The Chairman, Nigerian Society of Engineers, Abuja chapter,Mr. Yakubu Garba has urged the government to introduce property tax, to address the problem of unoccupied buildings in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Garba told newsmen in Abuja on Friday that the government should take a cue from other countries where property owners paid tax on their material possessions.
He said such a policy would check the penchant of some Nigerians to own landed property which are not occupied due to exorbitant cost of renting such property.
“Government should introduce property tax. People should pay tax on their structures, whether you are using it or not, you are paying tax on it annually. That will solve the problem.
“People will refrain from building those structures and keeping them unoccupied when government put in place a policy where you cannot have many properties.
“Government must review the housing policy. People should not own what they do not need.
“By the time we have that, all these issues of grabbing here and there would reduce.
“It is this obsession for material accumulation that is bringing about corruption. If government can look at ways of discouraging these things, then it would curtail corruption,’’ he said.
Garba, however, explained that buildings left unoccupied for many years suffer defects if the structural aspect of the construction was not solid.
He explained that if the unoccupied buildings were structurally good, nothing would happen to them except for the fittings which would go bad due to the lack of maintenance.
Also commenting, Mrs Margaret Oguntula, the NSE Vice President,
Mark Atawe, a Mechanical Engineer, unoccupied buildings could stand for a long time, if they were structurally sound and not surrounded by vegetation.
“It depends on the strength of the structure and the vegetation around the structure.
“Some trees have long tap roots and lateral roots that can shake the building, weaken it and then its starts cracking.
“But it can remain for a long time if the structure is very sound and if there are fewer trees around it’’, Atawe said.
Also contributing, Mrs Deborah Adah, a civil engineer, explained that houses suffer structural defects when they were left unoccupied for many years.
“If the building is left unoccupied for long time, it will start having structural defects. Cracks will become noticeable on the walls.
“When it is unoccupied after a long time, the building will deteriorate even faster because the equilibrium had been compromised for a very long time,” he said.