Your Egypt

[sharmcliff resident]

There are many good points of Sharm compared with Europe. In just a few words; always sun, nice diving and everything is cheap. With just 4 to 6 hours flight time buying real estate here becomes more and more popular. But after living here a while, you start mentioning the drawbacks easier then the reasons you came here for.

You find out the nice project where you bought your apartment is still a building site after a couple of years. Didn’t it mention lots of green and a swimming pool in the brochure? Bricks are laying where the green should be and the swimming pool is still an empty pit. If you could see at least a little progress it would be okay, but the only thing that’s growing is the garbage the “security” dumps next to the main building. The only activity is from the fast growing rat population.
See pictures

I can hear you think, but a contract? Of course, you think you covered everything with a nice contract when you bought the place. You and some other owners come together. Plan of action.

Step one, a police report. You soon find out that Sharm police reports just get filed in a big dusty archive under the police station, feeding the rats also there? No action whatsoever is or will be taken.

Step two. The South Sinai Governor may have a bit more influence and political power. Is he willing to give a helping hand? For heaven sake, children are living next to apartments stuffed with garbage, walking down stairs without handrails, playing around electrical cabins with open copper wires. We are still waiting for an answer.

Step three. Along the way several lawyers were already paid. Sharm lawyers are well skilled. Yes, in taking an anticipated payment and never answer your phone calls. The tenth time they cut the power and water because the project owner doesn’t pay the money to the electrical and water company, after you paid him at double the tariff, you settle on just having the electric and water meter on your name. It should be just a formality, because it’s between you and the power and water company, without any involvement of the project owner. We are still waiting for the outcome of the court case opened at El Tur since the month of october!
But in the mean time the project owner is refusing to pay any single pound to water and power company until when we stop the court cases.
Is maybe called... blakmailing...??
The total consumption we have to pay is for the all compound that includes also the 4 flats owned or rented out by the project owner, and the lodgers are regularly paying their usage to the project owner. For water we are also paying the part used for irrigation, expense that should have been covered by our “annual services fees”.

Well power and water are the basic need for a decent life, so we have no other choise than to pay.

The question now, do we deserve such humiliation and intimidation and abuse as we came to Egypt for investment? Is because we are foreigner and no one care about us...
This mismanagement and malpractices start to be known in Sharm el Sheik and can spoil the good reputation of real estate investment in Sharm.

Any advice or help is more than wellcome!!!

[sharmcliff resident]

The project owner tries every possible even "illegal" way to make our life impossible as revenge towards us for the action we have been taken with Authority to protect our right.
On 29th of March they closed the entrances with a brick wall, so we can't enter with the car anymore. Not only inconvenient when you want to unload the mineral water you bought, but most of all dangerous. There is no way the truck of the fire department can reach any of the flats. What should we do in this case? Use buckets?
We can law enforce removal. We are still waiting for action to be taken by City Council in Sharm El Sheikh.

Press heard about our case and there is an article on the Egyptian weekly newspaper "Sot El Omma" issued on the 13th of April.

Read all news at: http://sharmcliff.info

[moll]

Well, I can inderstand your frustration, sharmcliff-resident.......I'd be bloody annoyed too :twisted:

Sorry I can't offer any advice though..

[sharmcliff resident]

Finally, after many reports, on the 4th of May the wall has been legally removed by the City Council with the support of the police of Sharm El Sheikh.
:)

[moll]

sharmcliff resident wrote: Finally, after many reports, on the 4th of May the wall has been legally removed by the City Council with the support of the police of Sharm El Sheikh.
:)

Glad to hear it 8) thanks for the update.

[sharmcliff resident]

Surfing the net we came across the web site of our project owner.
http://www.ashramindustries.com/

Quite interesting!! He sounds like a reliable business man .......
Big investment in agriculture, textiles company, and currently a development project is underway in Sakkara, Giza, called "Sarayat Sakkara".
Concerning our complex says that " By the mid 90s, Sami El Ashram took en early step on the new fad of Egyptian tourism, the Red Sea Riviera, by building an apartment complex in the celebrate city of Sharm el Sheikh. The project is over 15.000 square meters, consist of 78 apartments, 400 square meters swimming pool, 1200 square meters commercial space" ...... doesn't say that its all in fantasy land & the reality is a nightmare!!

