Murat FİDAN – Civil Engineer, Chairman of the YDDMD Ankara Branch
22.01.2021 – The Building Inspection System and Common Misconceptions
THE BUILDING INSPECTION SYSTEM AND COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS
How well do we really know the Building Inspection System, which was put into practice following the 1999 Marmara Earthquake, in which we suffered enormous losses and great suffering? When does a building inspection firm begin its inspection work? When does it end? What are the qualifications required to establish a building inspection firm? How many people does it employ? What is the fair compensation it earns for carrying out this duty?
First of all, with the e-distribution system that entered into force on 1 January 2019, a building inspection firm receives the project it will inspect through the distribution carried out by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation. With this revolutionary system, all ties between the building inspection firm and the contractor — in other words, between the inspector and the inspected — have been completely severed. They have been turned into entirely independent elements. The primary aim of this system was to ensure that inspections are conducted independently and more soundly, and also that all firms carrying out inspections on behalf of the public receive an equal share of work. At the end of the past two years, it is clear that these objectives have been fully achieved.
The building inspection process begins with this distribution and continues with the inspection of the project and its annexes. After the relevant authority issues the construction permit for the building in question, the process moves into practice with the construction phase. One of the most common misconceptions about the Building Inspection System is the belief that the system is deactivated once the construction phase is completed. Contrary to this belief, the building inspection firm’s responsibility continues for 15 years for the load-bearing system and 2 years for other works. In short, all responsibility rests first and foremost with the building inspection firm.
One of the most commonly held misconceptions is the amount of compensation a building inspection firm receives for assuming this responsibility. The notion that, in the public’s eye, building inspectors earn a great deal of money without doing anything — a notion that deeply saddens us and at times drains our energy. Let us examine this mistaken notion with concrete figures. The building inspection fee is 4.99 TL/m2 for a Group 1 building, 18.66 TL/m2 for a Group 2 building, and 37.01 TL/m2 for a Group 3 building. To make it even more concrete: for a 10-unit, 1,000 m2 building in which a single flat is sold for 300,000 TL, the inspection costs 18,661.50 TL — that is, the building inspection cost for the flat in question amounts to 1,866.15 TL. The construction period for such a building is, on average, 24 months. Once we deduct from these amounts the 6% Ministry and Relevant Authority shares to be paid, the salaries of the 5 inspecting architects and engineers and 3 assistant control staff who must be employed in order to obtain the building inspection authorisation certificate, the social security payments, income and withholding taxes, laboratory and chip costs, and the costs of the minimum 100 m2 office, 3 vehicles and office equipment that we are likewise required to maintain for the authorisation certificate, even we, the building inspection firms, now struggle to calculate the cost of assuming this responsibility. During the sale of the flat in question, those who bear no responsibility or expense and provide only an intermediary service charge as follows: the land registry 18,000.00 TL, the real estate agency 12,000 TL, and DASK 800 TL (annually). Yet the fee of the building inspection firm — which assumes full responsibility and whose foremost duty is to ensure the safety of life and property in our living spaces — is 1,866.15 TL.
Finally, the perhaps most important matter, which is little or not at all known, is how successful the Building Inspection System has been. What are the results of the Building Inspection System over this 21-year period? Across Turkey, buildings with a total construction area of 1,967,302,220 m2 have received building inspection services, and 403,657 currently active construction projects are being inspected. ACROSS TURKEY, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THE STRUCTURES THAT HAVE RECEIVED BUILDING INSPECTION SERVICES SINCE 2001 HAS SUSTAINED STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. There is no clearer proof of the success of the Building Inspection System than this. This success and pride belong to all stakeholders of the system.
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