A FORENSIC audit is under way to determine how much money is needed to complete hundreds of RDP houses that were abandoned by contractors, the Limpopo department of local government and housing has said.

The department has appointed the National Home Builders Registration Council to conduct the audit and advise it on the costs and how to handle the project.

The NHBRC, which is a statutory construction body for builders, has charged the department R800000 to give advice on the mess created by construction companies that were paid millions of rands and then disappeared without completing the job.

Departmental spokesperson Clayson Monyela said: "We are doing an audit of the housing projects because we do not know how much is needed to finish them.

"Communities are still phoning in to complain that their houses are incomplete, hence the action we have taken. The NHBRC will report back next month."

Some beneficiaries of RDP houses were left high and dry when their poorly built houses were brought down by winds and storms owing to bad workmanship by the contractors.

Earlier the department had said these houses were death traps, and that some needed to be rebuilt.

Monyela said the course of action would be determined by the NHBRC's findings.

"Should the NHBRC say we must complete the structures, we will abide by their call.

"And if they say we must demolish and rebuild, we will also do so."

Costs are expected to rise and will impact on other beneficiaries because the government will now be expected to push two projects; building new houses while also rebuilding the ones that were abandoned by the contractors.