How many more persons has been cheated by him????? :?:

[moll]

sharmcliff resident wrote:

How many more persons has been cheated by him????? :?:

sharmcliff resident, I understand your anger and frustration but I just hope you're not leaving yourself open to libel/slander here :cry:

The quote from the website looks like it's just giving facts about the project, are you saying the facts aren't true?

[sharmcliff resident]

Hy Moll,
We do not meaning bad but unfortunately the facts are not true and we have been cheated.
In mid 2005 we (9 foreigner owners) bought a flat in a residential complex of 13 Villas, 78 apartments, in that moment under construction.
Completion date: 1’ lot in 6 month, 2’ lot in one year.
Services and facilities: 11.250 sqm total green area, Central satellite TV, Security service 24 hours per day, 250 sqm swimming pool, Pool cleaning on a daily bases, public area cleaning, Maintenance of public areas, lighting and gardens, Collection and disposal of rubbish.
In beginning of 2006 we all move in.
Now, 3 years later, we still leaving in the same condition as 2006 and NOT a single one of the above facilities has been provided even if we have been paying for two years half of the “maintenance fees” as per contract. Only 6 more flats are finish and rented out by the project owner.
See pictures on our web site: http://sharmcliff.info
We leave in a place full of rubbish, rats and sewage overflowing from the pipes. The pool is just a sandy hole in the ground. We have to take care ourselves and pay for the maintenance of the water pump (too small for 12 flats and braking quite often) and the power lines (as well too small to support all air conditioning and burning). Water and power supply are still the “temporary ones” installed in 2005 and not suitable at all for the usage of 12 flats.
Not to mention that in October 2007 our water and power supply has been cut as the project owner did not pay bills for a total of 20.000 le, after we have been paying every single month our private consumption. We had to share a pay the debts to have water and power back.
After the above standing history, in the beginning of November we hired a layer and began a court case in El Tour, requesting the authorization to install our private cables and meters and have direct private contract with the Power and Water Company to avoid further problems. We are still waiting for Court decision.
Since November we are obliged to pay the total consumption for the whole compound directly to the water and power companies because project owner is blackmailing us, refusing to pay any single pound to water and power company unless we take back the charges. The total consumption we pay is also for the lodgers of the 6 flats owned and rented out by project owner and they regularly pay their consumption to him.
Every month we pay far too much!!
Is it fair? We came to Sharm because we liked it and invested our savings to have a nice place to live.

[moll]

No, it's not fair at all, sharmcliff resident :twisted: and it's shocking that they can get away with it...I'm not surprised you've been forced into taking any action you can to get results. It must be pretty hard when you have your dreams of a new home with all the promises and it turns out this way..

But I looked to see how many views this topic has had (I looked 10 seconds ago and I've forgotten already :oops: ) but it's a lot, at least you're getting some publicity...

[sharmcliff resident]

Hy Moll,
at least we are having a lot of views because as positive result (except the wall) so far NOTHING at all.
We wish that this publicity will reach the right Authorities who can really help us and all the real estate investors facing similar problems.

[sharmcliff resident]

We add some videos on our web site http://sharmcliff.info so all of you can have and idea in which condition we are living.

So far NOTHING at all happened and nobody (Authorities) is willing to help. Nobody care. We are left alone with no way out. :cry:

Will we be able, one day, to swim in our pool???


(on the back side there is "Il Mercato", the new shopping street of Sharm el Sheikh)

[Harrison]

Well Sharmciff resident as you have posted this on another forum, I should think that prospective buyers have been well and truly warned about the pitfalls of buying off plan.

Unfortunately it is a fact of life that the drawings/pictures you see of an intended project more often than not do not bear any similarity to the real thing.

Just round from where we are in Hurghada, there is a picture showing an 18 apartment building. The picture looks wonderful, even down to the window shapes and sizes. Every day I see the building taking shape and believe me it bears no resemblance to the picture whatsoever.

