Middlechase Properties Ltd., an Ajah-based real estate company, breached a contractual agreement to provide 3-bedroom apartments by the first quarter of 2022 after clients subscribed to its housing scheme.

On condition of anonymity, one of the subscribers told FIJ that in February 2022, he signed up for “Mansfield Apartment Project” in Surulere, which was supposed to cost N19.5 million instead of N20 million because the company was running a promo.

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He said he paid the first instalment of N10 million in February 2020 and later paid N2 million. He then added N1.5 million and N1 million, totaling N14.5 million, about 75 percent of the money, and the company sent an acknowledgment letter.

“The project was supposed to be completed by the first quarter of 2021, but it turned out that the company didn’t have the required documents to claim the land, so they started giving excuses to me and other subscribers,” the subscriber said.

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“After they failed to complete the project, they proposed another project located in Maryland, but I declined it and requested for a refund instead, even though my N14.5 million had already lost value.”

He said he subsequently sent the company an email saying he wanted to get out of the subscription but Middlechase Properties Ltd. said they would finish the Mansfield apartment project on or before March 31.

The subscriber said he sent them a letter after they broke their promise.

“So I wrote another letter requesting for a refund. They wrote back saying that they would be giving me N3 million monthly, but I instantly declined the offer,” he said.

“I contacted my lawyer, who wrote to them requesting for a refund, but they apologised, saying they could only afford to pay me N3 million every month because they had already invested my money. But they invested in another project, which is another illegality.”

According to him, all efforts to meet with Edim Junadia, the company’s chief admin officer, proved abortive. 

“She claimed to have written to me that they would send me N5 million first, then N3 million every month, but nobody copied me on that mail,” he said.

“So I informed my lawyer to accept the offer, and they requested for an account number, which I sent. They were supposed to give me the N5 million on May 28 this year, but nothing was sent, and they refused to answer my calls. So later, I reached out to them and they said my response came late, so it had to be shifted to June 28.

“But June 28 came and nothing was paid into my account until I received N3 million instead of N5 million sometime in July, after a telephone conversation with my agent.”

He said that despite the company’s pledge to provide him money on July 28, he didn’t get anything until August 4, when he got N3 million.

When contacted, Middlechase Property Ltd. told FIJ they were not reluctant to refund the customer’s investment, but that there had been a communication breakdown between the two parties from the beginning. They claimed that one of their company executives had intervened and fixed the issue.

“He is currently on a 4 month payment plan originally meant to commence in May, but due to lack of response, it was scheduled to commence in June 2022,” the company said.

“We have paid him a total sum of N6 million. We, however, just noticed after our CEO’s conversation with him on Friday that he didn’t receive one of the payments, N2 million, as one of the payments failed. She (the CEO) apologised and said it would be paid this week.”