Landowners allege a breach of contract and rules by Navana, while customers say they have not received papers
Published : 18 Mar 2024, 10:12 AM
Navana Real Estate Limited has been accused of not handing over parts of a building in Dhaka’s Bijoynagar to landowners five years after its construction ended.
The landowners have alleged a breach of contract and rules by Navana, while customers of different floors say they have not received ownership documents.
The construction of Navana FH Solaris with 14 floors, including two basements, at 198 Syed Nazrul Islam Sharani began on the 668.67 square metre piece of land in 2013 and ended in 2019.
AFM Harris, a guerilla fighter of the 1971 Liberation War and one of the landowners, said his father AFMA Halim bought the land in 1956. Harris and his brothers QA Halim, AFMA Hye and AFMA Hanif, heirs to AFMA Halim, owned the land.
Hye has died. Harris and one of the brothers live in the UK, and the other in the US.
Harris said they struck the deal with Navana on the condition that the landowners would get 50 percent of the floor space, and the company will get the rest. The construction was supposed to end in 2016, and the landowners received Tk 20 million as signing money.
He alleged Navana was bound to hand over their share of floor space by completing the construction in three years, but the company ended the work in 2019.
It was supposed to pay Tk 45 million in damages for its failure to meet the deadline, and Tk 25 million from the sales of spaces, but it has not paid the money.
“It did not secure occupancy and fire safety certificates. In this situation, we refused to receive our share of the spaces,” said Harris.
After repeated requests, Navana gave him a fire safety management certificate with one-year validity in 2022.
“They [Navana] violated many rules of the building code. They were to set up a deep tubewell for fire extinguishing, but they didn’t do it. I think they also resorted to corruption in securing the [one-year certificate]. They could not renew the certificate later,” said Harris.
Navana then offered the landowners to receive their share of spaces by signing a supplementary contract, but the brothers refused the proposal as the conditions were not legally acceptable or favourable to them, according to him. “We didn’t agree because the conditions were one-sided.”
“We wanted a solution even after this. We asked them to deposit 10 percent of the damages for the delay in our accounts so that we could reach an agreement. They initially agreed to this, but did not proceed later.”
In the building, the odd-numbered floors belong to Navana while the even-numbered ones are owned by the landowners. The company has ownership of one basement and the landowners ownership of the other.
Navana sold its floors before 2019, but the ones belonging to the landowners stand empty.
The real estate firm has yet to hand over the ownership documents to the customers.
Sarder Jahed, treasurer of Navana FH Solaris Office Owners Association, said they bought space from Navana in 2018 but says he has not received the papers yet.
“Half the space is empty. So, we are paying double the service charges, which is nearly equal to the rent,” he said.
The association’s General Secretary Mamun Khan said they were in trouble after buying space in the building because Navana did not complete the registration.
“They cite trouble with the landowners whenever we ask them about the registration. We know nothing about the trouble. We are the victims and have been left hanging. And we don’t know if the building has all the necessary certificates. We direct RAJUK or Fire Service officials to Navana.”
SM Enamul Haque, a senior manager at Navana, said they were working on updating some papers for the handover to the landowners.
“We’ve talked to them. A draft has been prepared,” he said.
Enamul denied allegations of violating the building code.
“RAJUK’s occupancy certificate, fire certificate and everything else has been cleared. We haven’t left any gap.”
The landowners complained to the then expatriates’ welfare minister in 2021 about the issue, but there was no solution.
Joton Debnath, RAJUK’s authorised officer, said Navana has an occupancy certificate for FH Solari, but he was unaware if other rules were followed. “I’ll need to check the records.”
Md Shahjahan Sikder, a spokesman for the Fire Service and Civil Defence, said bdnews24.com will have to apply under the Right to Information Act if it wants to know whether Navana has a fire safety certificate for the building.