Thursday, June 19, 2008

My Castle In The Sky

A couple of years ago, I invested in a condo not very far from where I currently live. I used up almost all my savings just to be able to put a down payment and all that for the place. It was and still is in a pretty good location. I was pretty excited back then when I first purchased it.

The place was a sell out, with all the units being snapped up pretty fast. I even convinced my best buddy to buy a place there and he did indeed buy one, about a couple of floors above me. We didn't want to be seen as staying too near to each other ... LOL!

The facilities that came with the place was pretty good too. You know, the usual swimming pools, tennis courts, a mini theater, laundry services and better yet, they were planning to have a hypermarket on the ground level.

Now that would have made shopping so much easier, no need to drive out through jams looking for parkings and all that. All I had to do was just take the elevator down and viola, the hypermarket! But unfortunately all that came to a disappointment. The condo was supposed to be ready a few years back, but unfortunately, the darn developers abandoned the project. They took everyone's hard earned money and just ran!

And the excuse they gave was that the material cost had gone up and that they didn't have any foreign workers. I mean, come on, didn't they take into account the cost of material for the next couple of years. And no foreign workers? What kind of excuse is that? Hire some new ones for gods sake! And further more, for them to even start work, the banks would have already released some amount of funds from the loans everyone took to buy the place.

Don't these people have any conscience at all? They worst thing is, the condo I bought falls under the commercial category or something like that and there really isn't any laws protecting buyers like me who invested everything they have in buying the place. The most painful thing is seeing the place half built rotting away everyday on my way to work and not knowing if anything is being done to revive the project. They did try to revive it once with new developers taking over but even that failed eventually.

That project abandonment played a huge impact in my life financially. It took a huge toll on my finance cos I had to pay the current house rent on top of the interest for the bank loan on the condo, which was not cheap mind you. I suffered quite a bit at one time just trying to sort the darn thing out. And it's still not really sorted out yet. In fact I don't really have any confidence that it will ever be sorted out.

I wish there was some kind of laws that could help me get my money back or something like what they have in the US where they have this construction attorneys to safeguard the rights by filling out conditional lien release forms. At least they do have some kind of protection. Unlike me where I seriously don't know where to turn to either get the condo project revived or atleast get some of my money back.

I know for a fact that if they do eventually revive the project, I'm going to sell the place and buy something somewhere else. I don't think I'd wanna stay there now after all the bad karma that's been associated with the place. But until then I'm going to be paying the bank interest for a non existent place! Sighhh and as if life isn't difficult enough!
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28 comments:

  1. Damn! this really hurts! Did you try to check with your lawyer? If there is anything you can do?

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  2. Ouch! That really sucks.
    I organised a couple of The Edge Investment Forum on Real Estate sometime back, and all the speakers said the same advice: Always buy properties from well-known developers (such as Sunrise, MK Land, Glomac etc...)

    I hope things will work out for you though :)

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  3. They can't have any conscience I'm afraid.
    What a terrible thing to do to others. They deserve exactly the same thing to happen to them!

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  4. OMG! When things like this happen I want to tear my hair out...so sorry to hear this!

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  5. If this thing happens to me, I probably won't stop crying, lol! Imagine how you saved for what you desired, but lost along the way. But life must go on, with or without that condo. Just hope it will not happen again.

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  6. That is horrible! I would check it out with a lawyer to see if there is anything that can be done.

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  7. Lianny - First of all welcome to my blog :D

    Yes, it does hurt big time. Well, the banks have taken over the legal action part and are trying to solve it but so far it doesn't really look that good ...

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  8. Perky - It sucks big time! Well, to be honest, they was only one abandoned project in Subang in all the time I've lived here so I was pretty confident that this one would go through. Little did I know this would so happen to be the second abandoned project! Sighhh ...

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  9. The World According To Me - You're right, they don't have a conscience! I'm sure they're on some island someone sipping wine and laughing all the way to the bank with my money!

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  10. Breathewithme - Welcome to Anything Goes!

    I don't really have all that much hair to tear out at the moment ... LOL!

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  11. Marlene - Yup, life is still going on but it would sure be better if they did finally build the place up.

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  12. Tammy - Well, the bank that I took the loan from are doing all the legal work so I'll just have to hope for the best!

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  13. Oh dear, I'm so sorry to hear about this. I often read about this in the papers. Many Singaporeans invest in properties like this and got burnt too. The developers are so unscrupulous! It must have been hard on you. You're right. Even if they finally complete it, sell it and buy somewhere else.Maybe it is best to buy a place that has already been completed this time.

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  14. We didn't want to be seen as staying too near to each other ... LOL!<--- this nearly sound gay *rofl ogie ignore my thoughts *slap self..

    Anyways, OMG! I hate those kinda selfish developers that take advantage of the situation *sigh. I hope the culprit will get wut they deserve!!! KARMA!!!!

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  15. This really sucks!!
    Hopefully the bank can come back to you guys with good news.

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  16. Hi Nick,
    OUCH!!! Never knew that housing can fall under commercial thingie. I think there will be more abandon projects with the new fuel hike. Everything gona go up! :(

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  17. BT - A lot of developers are like these la. I wonder how they sleep at nights knowing they've cheated some poor soul of his life savings? I'll definitely sell the place when it's ready, if it's ever ready that is ...

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  18. Maslight - Hahaha ... we're definitely not gay la. We're bonafide regular guys and we happen to be real good friends ... LOL!

    I'm praying something really bad will happen to them one day, maybe a tower crane falling on their heads or something ...

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  19. I'm so sorry to hear about this too!! I hope one day you'll get a better one or bigger one..who knows ;-)

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  20. KM - Yeah, I'm hoping for the same thing too ... all my toes and fingers are crossed ... LOL!

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  21. Jen - OUCH is definitely the right word over here. I agree, things are going to cost an arm and a leg soon.

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  22. Monica - With the prices of everything going up, I think I'll only be able to afford a hut la ...

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  23. This kind of thing always seems to happen to the people who can least afford it. The ones that scrimp and save to try and get ahead. I'm truly sorry that happened to you Nick. Don't worry my friend, what goes around comes around. Karma can be a vengeful devil.

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  24. God Nick! Really sorry to hear that! Sometimes it is like gambling with your money when you purchase a new property or that not even up yet!

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  25. Gypsy - That's true. I don't see these kind of things happening to those that can afford it ... Oh well, like you said, Karma can be a vengeful devil :D

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  26. Rose - Oh yes it is a lot like gambling. You're putting your money in the hands of people you don't even know ...

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  27. I kind of know what is all about. Early 90's we had a president who took all the money from brazilians investors. Many people had lost everything and got poor.
    This president was impeached...

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  28. Cidao - That's really sad. What compels these people to do such things is way beyond my comprehension. I guess the lure of money is too big and evil to fight!

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