Building regulations for the improvement of the quality of the housing stock
Session number T5S1
ir. A. van der Bos, dr.ir. H.J. Visscher and dr. F.M. Meijer OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands P.O. Box 5030, 2600 GA Delft
Telephone +31 15 278 2715 Facsimile +31 15 278 3450
A.Bos@otb.tudelft.nl
Abstract
The quality of the housing stock in Dutch cities fails to meet adequately the varied housing preferences. In order to meet these varied preferences an appropriate housing supply is required. This can be achieved by demolition followed by radical new construction methods and a strong product innovation of the existing housing stock. Adequate building regulation for existing housing is needed. However, like the building regulation in most Western countries, the Dutch building legisla-tion is basically oriented to new construclegisla-tion. The produclegisla-tion of new construclegisla-tion accounts only for about 1% of the annual increase in the housing stock so the effect of quality policy is marginal.
At the moment, the building regulations mark the minimum quality, but local authorities want requirements at a higher level in order to improve the quality of housing. Solutions for this problem could be found in the proposal of the Dutch Consultation Platform Building Legislation (OPB) to introduce a Building File. This file describes the condition of the building in relation to the building requirements, helps consumers to make their choice between buildings, and functions as a manual for use and maintenance. It is the description of the state of the building that can be used in local quality policy to improve the quality of the housing stock. The Dutch government welcomed the ideas of the OPB as a valuable initiative. Nevertheless, the concept has not yet the support of a few important interest groups of the building sector.
This paper describes the importance of instruments and regulations regarding to the hous-ing stock and the research into the pros and cons of this Buildhous-ing File. The Dutch approach will be compared to other European building regulations and instruments in relation to the quality of exist-ing buildexist-ings. The first results of this international comparative study are described.
Building regulations for the improvement of the quality of the housing stock
ir. A. van der Bos, dr.ir. H.J. Visscher and dr. F.M. Meijer1
ABSTRACT
The quality of the housing stock in Dutch cities fails to meet adequately the varied housing preferences. In order to meet these varied preferences an appropriate housing supply is required. This can be achieved by demolition followed by radical new construction methods and a strong product innovation of the existing housing stock. Adequate building regulation for existing housing is needed. However, like the building regulation in most Western countries, the Dutch building legisla-tion is basically oriented to new construclegisla-tion. The produclegisla-tion of new construclegisla-tion accounts only for about 1% of the annual increase in the housing stock so the effect of quality policy is marginal.
At the moment, the building regulations mark the minimum quality, but local authorities want requirements at a higher level in order to improve the quality of housing. Solutions for this problem could be found in the proposal of the Dutch Consultation Platform Building Legislation (OPB) to introduce a Building File. This file describes the state of the building in relation to the building re-quirements, helps consumers to make their choice between buildings, and functions as a manual for use and maintenance. It is the description of the condition of the building that can be used in local quality policy to improve the quality of the housing stock. The Dutch government welcomed the ideas of the OPB as a valuable initiative. Nevertheless, the concept has not yet the support of a few important interest groups of the building sector.
This paper describes the importance of instruments and regulations regarding to the hous-ing stock and the research into the pros and cons of this Buildhous-ing File. The Dutch approach will be compared to other European building regulations and instruments in relation to the quality of exist-ing buildexist-ings. The first results of this international comparative study are described.
1. INTRODUCTION
The quality of the housing stock in the cities fails to meet adequately the varied housing preferences of people who live, or would like to live there (Ministry of Housing, 2000). For the com-plete range of income groups, this quality is particularly unsatisfactory in the early post-war housing estates consisting of apartment buildings with flats sharing a main entrance and high-rise gallery flats. Meeting the great diversity of preferences and opportunities requires an appropriate housing supply. Particularly the energy efficiency and accessibility of existing housing can be improved a lot. To achieve this requires radical renovation, demolition followed by radical new construction meth-ods and a strong product innovation of the housing stock (Ministry of Housing 2002a).
Regulation is one of the instruments with which quality norms can be set at a higher level. Now, the Dutch legislation related to building quality is in principle oriented to new construction. In these building regulations a minimum level is established for the existing housing stock, but this is only the minimum level beneath which no building meets the requirements. This level of the techni-cal requirements of the Building Decree 2003 for existing housing is mainly derived from the eldest known municipal and provincial building requirements form the beginning of the twentieth century. In principle is chosen to use the lowest requirements that are laid down in the concerned
1
ir. A. van der Bos is a junior researcher, dr.ir. H.J. Visscher and dr. F.M. Meijer are senior researchers at the OTB Re-search Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
ments; the law states that no stricter requirements can be enforced than the requirements that ap-plied at the moment when the building permit was given. (Ministry of Housing 2003) Since new con-struction only accounts for about 1% of the annual increase in the housing stock, the effect of a quality policy operating through new construction requirements is marginal. According to the secre-tary of state a strong effort is necessary to improve the quality of the housing stock.
Despite several efforts to simplify the building regulatory system, people are still experienc-ing bottlenecks. The Dutch regulatory system proves to be very complex and almost only accessible for building experts (MDW-Werkgroep Servicegerichte Overheid 2001). Workers in the field and consumers don’t have the knowledge of the regulation and can hardly see the surplus value of the complex system. The enormous amount of building requirements and the complex housing market makes it difficult to get sufficient insight into housing quality (Overlegplatform Bouwregelgeving 2001). Especially potential buyers experience the difficulty to assess the actual housing quality. Also municipalities have insufficient insight into the quality of the existing housing stock; specifically the insight into the quality condition of dwellings regarding to fire safety. Recent disasters have shown that municipalities hardly spend any time enforcing (fire) safety requirements (Commissie onderzoek cafébrand nieuwjaarsnacht 2001). A better overview of the quality can be helpful for the development and the implementation of specific quality policy.
The need for policy instruments and regulations and the concern for the quality of the exist-ing housexist-ing stock are more and more an important subject. The Ministry of Housexist-ing emphasizes the need for possibilities to carry out specific quality policy regarding to the quality of the existing hous-ing stock (Ministry of Houshous-ing 2000b). Furthermore, the European Parliament also recognizes the need for instruments and regulations regarding to the quality of existing housing; a directive (2002/91/EC) on the energy performance of buildings requires a certificate for existing buildings, which contains the energy performance, advice on how to improve energy performance (Official Journal of the European Communities 2003).
Various researches into building regulations have been carried out and different ap-proaches are proposed to raise the quality of the existing housing. Visscher and Meijer have carried out an international comparative study into building regulations and quality control, which gives a good insight into the various building regulations in Europe, but it does not cover regulations regard-ing to the housregard-ing stock (Meijer e.a. 2003). These international comparisons are a good startregard-ing point for our research. Meacham proposes the introduction of the concept of multiple levels of per-formance (Meacham 2001) to address the various building perper-formance requirements in a perform-ance-based building regulatory system; the current system of the Building Decree is based on the performance approach. Also the Dutch Consultation Platform Building Legislation observes the shortcomings and proposes to introduce a Building File (OPB), to set minimal requirements for ex-isting dwellings in the Building Decree at a higher level, and to strengthen the local authorities’ pol-icy on compulsory repairs (Overlegplatform Bouwregelgeving 2001).
The shortcomings regarding to the quality and regulations make it important to explore in which way it is possible, by means of regulations and quality instruments, to get insight into the actual quality of existing housing and to improve this housing quality in an effective and efficient way. The concept of the Building File will be ex ante evaluated in our research and compared to alternative approaches in an international comparative study.
2. BUILDING FILE
December 2001 the Consultation Platform Building Legislation (OPB), an official advice group for the government in which all interest groups of the building and housing sector are repre-sented, presented a vision on the building regulations in the future. This vision states that the build-ing regulatory is complex and the quality of existbuild-ing housbuild-ing is unclear. Consumers and local
au-thorities often lack sufficient insight in the quality condition of the existing housing stock. In this vi-sion the OPB proposes to reconsider responsibilities for aspects of housing quality, develop alterna-tive approaches for building control and for regulations for existing houses and improve the informa-tion about quality for homeowners and occupants. A building file is proposed to make the quality of the existing housing stock clearer.
The main objective of the building file is to create a better insight into the quality of a build-ing for consumers; many of them do not have sufficient insight into the actual quality of a dwellbuild-ing and difficulties making a choice between different dwellings. Furthermore, municipalities need more information about the quality of the existing housing stock for developing a specific quality policy. By orderly presenting the information the insight into the quality of the dwelling will get better and it shows in which way the building has to meet which requirements. The concept of the Building File consists of four boxes of data. The first three boxes (general data, condition report, users informa-tion) provide the necessary insight in the actual quality. The building file should always be available at the selling process to give the buyer a better insight into the quality.
