By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Some Royal Gardens Estate residents in the Ajah area of Lagos State have accused the estate developer, Trojan Estate Limited, and its agent, Broll Properties Limited, of exploitation.
At a protest to kick against the activities of the organisations, the aggrieved residents also claimed the developer, which has Mr Rilwan Olakunle Tinubu as its Managing Director, has refused to obey the court directive on resolving the issues brought before it, noting that they are angry over the lack of transparency and disparity in electricity billing.
They claimed the facility company had to impose an outrageous service charge of N630,000 on each resident, which is also imposed on owners of undeveloped properties and an additional N27,000 for electricity consumption for the common areas.
Chairman of the residents’ association, Mr Anthony Ogbebor, said, “We are protesting three counts – Bulk meter system, which we insist must be removed. The bulk meter system is the system where you bill the estate from a source irrespective of individual usage.
“Hence, the total usage will become a token purchased by an individual plus the common area level. If there is any illegality in the electricity distribution, it falls back on the residents. It is not appropriate to bill us in such a manner, we should be billed based on usage and the various common areas should be properly metered.
“The utilities and costs should be documented and distributed amongst the residents. We can’t be grouped under the bulk meter system and accrue outrageous bills not utilized by the residents.
“Secondly, we are demanding improvement regarding our security. The security system is at its lowest ebb at the moment. We had to address the security issues by sitting with the estate facility managers, bringing in a consultant to evaluate the security system and designing a way out, which includes the installation of CCTV, automation of the gates and general improvements.
“For the past six months, we have tried to discuss this with them despite the residents’ readiness to take up the cost, they have yet to respond to us.
“Another issue is the Service Level Agreement that was not in existence from inception. We approached the court and the court instructed that they should go into agreement and mediation with the residents but the agents have been avoiding several mediations. To generate the SLA, they were expected to make inputs.
“For the past six years, we have been on this and Trojan and Broll have refused to sign the document. The lawyer representing Trojan is not happy with the refusal of his client to sign the SLA.
“There are other issues that need redress but we believe that if these three are addressed every other issue will fall into place. We are only canvassing for collaboration from the developer in resolving the outstanding challenges. We bought into your property does not mean you should hold us hostage.”
Meanwhile, at the time of filing this report, the facility managers refused to comment on the matter when approached at their office.