I do hope you can get something worked out and can only begin to imagine the stress you are under.

[RoughShod]

Yes Harrison, a plan shows all the creativity and dreams of the planner. It does not show the ability of the planner to be capable of actually making it happen. Look at that pool for instance, it was started with a vision in mind....money was expended in its structure...but its unfinished state is testimont to a budget that ran out of funds. Now the planners dreams are dashed, all he tries to do is cover the costs so far, the interest he quite likely has to pay every month on his commitment to the profect. those who bought into what can be called futures are all suffering the same way he does. he is getting mean and so are they...but they bought into his vision without making sure about the validity of it

They became shareholders in a very shaky company under inadequate leadership. They themselves show themselves not very astute investors relying on only superficial evidence to commit themselves to a dream.

As much as they suffer from the destruction of their dreams, so does the creator of the one they gave power to , to make it happen, suffer from the loss of his own.

[Harrison]

What you say is quite true Roughshod but I do feel sorry for them. We all have dreams and unfortunately sometimes your dreams turn into a nightmare as in this case.

Before buying anything off plan in Egypt I would advise anyone to research thoroughly the credentials of the company, the owner, whether the land is owned or not. Here in Hurghada, there have been many people caught out this way. Where I am now living there are so many half finished buildings because the owner has run out of money. The shell is there but that is all.

The law now states that buyers have only 3 years from buying the land to completing the building or else they lose it. So again I would suggest that anyone thinking of buying a half finished building because it seems like a bargain research thoroughly exactly when the land was bought.

There are very few 'real' bargains any more.

[sharmcliff resident]

"They became shareholders in a very shaky company under inadequate leadership. They themselves show themselves not very astute investors relying on only superficial evidence to commit themselves to a dream."
How we could be not very astute investors? We trusted the Agent. Like we said is Pioneer Property, one of the biggest British agent in Sharm!! The property papers were all ok. One of us so the original project paper in the Technical Office of the City Council in Sharm, regularly approved.
Banks were not involved. Project owner has a big textile company in north Cairo and investment in complex in Cairo. http://ashramindustries.com/
We had no reason not to invest in that time! (2005) Prices were not so high jet in Sharm.
Unfortunately thing changed along the way and rich people want to be more rich and speculate.
“Il Mercato” started to be build just on the back side of the last villa of the complex.
Might be the reason why he stops selling flats? Waiting for prices to go up!!....
We kept quite till October 07, but after water and power got cut because project owner did NOT pay 20.000 le to suppliers (note that every month till september 07 we have been regularly paid our consumption) and we had to repay this judge amount of money we exploded. And now we are obliged to pay the total consumption of water and power for the whole compound because project owner is BLACKMAILING us and refusing to pay until when we drop the cases we started in the court in El Tour against him. And we pay also for the lodgers of the 6 flats owned and rented out by project owner and they regularly pay their consumption to him. How would you react in our place??

"As much as they suffer from the destruction of their dreams, so does the creator of the one they gave power to , to make it happen, suffer from the loss of his own"
Project owner is not suffering at all!!
The point is that project owner is quite old and he has heart problems and couple of years ago started to be more sick (we heard he has Alzheimer),
so now is in the hospital of the prison and is not in the condition to make decision. He was arrested in March for unpaid cheques and bill of the past 2 years (not our!!).
His second wife (she is the "manager of the compound with full POA from him") is the one who made most of the problem to us, will inherit the complex once he will die as his sons (from the first wife) will inherit and industry he has in north Cairo. His sons (we spoke already with them a while ago) don't care at all about the complex and what is happening to us as they care only about the industries.
His wife is just waiting to get the complex and then she will sell it and SHE will get the money.
She has the 6 flats rented out in the complex and she is living out of this money.
That's why our situation does not look good at all. The only chance we have is if Authorities will step in and solve the case, but like we already said, they DON'T care.
Investors ready to by the complex and contacting her had the phone hang up on the face. No chance even to start to deal: she REFUSED!!