Another objective of the building file is to decrease the amount of mandatory public techni-cal requirements (the Building Decree). The OPB proposes to delete some requirements regarding utility. Because the building file gains a good insight into the quality of existing housing, consumers can properly judge if the dwelling meets their demands. Private law arrangements, like the planned building file, will care for quality aspects regarding utility.
The building file contains all technical information of a dwelling. The information is subdi-vided into four parts (boxes) (see Figure 1). In the first box all general information of the building is gathered, such as address, owner and building type. The second part describes the technical condi-tion of the building; all the requirements of the Building Decree are inspected and assessed. In the third box the usability of the building is assessed. The last box is voluntary and contains a mainte-nance guide to keep the building is a good state of repair. (Overlegplatform Bouwregelgeving 2001)
FIGURE 1.
Conceptual Model of the Building File
The homeowner is responsible for keeping the building file up to date. The installations, ma-jor repairs and carcass have to be inspected periodically to keep the building file up to date. A copy of the inspection or other relevant alterations must be send to the municipality, so the local
authori-Box 1 General information Box 2 Condition report Box 3 Users information Box 4
Guide into safe and healthy and maintenance and use
Improve insight into housing quality
Decrease building require-ments
Improve housing quality Improve possibilities for specific quality policy
ties also have an up to date insight into their housing stock. Municipalities can base their building quality policy on this insight, which makes specific policy for dilapidated neighbourhoods possible. Municipalities can also use the building file as a basis for issuing notices of repair if it turns out that the house does not meet the requirements. In this case the building file also turns out to be an in-strument that supports improvement of housing quality.
After the vision of the OPB was published, research has been carried out to find out which information has to be present in a building file to create a proper view of building quality of existing housing. Presently, a format has been set up which will be tested in practice. In an experiment in-dependent inspectors are carrying out inspections, with which they try to fill in the format of the building file. The result of the experiment will be used to improve the format. Furthermore, an ex-periment is going on about authentically basic registration of building, which researches standardi-sation of real estate data. At present, the building file is only focussed on dwellings, but if the build-ing file turns out to be a feasible, buildbuild-ing files for other buildbuild-ing types will be set up. In fact, fire safety in public buildings was a very important reason for developing the building file.
3. RESEARCH
3.1 Objective
Having identified the shortcomings associated with building regulation and the quality of the existing housing stock the OTB Research Institute initiated a research project with the aim of devel-oping alternative approaches for quality regulations and examines their effectiveness and efficiency. The focus of this research is to develop instruments for a quality policy in the form of a Building File to document the quality of dwellings, the modelling of a policy for the improvement of the quality level of the existing housing stock, and the reinforcement of the position of the customer on the housing market by the provision of adequate quality data of houses.
The research will make a fundamental and practical contribution to the understanding of how public building legislation can be designed so as to make quality policy for the housing stock possible in a satisfactory manner. The idea of a building file will be further developed, particularly with respect to a survey of the public administration and legal opportunities and implications. The results will therefore support the further policy development of the ministry of housing, provides models for process innovation for the building industry and will build on tools for consumers to choose for the qualities they want. Furthermore, the project will contribute to the international litera-ture on housing quality.
3.2 Approach
International comparative study and policy theories and studies will provide examples and alternative approaches. The applications will be developed, however, primarily for the Dutch situa-tion. The methodology of System Analyses published by Findeisen and Quade (Miser, H.J. and E.S. Quade 1985) provides the framework that will be used for the identification, design, testing, compar-ing and rankcompar-ing alternatives (policies, models).
The research is split up in the different parts. At first, the Dutch legislation and instruments re-garding to the quality of existing dwellings will be analysed. An international survey into policy, legis-lation and instrumentation for the quality of existing dwellings will compare the Dutch approach with alternative public and private regulations and instruments. Subsequently, the concept of the building file will be further developed; the legal opportunities and implications of a Building File will be ex-plored and analysed. Interviews and expert meetings will be held with stakeholders of the Dutch public and private parties of the building industry to discuss the concepts and contents of new
de-veloped models and instruments and to explore support basis for new dede-veloped models and in-struments. Case studies and experiments will be organised to test new instruments in the building practice.
