Tens of home owners at the Greatwall Gardens Apartments in Athi River may soon be rendered homeless. This is after the Court of Appeal allowed KCB Bank Kenya to move in put the houses under the hammer....CONTINUE READING
The houses have been the subject of a court case between KCB Bank and property developerover a Sh. 1.9 billion loan balance.
This loan balance dates back to 2015 when Erdemann Property Limited secured a loan of Sh. 1.3 billion from KCB Bank Kenya during the construction of some 2,190 units. According to a court affidavit that was sworn by Edermann’s Managing Director Zeyun Yang, the construction of these houses started in October 2015.
The property developer then borrowed Sh. 1.3 billion from KCB in August 2018 to fund the construction.
According to an agreement between the bank and the developer, Edermann Property Limited would relinquish 100 houses as security for the loan. The developer went ahead and constructed some 600 units. The developer then handed over the 100 houses to the bank.
However, according to court documents, when selling the remaining 500 units, the developer included the 100 homes that had been allocated to KCB. These are the homes that the bank has been claiming.
While trying to stop the bank from taking over the houses, Edermann Property Limited has been claiming in court that the buyers were innocent and that the houses had been sold by a mistake.
These claims have now been dismissed by a Court of Appeal bench of three judges including Justices Gatembu Kairu, Jessie Lesiit and Grace Nyenye Macharia.
The judges ruled that there was no suggestion that KCB Bank would not be able to compensate the property developer. “Ultimately, we find that the application is without merit. We hereby dismiss it,” the Court of Appeal ruled..<<CONTINUE READING>>
