Many Nigerians abroad have been defrauded back home trying to build a house. The stories of bitter experiences are everywhere, but often time, the main cause of the problem is you. yourself in the diaspora, that always wants to eat your cake and still have it and at the long run you end up losing so much.
Nigerians, no matter how civilized have consistently finds it difficult taking right channels in their endeavor and this is causing a lot of problems. Building a house at home can be as easy, as going to the supermarket to shop, however you have to pay the price through proper channel and save yourself from heartache or you pay the hard way and God help you don’t end up losing your money altogether.
Money is easily lost in over dependence on relatives and friends alike. When you entrust your money to these people because they are close to you, is good but if you’re unlucky to have the very terrible relations you may be in trouble without knowing.. Family ties will prevent you from taking legal action against them. These are what you must do to avoid these problems.
(1) Let Professionals Handle your Project: This is where many a lot of people get it wrong and up till now are still languishing in ignorance. People believe contracting the professionals will increase your cost of building, this is absolutely untrue, though at the surface to you layman, a professional charges so high an amount of money, he stretches you to the point of investing a little beyond your budget and you’re wondering why you have to spend several thousands of naira to a man that will only come to your site, look for a tree to sit under, stays for 30 minutes to 1 hour in your site and is collecting all the money. Ask those that have faced the repercussion of not consulting professionals the evidence are dotting the landscape of Nigeria.
Paying for the professionals is not a waste but you are paying for him to save you money unknowingly, not clear to you. Yes, at the face you look for quacks, they charge so low to get the job done, you are not bothered with peanuts you paid them, guess you’re seeing yourself as being smart, but wait for just two years and see what have become of your house. You’ll start spending so much more correcting errors of the quacks and it has to be may be till when the building finally collapses. There are houses in Nigeria, that you have to paint every 6 months for them to look okay, yet some have stayed for 10 years without repainting and still looking better. What of the cracks all over your houses, how did your quack respond to challenges on site that were not initially there. If rain fall what becomes of your house? many and more of what the professionals would have stood on their ground to make sure you have a befitting house, unfortunately everybody sees one as a thief.
One of the safest way is to engage the services of notable Architectural firm in the country, yes they will charge more, but they have a reputation to protect and won’t run away with your money. Building and construction companies that are very good are in the country, why not engage their services.
(2) Don’t Send down all the Money at Once: Sending lump sum to your closest relatives may afterall be your undoing. A naturally nice person may change on the sight of large money, he would have committed the crime and used your money for his personal gains before blaming the devil. This become even easier since you are not there to monitor things yourself, all he has to do is to send pictures of a beautiful house somewhere to you.
If you delay a little, the worst that will happen is just a little rise in your price but you’ll have had enough chance to cross check either by you coming home or through other friends as third party before investing heavily: also create artificial scarcity, there is erroneous belief that people abroad has a lot of money to throw around.
(3)Crosscheck and don’t allow anybody to bamboozle you into buying or paying for anything when your mind is not thoroughly cleared about it.
(4)Find a time may be once in a year to come home and monitor the progress of your building. It is two ways if you are impressed with what you see it may encourage you to work better and the other way round is to get discouraged, and this will give you the opportunity to take stocks and make the necessary steps to achieve your aims.
(5)Your property documents are what you need and will stand proof of ownership in case of legal tussle or private incursions. If Government, then they should be able to pay you compensation