4. PROGRESS TO DATE
Recently, the international comparative study has started. The necessary information for the comparison will be gathered by analysing documents on the Internet, literature and sending a ques-tionnaire to experts in building regulations and quality instruments in different countries. The aim of this first part of the international comparative study is to gather general information about building regulations and (private) instruments that influence the quality of the existing housing stock. The questionnaire is subdivided in four parts, which respectively contain questions about the existence of a building file or housing file comparable with the Dutch building file, quality requirements and quality marks, enforcement of the requirements, and the insight in the quality of the existing housing stock. Here we present some relevant instruments and regulations.
4.1 Requirements regarding existing housing
In almost all countries regulations regarding the quality of existing housing exist. Although the level of the requirements differ; in some countries existing dwellings have to meet the same level of requirements as newly built houses and in some countries existing dwellings have to meet requirements of a lower level.
In the Netherlands for example requirements regarding existing dwellings, laid down in the Building Decree, are lower than the requirements for new built houses; this level is an absolute minimum level beneath which a house will be condemned. If an existing house will be renovated or altered, it has to meet the requirements for newly built houses; in some cases local authorities grant exemption. Also in countries, such as Denmark, Great Britain and France altered and renovated dwellings have to meet the requirements for new built houses (Meijer e.a. 2003).
Some countries developed a specific standard regarding to existing housing. In Great Brit-ain for example, existing housing has to meet the requirements of the housing fitness standard; a set of basic requirements for existing housing. Presently, the British government is planning to re-place the system. The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is the new system, which measures the health and safety risks of a house. The system determines hazard scores, which depending on the score can lead to a repair notice or a closing order. In Great Britain exist also the Welsh standard and the Scotch Tolerable standard (www.odpm.gov.uk).
In some countries exist acts for specific housing types, such as the Condominium act in the Netherlands and the Single Room Act in Belgium. The Dutch Condominium Act enforces ‘Unions of Home Owners’ to establish a reserve fund for maintenance. In Belgium the governments has set minimum quality and safety requirements for rooms, for example the minimum height of the room; the distance between floor and ceiling (www.wonen.vlaanderen.be).
4.2 Property registers
Many countries record data about buildings, but it is often only general information, such as address, owner and building type, comparable with the cadastre in the Netherlands. In Denmark, for example the Danish cadastre ‘Kort & Matrikelstyrelsen’, contains information about all Land Prop-erty with area, parcel number and legal restrictions (www.kms.dk). In Wales, England and Scotland exists the land register, which is split up in three parts; the property register describes the property,
the proprietorship register records who owns the property and the charges register gives details of things like mortgages or rights that may affect the property adversely (www.ros.gov.uk / www.landreg.gov.uk).
4.3 Alternative building files
Until now, the first results show that none of the countries has an instrument that is exact comparable with the building file in the Netherlands. However, in Germany in some local districts exist building passports on a voluntary basis. Consumers also experience that it is difficult to get insight into the quality of houses. The building passport of the district Schleswig-Holstein comes close to the Dutch building file. It documents the most important technical and structural data of the house, for example a short description of the building construction and its materials as well as the technical installations. Just like the building file in the Netherlands the Schleswig-Holstein building passport provides potential buyers an objective insight of the condition of the dwelling. The building passport is also a part of the local property register (www.lbs-schleswigholstein.de).
Other local building passports in Germany often record quality aspects regarding energy ef-ficiency an environment. Quality aspects like construction are hardly ever measured and described in the building passports. The German Energy Agency is developing an energy passport for build-ings, which has to create more insight into the energy consumption and energy costs of dwellings. (www.deutsche-energie-agentur.de). In Denmark the act “to promote energy and water savings in buildings” it is obliged for all new and existing houses to have an energy label, which contains in-formation about energy consumption (www.sm.dk).
4.4 Enforcement of requirements regarding the housing stock
In most countries it is possible to enforce the requirements if a building does not meet the requirements regarding the housing stock. In the Netherlands the local authorities have difficulties to enforce the requirements as a result of capacity problems. In other countries, such as Austria and Germany, the government is very active regarding to the enforcement of the requirements, accord-ing to the respondents of the questionnaire.
4.5 Information about quality in relation to transactions
In the Netherlands it is obligatory for homeowners to give potential buyers adequate infor-mation about the quality condition of the house. Also in Germany buyers are provided with informa-tion. In Germany no quality condition report is required, but in practice a lot of dwellings are in-spected. In England plans are drawn to make a Home Information Pack compulsory, comparable to the Purchaser's Information Pack in Scotland (www.scotland.gov). The Home Information Pack should contain information about warrants, guarantees, summary of common repair and mainte-nance burdens, land certificate, relevant property management arrangements (details of property manager and owners’ association). These packs aim at speeding up the buying and selling process and making it more efficient and consumer friendly (www.odpm.gov.uk).
