How Suraya Property, Homes has turned into a scam, conning house buyers

You probably have seen Suraya homes adverts in your TV  or Newspapers. