In Colombia, the concept of property management is becoming increasingly relevant in infrastructure projects, and companies are increasingly aware of the need to control their assets, in addition to knowing how to manage them and understand how to use them. Nowadays, the objective of this discipline goes far beyond the acquisition of properties, since it seeks to manage them to the best use, to enhance their investments, or at least to have a real inventory of the properties.
Did you know that before the construction of a road, a bridge, a hydroelectric plant, an aqueduct, a dam or any infrastructure or land management project is carried out, property management procedures must be carried out? , this is because without land there are no projects.
With the great cultural, physical, economic, legal and regulatory diversity of the different regions, there are different forms of formal and informal land tenure, so multidisciplinary and specialized personnel are required to carry out property activities, so that the best technical, legal, social and economic decisions are made, each case is a universe, that requires self-attention, all together a multi-universe of particular situations that must be taken into account: legally viable or healthy land, land awarded by national entities such as the National Land Agency (ANT), land required with environmental limitations, vacant lots, land in the process of land restitution, land in extinction of ownership, land in the register of stripped land; to this is added the segregation of lots and plots with informal minimum areas, sales in proindiviso, land in trusts, the sale of land without licenses, land not formed cadastrally, public and fiscal land, land improvements, owners, holders, tenants, occupants, usufructuaries, land authorized for agrarian reform and all those figures who formally or informally hold the rights to the land, formal and informal or precarious documents that prove any right to property.
The rules that regulate the processes for the acquisition of the required areas allow the execution and documentation of proper management for the acquisition of the areas and land required in the projects.
In Colombia, through the Political Constitution in its Article 58, “Private property and other rights acquired under civil laws are guaranteed, which cannot be ignored or violated by subsequent laws. When the application of a law issued for reasons of public utility or social interest conflicts the rights of individuals with the need recognized by it, the private interest must give way to the public or social interest...”. guarantees acquired rights, it also allows engineering projects to be successful, this, through the application of complementary laws such as Law 9 of 1989, Law 388 of 1997 and the other regulations that regulate the processes for the acquisition of the required areas, including the expropriation or imposition of easements, carrying out expedited processes, which, in compliance with regulations, times and procedures, allow proper management to be executed and documented for the acquisition of the areas and land required in the projects within the framework of the Public Utility Declaration (DUPIS). These regulations include the generality of engineering projects, including infrastructure, transportation, drinking water and basic sanitation projects, mining-energy projects, power lines, the development of housing properties, the execution and development of information technology and telecommunications projects, the execution of projects financed with resources from remuneration rates, the development of rural housing projects, among others, which are given the power to use these procedures for the purpose of acquiring the areas, by voluntary alienation or expropriation, they also regulate the mechanisms for their valuation, allowing the dimensioning of the associated costs. It is important to highlight that precarious or incomplete management becomes a social problem and all companies and projects must fulfill a social function in their execution.
Law 1752 of 2014
Article 9, By which measures and provisions are adopted for transportation, drinking water and basic sanitation infrastructure projects, and other sectors that require expropriation in investment projects carried out by the State and other provisions are issued.
So what is property management?
- It is due management that It allows us to guarantee the areas required for the projects, so that they can be executed without major setbacks, making it possible to purchase real estate rights and carry out the processes leading to legal liberation, the physical disposition of the areas and strips of land required for the execution and development of the works; in addition, to advance the relationship with landlords and communities, following the guidelines within the legal and legal framework so that the processes are carried out in a fair and equitable manner for all actors.
- Property management too seeks to carry out studies in order to identify the properties that are necessary for the development of any economic activity, legal regulations also require that both public and private companies and natural persons who own them generate the necessary procedures for legal, economic and cadastral consolidation, so that their titles have a viable tradition, which guarantees that their properties can be available in the event that legal acts are desired to be carried out, in order for the works or projects to be developed, minimizing time and costs.
- Property management can be carried out at incipient stages of projects, including pre-feasibility and feasibility; in which the legal and cadastral diagnosis is developed, the type of sanitation is defined to the encumbrances and limitations that each of the properties may require and, likewise, identify properties that, due to their peculiarities, require greater attention or the activities necessary for their proper management. This is where the acquisition times (purchases, constitution of easements, etc.), the type of sanitation, the costs of acquiring the required areas and the legal viability for their legalization can be inferred. In these stages, legal analysis can be generated according to the need, current regulations are verified, specifying the criteria that must be taken into account for the acquisition of each zone, thus determining the required areas, the regulatory strips, the remaining areas, the isolation or security areas, etc.
- Evaluating property management at design or construction stages can impact the viability of projects, since not having a full identification of the properties, the dimensioning of land areas, buildings and improvements, when quantifying these costs, it can impact the budgetary availability and the layout of the required areas, limiting the acquisition of real estate rights for the execution of the works (schedule of works).
Where is property management going?
The development of property management at the national level It continues to evolve with technology and will continue to advance with it, complying with the standards required to generate the best processes in the development of this great work. In the beginning, there was talk of people with loads of money visiting property by property to negotiate, which in many cases were not legally specified. Nowadays, the regulations of appraisals are used to achieve transparent negotiations; the use of physical plans has changed towards geospatial technologies, such as orthophotos, mosaics, the use of aerial images, the use of drones, global positioning and georeferencing technologies, online data collection and updating data in real time, etc., on the other hand, we are also talking about the management of inputs that meet minimum standards and are compatible with geographical information systems (GIS), which allow global decision-making, regional, rural and urban development, aimed at the social and ecological development of properties; inputs that allow analysis for decision-making in the execution of projects, so that they are consistent with the development of national, regional or municipal institutions and administrations, in areas where institutions such as the Agustín Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC) have not arrived, it will soon be a fact interrelation of engineering projects linked to the development of land use planning plans within the framework of a multipurpose cadastre national.
About the author
cadastral and geodesist engineer, specialist in project management and certified appraiser with 14 years of experience in property management and linear projects such as electricity, roads, aqueducts, sewerage, energy mining, feasibility of dams, solar and wind power, among others.
