Patricia Green | Safeguard multifamily home buyers’ interests

Single-family dwelling houses across suburbs in Kingston, Jamaica, are now a threatened and endangered species.

In Jamaica and across its diaspora are several millennial generations, born between 1981 and 1996, who are desirous of owning a single-family dwelling in Kingston and St Andrew. “Where do I go to buy a single-family house today?” has become a constant refrain. Interestingly, some of these persons live overseas in apartment buildings and are crying, “I want a house in Jamaica that I may fix up with a garden, not another apartment.”

Where single-family houses remain, they are overshadowed by adjacent multifamily high-rise developments whether completed, in progress, or pending. Further, the governance system by responsible authorities denies them access to information of any proposed development planning across these neighbourhoods.

One professional millennial placed an offer in Kingston 8 for a house with a garden as a family fixer-upper only to see afterwards notices appearing on fences next door that those dwellings are about to become multifamily properties. Neither this professional nor the citizens’ cssociation has been able to obtain any details on these developments, neither from the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) nor the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), on what has been, or is being, approved for those lots.

Such silence is an illegal action by the KSAMC and NEPA, which are bound by the 2018 Building Act to advise the community “prior to issuing any approvals”.

Another cry is coming from individuals and entities enquiring what to do if they are interested in one of the new multifamily apartment developments. How do I know if the property is legal? Is the development going through the court system? Will the development eventually be earmarked for demolition? Which of these multifamily developments will lending entities support?

BASIC GUIDELINES

These questions now beg for some basic guidelines to citizens across all sectors in the absence of requisite answers and/or effective governance by responsible entities.

The guidelines presented below are informed by the following, as well as other documents: Building Development Application Process, KSAMC; Building Application Guide, local authorities; Building Planning Process, local authorities of Jamaica; Guidelines and Checklist for Subdivision Application, KSAMC; Planning and Development Volume 1 Section 1, NEPA; The Town and Country Planning (Kingston) Development Order 1966, NEPA; Provisional Development Order 2017, NEPA; The Preparatory Survey for Kingston Sewerage Development Project Final Report, 2010 for National Water Commission; Minimum Requirements for Waste Water Treatment Systems and Excreta Management in Jamaica Volume 3, Section 4, Ministry of Health, Environment Health Unit.

1.Establish if multifamily developments are allowed by NEPA as Local Planning Areas (LPA) only if the property contains over a quarter-acre in the Papine University District or over a half-acre in others, noting that some neighbourhoods such as Havendale are outside of the LPA. Importantly, hillside properties are generally designated unsuitable for such development.

2.Identify if there is a central sewerage system into which the multifamily development may be connectedas this is a requirement to pursue all such applications.

3.Ensure that any development outside a central sewerage system should have its independent sewerage system for tertiary breakdown.

4.Ascertain that any single-family restrictive covenant is modified to facilitate multifamily development prior to any approval.

5.Post all development proposals publicly, including display of all designs and drawings submitted for the development to enable public consultation PRIOR to granting any approval.

6.Follow online the entire development process using the publicly displayed application number given to each development submitted to the KSAMC.

7.Check if the same application additionally has another application number issued by the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA), also following the progression on this.

8.Examine the building layout at application, importantly (a) habitable rooms; (b) building height; (c) land and building plot ratio; (d) amenity area; (e) landscaped areas; (f) parking; (g) legal setbacks from the road and boundaries because all this information should be attached electronically to each application number.

9.Note the application thread to see approval dates issued and conditions of these approvals from the various approval entities (NEPA, NRCA, Fire, Water, Sewerage, Health, etc).

10.Ascertain the date that the KSAMC issues “Building Permit” in compliance with the specified conditions of approval.

CHECKLIST

When considering purchasing a multifamily unit, here is a suggested quick checklist based on the above:

a)Application number(s) attached to the development

b)Adherence to the “Building Permit” from the KSAMC and what was approved by the other agencies.

c)Connection to central sewerage system

d)Design and size of the on-site sewerage tertiary system (biodigester, reed bed, chlorination, etc), that should have all appropriate technical requirements for the total number of all existing habitable rooms.

e)Technical maintenance and upkeep of the sewerage system, -suggestion here that this be included under the strata.

The dilemma will be where schemes have failed to fulfil requisite development procedures as being revealed by recent court rulings. Some may even be liable for possible demolition. What happens when there are no approvals associated with completed projects?

Citizens associations are using the Access to Information Act, resulting in various revelations of discrepancies between submissions of design and construction documents for approval, actual implementation on site, or units advertised for sale. These discrepancies are also being verified in court proceedings. Should valuations and land surveyor identifications to grant purchase applications include discussions with citizens’ associations in the neighbourhood as well as a historic record of the development process prior to any financial approval? Should such surveyor identification include adherence to setbacks from the road, all boundary setbacks, also size of amenity areas?

Institutions may need to demand the enforcement of order and good governance by introducing requisite new systems in their operational procedures for financial disbursements. These institutions should immediately put in place structures for effective checks and balances as protection of their investment capital and for the benefit of citizens.

Millennials and other citizens are expressing concerns over legitimacy and integrity surrounding new multifamily developments. Should these various organisations and lending institutions operating jointly in the built environment and development sectors consider institutional financing only for legitimate and sustainable developments? If the government system and regulators continue to prove themselves to be failing in their duty to citizens, then it may be that institutions for valuation, insurance, lending, mortgage financing, etc, should weigh in.

Patricia Green, PhD, is a registered architect and former head of the Caribbean School of Architecture in the Faculty of the Built Environment at University of Technology, Jamaica. Send feedback to patgreen2008@gmail.com.