March 2024

The head of the Provincial Department of the National Housing Institute, in Benguela, Gizela dos Santos, denounced, in an interview with the newspaper O PAÍS, the existence of citizens who transfer a property owned by the State to two or more owners, which has generated conflicts between citizens and concerned local authorities. Gisela states that her institution has activated the conciliation mechanism between the parties to overcome the problem

Gizela Santos suspects that this practice is due to an alleged lack of information on the part of citizens and, as a result, clarification campaigns for State tenants are intensified. For anyone who is transferring a property in their name, the person responsible advises them to seek housing services before becoming a tenant. “It’s the law. The processing of the position of tenant for another is the law, what is not the law is a third party encumbering an asset that does not even belong to them, but still belongs to the State.

And we have been hearing many situations from people who, in order to pass the contractual status of the property, ask for large amounts of money”, reproaches the person in charge. Gizela Santos highlights that her institution has, in recent times, registered a process of conflict between citizens resulting from transfers made to two or more people. In some cases, citizens drag the State into a conflict in which it is not an interested party, so that it can be resolved. “And stay there in the conflict as if you were an integral part of it. Administratively, we must take into account the current contract.

If the conflict is not resolved here, at our instance, we submit and/or advise the parties who requested us to appeal to the court, because it is the body with the capacity to resolve conflicts”, he asserts, without referring to case numbers. that your department has referred to the judicial authorities. The head of the Provincial Department of the National Housing Institute clarifies that, when the process follows the normal process, there has been no bureaucracy.

The only thing that is required, maintains Gizela, is documentation compliance. “As long as the documentation is properly organized. We are talking regarding rental contracts, rent receipts. And if citizens understand that they must pass on their contractual position to a third party, the Housing Institute has provided treatment”, he guarantees. In order to avoid “flooding” the courts with processes of this nature, your institution has tried to conciliate the parties before they express a desire to go to court, given that court processes are quite lengthy.

“Which is also a way to prevent citizens from going to court and the court is full of cases, without saying that these, most of the time, are not resolved within two, three months. However, we call the parties together, we try to reconcile. We show the other side of the situation”, The province has more than 4 thousand properties to register. At the level of Benguela, Lobito is the pilot municipality in the State heritage registration process. With the process, the Government wants to consolidate the idea of ​​intervention in some properties in poor condition. “The field work has already been carried out, involving the Provincial Government, the Infrastructure Office and the National Housing Institute.

So here, in Benguela, by the way, in terms of completely degraded properties and infrastructure, we have the situation under control. His Excellency the provincial governor realized that, in Luanda, there were buildings in disrepair, he did a lot of work to determine which and where these properties were in a state of high degradation”, he assures.

BY: Constantino Eduardo, in Benguela