Rietpan Construction cc

Non-compliance and substandard work

I am writing to formally lodge a complaint against Rietpan Construction CC (Reg No. 2005/084410/23), operating in the East Rand, for the substandard construction work performed on our property. The primary concern is the construction of our boundary wall, which is a double face brick wall built on clay, approximately 8 feet high and over 20 meters long. Despite the significant investment in this construction, the wall has started to lean and appears to be failing. Upon contacting our insurance provider, an assessor inspected the damage and subsequently declined our claim. The assessor cited that the wall was not built according to building regulations, specifically noting the absence of required pillars. We contacted Tommie, the owner of Rietpan Construction CC, to inspect and rectify the faulty construction. Unfortunately, Mr. Tommie declined responsibility for the defective work and stated that we would need to bear the cost of repairs. He provided a quote of R43,000 to fix the wall and insert the necessary pillars. This raises the question: why were these pillars not included in the original construction, as required by regulations? He also provided us with a quote of R9,000 to fix the section that is severely leaning and poses a risk of falling on children as it is next to our pool. Given our financial constraints, we asked him to fix the most severely leaning section of the wall for R9,000. The quote detailed the following: • Remove debris/mortar between the existing Lapa and boundary wall • Remove certain slate tiles on one column of the Lapa • Drill through the column and boundary wall, fit threaded rod and steel strapping through • Torque threaded rod to straighten the wall • Re-instate slate tiles Unfortunately, it has been less than three months since the repairs, and the section of the wall that was repaired, supposedly anc****d with steel rods to the main building, is starting to fall again. We contacted Tommie regarding this issue, and he sent one of his workers who informed us that he would fill the gaps with cement. This makes the R9,000 we spent feel like money down the drain. In the meantime, we engaged another construction company to address the failing wall. Upon breaking down the section that was previously "repaired" by Rietpan Construction CC, it was discovered that no steel rods or strapping had been inserted as per the quote to secure the wall. Instead, only about 10cm normal nails were used. It is deeply concerning that builders can get away with such non-compliance ,substandard work and product been quote and not been use. We trusted Rietpan Construction CC, a company registered with the NHBRC, to provide professional and regulation-compliant repairs, which has clearly not been the case. We believe it is unreasonable and unfair for us to incur additional expenses due to Rietpan Construction CC's initial failure to comply with building regulations. We request immediate action to rectify this situation and ensure that such poor practices are addressed.