Emirates City Forum

This is absolutely disgraceful. We need to put our heads together. How can they demand money in 2 weeks time and fail to answer any of our queries.

handedly by giga

Hello,

I've got the same email with respect to the payment within two weeks starting from July 1st.
Is anybody calculate the cancellation penalty due the late constuction and all violations of the Sale Agreement?

Karlita

Can someone visit them at their offices and work out what the hell is going on. Alternatively ARRA need to get their fingers out as they have done little or nothing. I smell collusion between certain parties and the objective being to screw the poor investor...

Did ETA/Start Giga restart development???
No. Then, I am not ready to pay them and I also believe paying more is like throwing money out of the window.

What about the claimed force majeure?
I didn't receive anything stating that force majeure is over. So what stops them to claim force majeure again when it is convenient for them?

If they play around force majeure, then what about the long stop date?
ETA/Star Giga are technically in default and should return back our investments + interest, as per contract ... not requesting for more.

Lot of people have bought multiple units. ETA could consider consolidating multiple units into one or lesser units so that the payments received by ETA for all the units could be consolidated towards the one or lesser units. The units released by the multiple unit owners could be offered to investors who have booked in ETA'sr many other projects like GCD 3 , 4 , 5 etc as these projects have not even started as yet. I think this could be a good way out of the crisis for the investors as well as ETA.

Any comments?

Is anybody activate the articles given in the Sale Agreement. Please find them below:

Based on the Sale Agreement, article 13. Default by the seller in delivery (other than Force Majeure).
13.1. Except for any delay caused by an Event of Force Majeure, if the Buyer has fulfilled all of his obligations of payment and the Seller is unable to deliver vacant possession of the Unit by the Long Stop Date (means 31/01/2010) the Seller shall pay Interest to the Buyer on all the payments made by the Buyer by the Seller.
13.2. If the giving of vacant possession of the Unit is delayed beyond the Ultimate Long Stop Date (30/04/2010), the Buyer may, on written notice to the Seller, terminate this Agreement and upon termination the Seller shall return all payments made by the Buyer within 60 days from the date of the written notice, along with Interest calculated from the date each payment was made.

Please give me you comments on this.

Karlita

I do not have this in writing I was told this by the lady in the ARRA office. She then issued me the letter to take my case to the Ajman courts. I have recently won my case and am now awaiting the 30 days that Star Giga have to appeal, then I will chase them for my monies! I will not comment any further on my legal case until I have my monies in my hand. Once I have succesfully completed the process I will write a full and frank account of the process I have undergone!

Dont give up yet friends, we will win in the end!!!

It is a bit perplexing why some people cannot even disclose the name of a solicitor they have appointed when they could potentially help hundreds of investors. What a small thing to ask of someone. Lets hope that we can get details of the Firm that has won a case against Star Giga...

Ossy, care to elaborate on this feedback?

I understand Dave's point. It seems however that he is on a case in regards to GCD 4 which was never started.

I have an apartment in venice tower and one in gold. 4.
I went to see TLG last week and have appointed him.
We have every confidence we will get the monies back.
We live in Bahrain and have never been able to get through to Arra by phone or email, they dont pick up and the emails have been returned unread, they are a disgrace.
Somgulf and giga not much better, just keep saying the same things.
We have only just done our power of atorney paper work, but will let members know of the progress, we think it will take 4- 5 months at least.

Its good news .Please guide us through the process and please let us the attorney name who won the case.

I just recieved an email from Star Giga similar to the one that Shiraz got. It requests me to make a payment of 20,100 Dhs to bring the account to Oct 2009.

I have phoned Star Giga ( I never seem to have problems gettign through and speaking to someone), and they told me that the managemnet had a meeting and the project was due to restart in the first week of August 2010 for completion and handover around July 2011. I am not sure about the dates and given so many delays and stuff, I am not sure I trust them. However, if the project is to restart in the first week of August surely that is good news? ( of course , that is if it does actually start!). It seems that everyone will be recieving the request for payment.

