Hundreds of families in Almaty have spent years unable to obtain the apartments they paid for or recover their money, and some buildings have been ordered demolished by a court. Homebuyers from seven residential complexes in the city have appealed to the akimat, demanding that the situation with unfinished housing be resolved, the website infohub.kz reports.
Among the affected buyers is Almat Nugurbekov. Nearly five years ago, he sold his house in Talgar and bought an apartment in the "Shveitsariya" residential complex. The developer promised occupancy within a year, but he never received the housing. He later learned that construction of the complex had been suspended.
"All the residents here rebelled and went to the akimat. We must have gone to the akimat about 15 times. But nothing has been resolved so far, no one will take it on. Everyone refers to the main court. After the court, everything will be decided," Almat Nugurbekov said.
Zukhra Koitanova also bought an apartment in the same complex. She took out a mortgage but was unable to move in. According to the woman, she only learned about the problems with the documents and the court's demolition order several years later.
"It all seemed clean, as if legal, so we believed it. We signed the papers, went, looked, and we liked everything. Only after four, well, three years did we find out that he had no documents. That he actually had court documents ordering demolition," Zukhra Koitanova said.
According to the KTK television channel, a court ordered the demolition of five buildings in the "Shveitsariya" residential complex due to serious construction violations. More than 150 buyers fear losing both their homes and their investments.
Homebuyers from six other complexes report similar problems. Lawyer Andrei Kaznacheev said that an interdepartmental commission created to address these issues has failed to achieve any fundamental results in eight months.
"An interdepartmental commission was created to resolve the issues – the problems of the homebuyers. However, eight months have already passed, and we see no fundamental decisions from this commission. People are not invited, people are not gathered. All our questions that we raise and all our appeals are simply ignored," Andrei Kaznacheev said.
The akimat said that work continues. Potential investors have been found for some properties. In particular, the buyout of the land plot of the MontBlanc residential complex is under discussion.
"On the MontBlanc residential complex, the interdepartmental commission has achieved a result regarding negotiations between the investor and the homebuyers. The investor is ready to buy out the entire land plot to resolve the homebuyers' issue. There are also other problem properties, such as the "Shveitsariya" residential complex and "Tau-Koktem." For these properties, the completion of criminal cases is expected," said Koken Zharkynbek, deputy head of the Almaty Department of Urban Development Control.
The timeline for resolving the homebuyers' problems and the procedure for refunding money to buyers of apartments in buildings subject to demolition have not yet been determined.