Kisumu Catholic Diocese on the spot over sale of houses

By John Oywa

A real estate firm associated with the Catholic Church is embroiled in a row with its clients over the sale of over 30 maisonettes under construction in Kisumu.

Tumsifu Agency, the development wing of the Kisumu Catholic Archdiocese, ran into trouble with its customers after it raised the market price of the houses from Sh3.6 million to Sh6.5 million long after the buyers had paid deposits based on the earlier agreements.

The Standard has learnt that some of the would-be buyers have instructed their lawyers to sue the agency for breach of contract after a law firm acting for the Archdiocese asked them to either top up the difference or lose the houses altogether.

Trading bitter words

Documents seen by The Standard confirmed that the agency, housed at the Diocese’s Sifa House, has been trading bitter words with the clients who have rejected the increments.

Some of the interested buyers threatening to seek legal redress over the deal are Kenyans in the Diaspora who had paid up to Sh2 million as deposit for the houses whose construction at the Sifa Gardens in Kisumu started in January this year.

The agency has written to the buyers through their lawyers — Wasuna & Company Advocates, asking them to top up or lose the houses.

In a letter dated October 22, Wasuna & Company Advocates gave the buyers 10 days to pay the full amount or resign to picking their deposits, attributing the increment to spiralling cost of building materials.

"Our client’s consultants have established that since the time of your application to purchase the property, prices of materials have escalated and in some cases more than doubled. It would be impossible to complete the maisonette at the cost initially envisaged," said the law firm.

One of the buyers who does not want to be quoted said he had paid Sh1.7m of Sh3.8 million in December last year. He is now required to pay Sh4.8m balance instead of Sh1.8 m or lose out.

His lawyer has now written to the agency threatening legal action.

"By the time you committed yourself to sell the house, you must have done market research and as such you cannot purport to pass any additional costs of construction to me although I doubt that the costs would escalate by a whopping Sh 2.9m," said the pubic servant.

He added: " We think you are attempting to force out initial purchasers who in fact financed the construction costs, now that the houses are complete so that you can sell them at exorbitant prices. This is unacceptable and immoral."

The project’s architect, Jerry Ndong,’ defended the decision to increase prices, saying it had been necessitated by high cost of materials.

"The problem started three years after the initial contractor abandoned the project. As a result, we had to look for someone else. The cost later went up by more than 100 per cent," said Ndong’.

He added: "We re-evaluated the project and informed the Archdiocese. A decision was then taken to raise the price. The best thing to do to those unhappy with the move is to pick up their deposits.

 

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