Portuguese method for buildings' Condition assessment: Analysis of the first three years of application

Portuguese method for buildings' Condition assessment: Analysis of the first three years of application

Vilhena, A.
Costa Branco De Oliveira Pedro, J.A.

OTB Research Institute

Housing Quality and Process Innovation

2010-12-31

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the first three years of application of the Portuguese method to assess buildings condition. This method is a multi-criteria assessment methodology to determine the condition of the building and the presence of basic infrastructure in a fivepoint scale, based on a visual inspection. The method was developed within a new Urban Tenancy Regime (Law n. 6/2006) that allows an extraordinary update of rents for tenancy agreements signed before 1990. The results provided by the method are used to determine the maximum annual rent value, and to summon landlords to carry out repairs if the state of the building falls short of the required standard of maintenance. The analysis intends to find: to what extend the method has been applied, if the results correctly convey the condition of the buildings and the presence of basic infrastructures, if it is necessary to control results of inspections, whether the surveyors have an adequate level of education, and if the instructions provide enough information. To address these questions, opinions of surveyors and Local Committees were collected during a seminar and with survey. From a database the number of assessment processes was collected. The gathered data was analysed and the cause of deficiencies was look for. Finally improvements to the method were suggested. The main results are the following: the number of requests for assessment is below the expectations, the method correctly assesses the buildings condition and the presence of basic infrastructures, it is not necessary to control results of inspections by surveyors, the lack of training courses led to incorrect assessments by some surveyors, and the instructions provide enough information. So far, the implementation of the method has not raised unforeseen situations which would make advisable to introduce changes in the technical aspects of the method. Despite the favourable evaluation, some improvements are suggested to its application procedure.

housing
assessment of buildings condition
building pathology
Portugal

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:eb14dabf-38a9-491f-82d5-68d2bab9b797

CIB 2010 World Congress

978-1-905732-91-3

Building a Better World: CIB World Congress 2010, May 10-13, Salford UK

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) 2010 Vilhena, A.; Costa Branco De Oliveira Pedro, J.A.