Residents of housing estates in Lagos has been warned against mindless distortions and alterations of approved structural designs in housing estates, the Lagos State government has warned residents of those estates to desist from such acts, saying it is in the best interest of the residents to do so.
Wasiu Akewusola, permanent secretary in the State Ministry of Housing, who gave this warning at a meeting with the representatives of Residents Association of Abraham Adesanya Estate at the state Secretariat on Thursday, listed such alterations as restyling, extension of, and additions to existing facilities and, in some extreme cases, increase in building levels.
“These alterations are deviations from the terms and conditions stated in the deed of sub-lease signed by the two parties,” the permanent secretary noted, warning, “these acts could lead to a penalty as stated in the law.”
Continuing, he said, “The government-owned estates are designed and built by the state government in compliance with global environmental and physical planning rules to ensure durability and liveability.”
According to him, contravention of such standards often resulted in dire consequences such as reduced durability of the structure for the home owner and other people within the environment, advising the residents to desist from any form of redesigning of the buildings as such action could cause damage to the building and the entire environment in no distant time.
He stressed the need for the residents to maintain the original structural design to prevent future disasters.
“A building is a permanent load whose capacity of erection can only be known and accessed by certified engineers. This capability, which is environmentally determined, had already been quantified before the buildings were erected. Any plans to overload the capacity may result in disaster,” he warned.
He also reminded the residents that all unapproved remodelling contravened the Physical and Urban Planning Law of the state government, hence affected buildings would be demolished by the appropriate agency of the state government.
“The demolition exercise of illegal and unapproved structures in government-owned estates will commence very soon without any further warning,” Akewusola disclosed, pointing out that the state the state government was aware of some residents who had turned government’s housing estates setbacks into marketplace.
“It will no longer be business as usual as the state will not rest on its oars in ensuring that sanity returns to it estates; the state monitoring team has scaled up its surveillance activities to ensure compliance with set environmental standards,” he informed.
