, and 2) get an NGO / government to help you upgrade your top structure using the PHP.
Assignment 2: Upgrading advice and support
Set up a meeting with the municipality to discuss how your neighbourhood can be upgraded from your basic product to an improved product. Consider inviting the following departments to this meeting:
- Planning
- Housing
- Land
- Water
- Sewerage
- Roads and stormwater
- electricity
Share with them your thoughts on how the upgrading of your neighbourhood can be done.
- Ask them if there are any other subsidies or ways that your neighbourhood can be upgraded. *Ask them if they can help you upgrade your neighbourhood and how they recommend that this be done.
- Ask them who within the municipality would be the lead department that would drive the upgrading process . This is the department you will then have to work with.
Assignment 3: tenure
Hold a meeting with your neighbours and discuss if individual title is the best option for your neighbourhood. Consider other forms of tenure like:
- normal rental
- rent to buy or own
- cooperative ownership
- communal property association
- staying as you are with occupation certificates (maybe with a few adjustments to the rights and rules)
When making a decision, take into account the following (and other) questions:
- How much will it cost you to convert to this tenure?
- How much will you have to pay on rates and services now that you owner the property?
- Do you want people to be able to get a bond (a loan from a bank that uses your property as collateral)?. Remember that if you can’t pay back the bond the bank can take back the house.
Weight up the advantages and disadvantages of each option
Assignment 4: services
Set up a meeting with the engineering section of the municipality and ask them to advise you on what upgraded level of services you should consider.
Also ask them to advise you on who would be the developer for upgrading these services. Note that if the municipality does not own the land it may be harder for you to get them to be the developer.
When making a decision take into account the following questions:
- Will you be able to afford the increased rates and services? (By having a tap in your house you will likely use more water and have to pay for it. By having water borne sewerage you will be using a lot more water and you will have to pay for it.)
- Are there other water and sanitation products that will be cheaper? Note also that many of these other options like composting toilets are more environmentally friendly.
- How much does it cost and is their enough housing subsidy funding to install it?
- is it easy to maintain?
- Can it be built in a way that creates more local jobs?
- Does it contribute to environmental sustainability?
- Is it safe and easy for people to use?
- etc.
Assignment 5: house
Get an architect or house designer to meet with your group. Invite someone from the municipalities building and housing department to this meeting.
Ask them to advise you how best to upgrade your house:*Knock your existing house down and start again
- Build a new house next to your old house
- Build a new house around and over your old house
- Add a complete new section to your existing house
- Use part of your existing house as basis for the new house (e.g. add walls to an existing foundation, or add walls to an existing roof and poles)
If you do decide to add to your existing house, find out if the government will approve the house. For example, government may not approve the house if the housing subsidy money is used to build a wall onto foundations that have not been checked and approved by government.
When making a decision consider the following questions:
- How much will it cost to build the upgraded house?
- Can the construction method support local jobs?
- How quickly can the house be built?
- Will you be able to afford the increased rates and services? Your property will be valued more so you will pay higher rates.
- Will the upgrade make best use of what I have already done so I don’t throw all the work I have done away?
- How easy will it be to add to and improve the upgrade house in future?
- How flexible will it be to use the house for other things like a home business or renting of rooms?
Next module
Click here to go to the next module, module 6 - on-going.