Though not in all countries information is required in the buying and selling process. In Aus-tria it is not required to provide the potential buyer with adequate information about the quality con-dition. However, to take out a mortgage, an inspection of the quality condition of the dwelling is required.
In some countries the (maximum) height of the rent is related to the housing quality. In the Netherlands, for example, a specific act sets maximum rents in relation to the quality of a dwelling. Also in Austria and Germany exist national regulations that relates rent levels to housing quality.
4.6 Users and maintenance guide
In some countries, it is common that homeowners and renters have a users and mainte-nance guide. In Finland, for example, during the building process a maintemainte-nance guide is compiled to give users advise about the care and maintenance of the use materials and technical installa-tions. De guide contains information about the maintenance history, maintenance work and plan-ning, target value for internal air quality and the life cycle of the building and building parts. It will be obligatory to compile a guide for state subsidized housing, but guidelines will also be compiled for the private housing stock (www.vyh.fi).
Finland is not the only country in which consumers have guides. Also Germany homeown-ers often have ushomeown-ers and maintenance guides. However, German renthomeown-ers hardly have a guide. In some countries, having a users and maintenance guide is less common. In Austria, for example, hardly any homeowner or renter has a guide.
5. CONCLUSIONS
The amount of regulations and instruments regarding to the quality of the housing stock seems limited; also in other countries. However, the government is more and more aware of the importance of the quality of the housing stock. It is this part of the building stock in which a strong effort is necessary to improve the quality of housing. Particularly the energy efficiency and accessi-bility of existing housing can be improved a lot. Recently, the European Parliament presented a new directive, which on the energy performance of all buildings, which makes quality of the existing building stock a more important subject.
It is tentatively concluded that the Dutch Building File does not have a comparable equiva-lent in other countries. However, in some countries exist instruments that cover parts of the Dutch Building File. In some countries exist registers of general building information, information packs for potential buyers, and users and maintenance guides. Research into quality instruments and regula-tion becomes more and more useful and necessary.
In this phase of our research it is too early to have sufficient insight into which examples of regulations regarding existing housing are effective and efficient. At first, it will be explored which regulations and instruments regarding existing housing exist in other countries. The next phase we analyse several interesting examples of instruments and regulations in other countries. If possible we also try to examine how the instruments and regulations function in practice. Finally, the re-search project has to answer the question whether and in which form the concept of the Building File contributes, in an effective and efficient way, to an adequate insight into the quality of dwellings and possibilities to improve the quality of the housing stock.
6. REFERENCES
− Commissie onderzoek cafébrand nieuwjaarsnacht 2001. Deelonderzoek A, Vergunning, Con-trole en Handhaving Brandveiligheid.
− Meacham, B.J. 2001. Identifying and regulating for multiple levels of performance, Proceedings CIB World Building Congress, Wellington, New Zealand
− Meijer, F.M., H.J. Visscher, L. Sheridan 2003. Building regulations in Europe, Part 1, A com-parison of the systems of building control in eight European countries, Delft: DUP.
− Ministry of Housing 2000. Nota Wonen: Mensen, Wensen, Wonen, Wonen in de 21e eeuw, Den Haag: Ministry of Housing.
− Ministry of Housing 2002a. Brief, Onderzoek naar de kwaliteit van de woningvoorraad: Kwalita-tieve Woning, Registratie 2000DBO/2002082237, Den Haag: Ministry of Housing.
− Ministry of Housing 2002b. Agenda Bouwregelgeving 2002-2006, Den Haag: Ministry of Hou-sing.
− Ministry of Housing 2003. Brandveiligheid: Bouwbesluit 2003 in relatie tot aanschrijven en ge-bruiksvergunningen, MG 2003-19, Den Haag, Ministry of Housing.
− Miser, H.J. and E.S. Quade 1985. Handbook of system analyses.
− MDW-werkgroep Servicegerichte Overheid. 2001. Geregeld gebouwd, Den Haag: MDW. − Official Journal of the European Communities 2003. Directive 2002/91/EC of the European
Par-liament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on the energy performance of buildings, 4 January 2003.
− OPB Overlegplatform Bouwregelgeving 2001. Naar een transparante gebruikersmarkt, Toe-komstvisie op de bouwregelgeving, Den Haag: Ministry of Housing.
