From Okwe Obi, Abuja

Over 100 residents of Paradise Estate, Abuja, under the aegis of Association of Home Owners and Residents (AHOAR), yesterday, registered their displeasure with the owner over what they describe as a breach of agreement.

They specifically accused the estate developer of situating a school for the less privileged which was not in the building plan and also refusing to handover Title of Document to house owners, three years after purchase.

AHOAR’s Chairman, Oche Samson, who spoke on behalf of the residents, further claimed that most of houses were built with substandard materials.

He said: “One thing I want you to know is that there was a stop-work order from the Abuja Development Control on this property. They said the property owner was not allowed to use it for a different purpose and work stopped.

“However, without any notice for them to retrieve the stop work, the owner came and erased the stop-work notice and continued with it.

“We have tried to reach out to them through several forum to express our concern to the effect that AHOAR does not appreciate a school in the estate. It will not be good for residents, students and security officials of the estate.

“Unfortunately, as you can see, we came here today to discover that work is still going on.

“So, we want to tell the property owner that with the injunction that came from the Abuja Development Control, they should stop work on the school and other activities that is not serving any residential purpose.

“We are ready to follow it to any extent because we have invested in the property. It belongs to all of us. So, one person cannot come and distort what the initial purpose was meant for.

“When we bought this property from the developer, one of the terms and conditions given was that it will be used for a residential purpose. That was very clear. But right now, a lot of people are trying to distort the property.

“Another issue is our title document. We were promised that within three weeks of the handover of the property to us, we will get our title document.

“However, many of us have been in this estate for over three years now without getting the title document. It has been one story or the other and we want to put an end to that.

“We have heard stories of people investing in properties, but losing the properties at the end of the day as a result of not having the title document.

“That is why we are pushing for our developer to do the needful. He promised us three weeks, but this is now three years without receiving positive response from him.

“We want to avoid a situation whereby someone will come and eject us from the property as a result of not having title document.

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“If you look at the estate, it looks good from the outside. But on the inside, you will find out that we lack many things. We lack fencing at the perimeter.

“This is one of the things the developer promised us. We do not have a field for recreational activities, but this is something that was promised us.

“Many of the structures were built with inferior materials and were destroyed by a storm. But the developer has left the owners to repair it themselves.

“We had a meeting with the management of the estate two weeks ago and they promised many things only for them to go behind us to approve the establishment of a school in the estate.

“It is an indictment on the part of the developer to go to Abuja Development Control to approve a school in the estate without consulting us the residents, when the developer initially told us that he did not design the estate for a school and also did not give his permission.

“So, we are upset that he went behind us to seek the approval of the development control. As law abiding citizens, we will follow legal processes to ensure that things are done rightly in the estate.”

He continued: “We held a meeting and had representatives from the school and told them categorically that we will not accept a school here.

“We also wrote to Abuja Development Control and they responded by putting the stop-work notice. After this press briefing, we will go to court as a last resort. As an association, we should all work together, not some people taking independent decisions.

“We have about 450 units in this estate, including the extensions. Although some of them are not occupied yet. During the rainstorm, almost a quarter of the houses were damaged because of inferior materials that could not withstand the storm.”

Another resident, Mrs Leelee Bukpor, wondered why the developer would be playing over their intelligence even to the point of trying to reduce them to tenants.

“My grouse is that I paid for my property in 2015 and moved into this estate in 2018. However, from several meetings we have had with the developer, the management promised that they were going to give us our title document but early this year after the lockdown they now came up that we should come to the office which was in batches that the titled documents were ready for us to pick up.

“But when went what we saw was different from what was intended. I saw a Deed of Sub lease which makes me a tenant instead of a house owner.

“So, that struck my daughter’s attention and she called me and say if I sign this document it would automatically make me a tenant not a house owner.

“I called the attention of my neighbour. She called her lawyer, the lawyer read it and said yes it is same thing and it has the same explanation to that effect.

“Bcause she is part of the Exco, she formed the Exco and that made us not to sign that deed of sub lease that was given to us.

“They did not explain to us; they were just going to scam us and make us sign something that only God knows what that would have taken us to,” she submitted.