The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Frustrated homeowners in a Fort Charlotte subdivision yesterday said the prime minister has yet “to honour” his pledge to give them a $40,000 rebate on the government houses they purchased.

Veron Pratt, president of the Ardastra Gardens Estates No.3 homeowners association, told Tribune Business that the government has yet to deliver for 90 percent of the residents on the assertion that Dr Hubert Minnis made in the House of Assembly last week.

The prime minister, during the debate on the proposed 83-acre Prospect Ridge subdivision targeted at young professionals, said the $184,000 price charged by the former Christie administration for homes in the Fort Charlotte area was too high and that his government had dropped it to $140,000 upon taking office in May 2017.

However, Mr Pratt said the pricing adjustment had only been applied to the final six homes that had yet to be sold in Ardastra Gardens Estates No.3 when the change was made. He added that all existing homeowners had been “fighting” to receive the same $40,000-plus rebate from the Government for the past two-and-a-half to three years without success.

He added that the situation had been worsened by the fact several homeowners had subsequently received appraisals valuing their properties at far less than they paid for them, effectively trapping them in negative equity, while they had also been forced to hire private contractors to correct construction-related deficiencies.

Mr Pratt said the homeowners had been “fighting” ever since Romauld Ferreira, minister of the environment and housing, told the House of Assembly in January 2019 that single-family homes in Ardastra Gardens were overpriced by between $13,980 and $18,650. 

Arguing that neither Mr Ferreira, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, nor Dr Minnis, had ever delivered on the pledge the latter made in Parliament, Mr Pratt added: “One of the biggest fights we’ve been having with the Government for the past two-and-a-half to three years is to honour this rebate.

“It just hasn’t happened. We tried to take him [Mr Ferreira] to task on it from then, and he refused to take our calls. It just hasn’t happened. If we can get the $40,000 rebate back, we’re good. Everything else, the defects we have, we can deal with that on our own. We’re not asking for anything.”

Mr Pratt said he had purchased his home in Ardastra Gardens Estates No.3 for $159,000, but a neighbour had bought her’s for around $190,000. “A home like mine, when they did the appraisal on it, it was only valued at $120,000,” he added.

“The houses are $40,000 less than what we paid for them. They just never gave us the rebate. We’ve been fighting this for a while. Getting them to even sit down and listen to us is something we couldn’t get done.”

Mr Pratt said cracks in interior and exterior walls; septic tanks that overflowed and needed to be pumped every two weeks; and the fact homeowners had to pay for fill to level off their yards, were among the challenges that remain or have been overcome. 

“There’s a lot of issues around here, and we’ve been complaining to [the Ministry of] Housing but housing are saying if those complaints come a year afterwards, it’s not their responsibility; not their problem,” he added.

Mr Pratt backed the contents of a release by Alfred Sears, the PLP’s Fort Charlotte candidate in the upcoming general election, as “true”. Mr Sears yesterday struck a non-political tone, agreeing that the problems of Ardastra Gardens Estates No.3 started with the former Christie administration, but now the responsibility for correcting the matter lay with the current government.

Pointing out that government was continuous, he said: “If the press reports are correct, Prime Minister Minnis misled Parliament and..... has not delivered the promised rebate to homeowners in Ardastra Estates No.3 and failed to make the following material disclosures to Parliament about the failure of his administration to address long-standing complaints of the residents of the Ardastra Gardens Estates No.3.

“Ardastra No.3 comprises 60 homes. Eighty-five percent to 90 percent of the homeowners took occupancy of their homes after May 2017. To date, only approximately six homeowners have received the rebates promised by Prime Minister Minnis.”

He cited construction defects that include “uneven house flooring, uneven yards, interior and exterior cracks in walls, improper wiring, missing knobs on cabinets, water leakages under cracks of tiles, irregular and incomplete tiling, water pipes installed overhead in houses, holes in exterior walls and improper drainage”.

The homes were constructed by 30-40 contractors in a process managed by Arawak Homes, but Mr Sears said owners had been forced to hire private contractors at their expense to remedy the defects rather than the Government correcting the problem itself.

Detailing a similar valuation issue to that outlined by Mr Pratt, the former attorney general added: “For example, Anthony Strachan and Tiffany Strachan purchased Lot 56 in Ardastra Gardens in 2017 at a purchase price of $167,600, and entered a mortgage with the Mortgage Corporation in the amount of $176,242.

“One year later, the Strachans had their home appraised and the appraisal established that their home was valued 40 percent less than what they had paid for the home. It is inexplicable why the Government has not provided any rebates to the residents of Ardastra Subdivision, in light of the public admission of the minister of housing and the Prime Minister that the price at which the Government sold these homes was not a ‘fair price’ to achieve the public policy and statutory objectives of the Ministry of Housing.”

Mr Sears continued: “The Government, in its commercial capacity as developer and seller of the homes in Ardastra Estates No.3, had a duty of care to act in good faith and reasonably in the design, selection of the builder and construction of the homes.

“The Government, in its regulatory capacity, had a duty to act in good faith and reasonably in the inspection and issuance of certificates of occupancy. I believe that the Government, under both the former and present administrations, must take responsibility for the said problems in Ardastra Estates No.3.”