High Level Committee to take Measure on Access Real Estate

A committee set up to resolve the Access Real Estate (ARE) complications is preparing to take legal, administrative and political measures to resolve the problems faced by home buyers and shareholders.

Two committees were set up in July 2014, comprising high level government officials, home buyers and shareholders. These committees were established by the order of the Prime Minister’s Office, to intervene in the dispute, following the flight of Ermias Amelga, chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of the board for the share company.

The lower of the two committees, the technical committee, called a press conference on Thursday, November 6, 2014, at the Ministry of Trade (MoT) to announce that it had completed its investigation. It stated that it was ready to start taking measures, which could include interfering in court rulings, according to one of its representatives.

ARE was originally formed by five shareholders, with a 50,000 Br registered capital, with Ermias as its CEO and board chairman. The number of shareholders later increased to 652 and its capital grew to 41.6 million Br. Of this, 34 million Br is paid up, with the remaining sum to be paid within a year, according to the last external audit report in 2012.

The main committee has 10 members, chaired by Mekuriya Haile, minster of Urban Development, Housing, & Construction (MoUDHC), Kebede Chane, the minister of Trade, as vice chair. The main committee also includes Deputy Mayor of Addis Abeba, Abate Sitotaw, and Minister of Justice, Getachew Ambaye, as well as members from the ARE home buyers and shareholders.

The main committee set up a technical committee after holding its second meeting at the end of July, 2014. The technical committee, chaired by Nuredin Mohammed, advisor to the Minister at the MoT, and general manager of Alle Bejimila, consists of nine members from the MoT, ARE home buyers and shareholders, and representatives from the MoUDHC.

“After the establishment, our main duty was to clarify the problems, identifying how many home buyers and shareholders were involved in the case and securing the properties of ARE and Ermias before taking any measures,” said Nuredin during the press conference.

“A total of 2,703 home buyers, including 81 from the diaspora, paid 1.4 billion Br to get homes from ARE,” Nuredin told Fortune.

After discovering the problems, the technical committee identified the properties of the company that will be used to settle the case as payments for the claimants, says Tadesse Gebregiorgis, vice chairman of the committee representing the MoUDHC.

The committee has designed short, middle and long term plans to resolve the issue. The short term plan aims at solving the problems of the home buyers; the middle term will deal with the problems of the shareholders, and the long term includes addressing policy issues related with real estate, land lease proclamation and the establishment of share companies.

“Our next move will be to take political, administrative and legal measures as a solution,” Nuredin told Fortune.

The 81 separate charge filed against ARE are ongoing, pending, or in the implementation process, Nuredin told Fortune.

Some home buyers already have a court ruling in their favour to get their money back through the auction of the properties of companies that used to work with ARE, including Pacific Link Ethiopia Real Estate Plc, Laura Trade & Industry Plc and Me’eraf Real Estate.

However, the technical committee claims to have a political power through which it could stop the court ruling from being executed, according to Aklog Seyoum, member of the technical committee representing the home buyers. Aklog is a home buyer himself, and belongs to a group that wants to be able to complete the construction of their houses,or for the government to undertake the responsibility and handover completed houses to all home buyers.

Recently, the Federal High Court ruled in favour of 136 home buyers to auction houses that have been built on 500,000sqm in Ayat area by ARE and Pacific Link Ethiopia Real Estate Plc, with the latter recognised as the property owner. These home buyers claim for 88 million Br to get homes.

“We will stop the process of selling properties despite the court ruling,” says Nuredin. “All properties should stay as the property of current owners until the case is settled.”

ARE has enough assets to pay back all the money to the home buyers and shareholders, says Nuredin, adding that the committee has secured 37 plots of land registered in the name Access and Ermias.

This is illegal and contradicts constitutional rights by interfering in the ruling of the court, complained a home buyer.


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