If the money is going into ESCROW and developers cannot get hands on the money without showing construction progress then what is the problem with paying? At the end of the day, we do want to see the project completed, we may make losses but then thats part of the whole game of investing. I would rather make a loss and have something in my hand like a finished apartment than make a complete loss and have nothing. Any comments?

Tariqy said....

"I have phoned Star Giga ( I never seem to have problems gettign through and speaking to someone), and they told me that the managemnet had a meeting and the project was due to restart in the first week of August 2010 for completion and handover around July 2011....."

August is not far.... I think we can wait that much. And like Josau said the Star/ETA guys assured there will be considerable progress before thay start demanding money. Let them show it, if not considerable, at least some bit. The "new" payment plan was totally unilateral, and I guess, nobody accepted it or signed a new contract. Moreover, if I recall correctly, Star/ETA themselves advised buyers to stop paying some months back, since they could not establish an escrow account.

At this stage, it is also a fit case for the management to consider a price revision in consultation with the buyers and in line with market price of ready built similar projects in Ajman. Else, its just not logical to pay the balance, which in most cases is in excess of 250K, and yet have uncertainty till completion. It might be wiser to go in for a ready unit near the City Centre/ Sea @ 200-250 aed per sq. ft.

tariqy, you write this:
"I also spoke to someone else at Star Giga yesterday and they said that the restart of construction in August was definately on"
I tell you and warn you again: this is the typical Star Giga line. If you want to make sure they don't lie ask them for this in writing, signed by the CEO. If they were to trust, they'd accept this. I tell you now: they won't give you anything in writing. This is why no investor gets an e-mail from them saying that they will restart in August. They don't communicate in writing, so that later there is no trace and they can say: we never told anything.

Hi
I have not received any payment request directly, but I came to know from differant forums.
We were told earlier that the construction has stated again.
As I do not live in UAE can any one told me sincerely if the reconstruction has restated or not?
Thanks
Rida

Josau, I completely understand your skepticism. I am a very skeptical person myself and dont take these things lightly. I phoned them again today to try and clarify. I laid out the concerns that I and other people on this forum have. These were the responses:

1) I said I was not prepared to pay anything until there was some commitment on the part of Star Giga. In other words, they need to show some progress before I pay; The guy said that he understands that and I dont need to pay until the construction is actually going ahead sometime at the end of this month. He seemed to be certain it would and that I didnt need to pay until it did.

2) He said that the money was going into the ESCROW so in some sense we were protected and that the situation was not the same as when there was no ESCROW.

3) He accepted that many people would not pay because confidence has been lost due to lack of communication but said that the construction would go ahead anyway in order build that confidence. I did say that this claim has been made many times before.

4) He said that an email outlining that the construction is going ahead would be sent out sometime this month.

5) He also claimed that things were not put in writing beause there was no real fixed date for restarting the construction but now the ESCROW was open the construction would go ahead.

6) he also accpeted that the building may not be ready by July 2011. I think we all know, and I think he knew it as well, but the point is that the construction needs to restart.

I think that there is a point. While construction may have stopped previously and many claims were made, there is now a difference,,,, There is an ESCROW account and that gives us some level of protection. I accept that it isnt much but this is a change from a year ago. The Escrow demands that progress is made on construction before funds are released to the developer. I know that there are concerns about how the ESCROW accounts are being operated but I also think we are in a better position now.

I am going to wait till they send out an official email that states that construction is going ahead.

I have a unit in GCD tower B and have paid over 25% untill now. The remaining payment of about 25% is due and the 50% is to be paid after handover of the unit installments as per my contract. From the construction side, I could see 22% progress as shown at ARRA website, there after it has stopped. The construction experts say that if the construction has stopped, it has a negative effect on the building structure and needs quite a bit of reworking which is very costly.
To me, escrow account does not guarantee that the handover of the unit will be done as per contract or you will be refunded your investment, so escrow account for me is meaning less and does no give me confidence in terms of security of my investment.
My decision, is not to pay untill I get a committed construction based payment plan, bank/insurance gurantee for refund in case of failure to delivery as per contract, compension in the shape of price reduction due to delay in handover as well as promised residence visa.
I have already received the email notice, I would rather take a chance by not paying instead of losing more money...and will there fore not even pay them a dollar..