...He's envious of us- developers

The joy of every home owner is that he has been able to conquer the anxiety arising from the troubles of landlords who make life miserable for their tenants. But this is not the situation at Atlantis Estate, Ikate, Lekki, Lagos, as home owners in the estate have no say in the affairs of the estate because the developers of the 18-unit residential estate have personalised the running of the estate.

And attempts to challenge alleged fraud perpetrated by those who hijacked the affairs of the estate to themselves, and also to know why home owners are not carried along in the decisions affecting them, have resulted to harassment and intimidation from those who imposed themselves on the estate, according to some home owners in the estate.

Mr Adebowale Ajayi, is one of the home owners in the estate who is regretting buying a housing unit worth millions of Naira in the estate because of the way home owners are being treated there.

Accusing the duo of Samson Nnadi and Jeremiah Erondu who are directors at Carter Tech Limited, the real estate development company that developed Atlantis Estate of alleged fraud, harassment and intimidation,

Ajayi who took possession of his property in the estate in 2018, told Vanguard Homes & Property that he faced myriad of service delivery issues not long after taking possession as also experienced by other home owners and residents in the estate.

He noted that the two directors who reside in the estate exercised Lordship and fraud, using a sister company (Prime Facility Ltd) as facilities managers of the estate, as both of them are equally directors of the facilities management company.

According to Ajayi, “I enquired from fellow residents about Service Level Agreement SLA, and a contract between the residents and the facilities management company but no one seemed to have an answer. However, they hinted that both Carter Tech Limited and PFL have common directors, an issue that has been causing conflict of interest in the estate.

“I then approached the directors of Carter Tech Limited who are also directors of PFL, Messrs. Samson Nnadi and Jeremiah Erondu on ways to resolve issues within the estate ranging from their non-payment for services, utilities and energy consumed by them because they are residents as well, incessant unilateral increment in unit cost of energy, seizure and free use of estate resources including non-rendering of the estate’s account for three years.

“Others are incessant potable water discolouration, changing of staff and security guards without prior information to residents and lording themselves over home owners and residents among other issues. Also, Nnadi and Erondu claimed that Carter Tech Limited owns the estate’s common areas such as the entrance to the estate, the driveways in and out of the estate, the management building, the gate house, open spaces by the service areas and children’s play ground as well as recreational centre.

“Having seen all the illegal and unfounded assertions as mentioned above, myself and other residents in the estate decided to form a forum and registered same as a Residents’ Association to formally demand for answers to the illegalities. PFL initially recognised the association and engaged constructively to resolve the perceived mistrust and mismanagement issues.

“The resident directors also agreed to a financial audit of the affairs of the estate between 2018 and 2020 by an independent audit company, Goshen Associates. The audit revealed gross mismanagement, fraud, incompetence, conflicts of interest and among others.

“Following these revelations, PFL decided not to recognise the residents’ association any more, hence other residents and I initiated a court action which was rejected by the parties. However, a reference was made to the Arbitration clause in the Deed of Assignment which was issued to home owners after purchase. Further to the above infringements, a notice to commence Arbitration was issued to the parties through their Attorney on April 8, 2021 which was never responded to by them and subsequently stalled the process”

Ajayi who noted that since then, the fraud has continued unabated, said PFL has never rendered financial account of service charge and power account to residents nor Henrose Motors Limited (Root Assignor) which appointed the facilities management company on behalf of assignees upon upon project delivering.

He added that records available to him showed that the directors of Carter Tech and PFL who reside in the estate do not pay commensurate amount of power consumed .

“For instance, in 2019, PFL recorded that both directors jointly consumed power to the tune of N1,022,500 while in actual sense, they consumed N2,296, 100 as shown in the record provided by the service provider,MEMMCOL.

“Another issue is incessant increment in unit cost of energy which is in total control of PFL without providing empirical data to justify the increment which led to protests by residents. Subsequently, residents requested that PFL should separate bills from EkODC from diesel consumption which they refused but continued to offer residents some level of transparency which they have always kicked against.

“However, some estates being run transparently have separated EKODC from diesel generating sets. While residents were asking for transparency and accountability from PFL, suddenly, Carter Tech Ltd came out with legal assertion that they own the estate and beneficial owner of every service charge paid by the residents and not under any obligation to render account.

“Their non rendering of account to both the residents and the Federal Inland Revenue Service has allegedly exposed the estate to tax evasion issues. Carter Tech Ltd from the on set fraudulently amended the Atlantis Estate residents’ handbook which forms part of the legal deed of assignment executed by the Assignor (Henrose Motors Ltd) without the knowledge of Henrose Motors Ltd.

“Part of the fraud is one, amending the handbook to empower PFL to manage the estate without possible replacement as contained in the original handbook. Secondly, increment in service charge without the agreement and knowledge of the Assignor who PFL represents on behalf of the assignees.

“It is good to know that some residents have taken legal steps to redress the injustice in the estate, but the resident directors have resorted to using police to harass and intimidate the residents. Amid the harassment, they have gone further to bar residents from purchasing electricity token thereby throwing house A1 resident who challenged the fraud into perpetual darkness since August 2021”.

“A drone mysteriously ended up the garage of the General Secretary of the estate’s association causing bodily harm and hospitalisation of Mrs. Adebowale Ajayi. The case is under investigation”, Ajayi stated.

Ajayi who disclosed that he has requested the help of FCID Abuja, to seek justice, said the matter is now under investigation.

Corroborating Ajayi’s claim, Mr Bobo Nwandu, a home owner in the estate said “The directors have made life so unbearable for everybody in the estate because of their oppressive nature. If you have any issue with them, they harass you with police. They say you are jealous of their success by claiming your right as a landlord in the estate.

“Out of 18 units the estate, six landlords have moved out because of their oppression and harassment. Last year, I battled with them to the extent that I fell sick. So, this year, I have up my mind that I won’t talk. My plan is to quietly park out of the estate and rent out my apartment”, Nwandu noted.

Also commenting on the attitude of the managers of the estate, another home owner in the estate who preferred anonymity because she is a career person said “Nobody in the estate is happy with the way the affairs of the estate are being run by the developers. But everybody has his or her strategy in handling the matter”.

But in their joint reaction to the allegations, Samson Nnadi and Jeremial Erondu said “Ajayi’s action is borne out of envy because he boasted to people that he is ready to pull us down because we are too proud and we don’t listen to people.

“Right from the on set, we never told him we were directors to just one company, and no law in Nigeria says you cannot be director in more than one company. Our business is based on one on one referrer. The estate runs on full service. You have to pay your full service charge to enjoy the services in the estate. The estate is run on the basis of pay as you go.

“Yes, we refused to recognise the Residents’ Association in the estate because about six of them out of 18 apartments came together to form the association. So, we said we will not recognise such an association”.