Laura, Access, Ermias to Handover Homes

The Federal High Court has ordered Laura Trade & Industry Plc, Access Real Estate S.C (ARE) and Ermias T. Amelga to deliver seven houses located in Bole District to homebuyers, along with 1.8 million Br for the completion of the houses.

During last Monday’s court session, the presiding judge of the sixth civil bench of the Lideta High Court, Yihnew Kelile, ruled in favour of seven homebuyers, who claimed that they paid a total of 5.7 million Br to receive houses of different sizes; the defendants however, failed to deliver the houses.

The case was initiated in November 20, 2014 by the plaintiffs, who claimed they had an agreement with Laura and ARE to buy completed houses, that were then under construction on a 2,900sqm plot located in Bole District Wereda 5.

According to the agreement, the defendants had to deliver the houses within 18 months of signing, but they did not deliver the houses for four years, claims the legal suit of the plaintiffs. The claim also states that the homebuyers believe that the defendants will not deliver the house in the future either.

In addition to the two companies, their general managers, Mekuanent Begashaw of Laura and Ermias of ARE were included in the legal suit, as they could not induce their companies to deliver on their promises.

Laura and ARE are also facing each other in a different court case. Laura filed a suit against ARE for the latter’s failure to construct apartments on 2,900sqm of land, which was held by Laura.

In their legal suit, the homebuyers’ claim that the houses are under construction and 70pc complete, they requested the court to order the defendants to hand over the incomplete buildings, their site maps, designs, as well as money that can be used to complete construction.

If the defendants prefer to hand over complete houses, the defendants claim stated, the court should order the defendants to deposit 1.8 million Br as security. As a preliminary objection for the legal suit, Laura and its general manager Mekuanent claimed that they had no agreement with the plaintiffs regarding delivering any homes for them.

In its statement of defense, ARE claimed that four out of the seven plaintiffs did not make full payments for the houses. Therefore, it asked that the court order ARE to pay back the plaintiffs the amount of money they paid for the houses, and deduct a three percent fine from the total payment.

ARE also mentioned that the houses under construction are on seven buildings, which incorporate 2,500 houses; that makes it difficult to estimate the plaintiffs’ share while the houses are under construction.

Ermias, the fourth defendant, did not appear in court. The case was reviewed in his absence. The Court also excluded the second defendant, Mekuanent from the case. It rejected the preliminary objections of Laura and ARE and proceeded to hear the oral arguments of both parties.

During the proceeding of the case, the Court substantiated whether or not the defendants would deliver the unfinished homes to the plaintiff, along with their legal documents. The Court also substantiated whether the defendants would have to pay the remaining 1.8 million Br the plaintiffs claimed.

After hearing the case from both sides the court decided that ARE and Laura would have to deliver the houses to the plaintiffs. The ruling also reads that the initial agreement between the two sides was to handover fully completed houses; therefore the defendants have to pay the remaining money it would cost the homebuyers to complete the houses.

ARE, which was founded by Ermias, has gone through various court cases for failing to deliver homes to homebuyers. The company has just over 80 cases at different levels of the court system.

When Fortune approached Abraham Alemayehu (Col) the CEO of ARE regarding how the company will proceed after the ruling, he said that he was not informed at all on the case and could not comment.


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