General News of Wednesday, 19 August 2009

Source: The Informer

Home Owners Issue Ultimatum To HFC

Citizens who have bought houses sold to them by Home Finance Company (HFC), have issued the strongest of warning to the management of HFC to quickly resolve the issue of demolishing threats on their properties, or face a bitter legal suit that they intend to slap on the company.

A livid Ghanaian home owner has consequently advised HFC to engage the individual or institution that has won a legal tussle and is, as such, threatening to demolish homes bought from HFC, or face a litigation that he will demand compensation, damages and interests from HFC.

Mr. Joseph Robert Kojo Mensah, who cannot stand the report that his home was on the verge of being reduced into a rubble, granted an interview to The Informer, yesterday, in which he lambasted the management of HFC for not doing due diligence on the land on which it caused the building of houses that it sold to prospective Ghanaians for thousands of dollars.

“I’m accusing them of irresponsibility in not due diligence on the land. My brother, in Ghana we trust companies not individuals, when it comes to buying a house or a land. That is why we all trusted HFC and bought from them. I don’t know who Sullivan Gyantu is? It never came up, until the last weekend that bulldozers were brought here. So HFC must get ready for me,” an annoyed homeowner said.

Mr. Mensah who had to fly back to Ghana from his United Nation office, told The Informer that he monitored the statements made by HFC officials made on radio, and was not convinced, necessitating his arrival in the country. He fumed: “I couldn’t believe it. All that the Marketing Manager or whatever his position is, was saying were all lies. I bought my house with cash. So what was he talking about? I do not know about being a mortgagee.”

“I expected the Managing Director of HFC to have written to every home owner, by now, to explain the situation and going ahead to assure us of the security of our investments. I can assure them, I will file a suit against them, instructing my lawyers to claim all that I’m entitled to.”

About 40 homes in a gated community in Community 20 at Batsona in Accra were about to be pulled down following a court decision against the property developer, Osullivan Estates, a company that HFC has stated it has a minority equity in.

Bulldozers amassed at the precincts of the estates, ready to pull down the homes that were purchased at an average cost of about $55,000 each.

The HFC Bank Business Development General Manager, Mr Charles Matison went air to debunk claims that the home owners bought their houses from HFC. He cited Osulivan Estates as the company that owned the estates and therefore sold to the prospective buyers who HFC gave mortgages to.

Mr. Kojo Mensah however rejected that claim and insisted that he bought his home with savings he had made abroad, and therefore was at a loss as to what the HFC boss was talking about.

He warned the company to come out with an official documented position on the impasse or face credibility crises through a legal suit that he and some of neighbours in the estate will file.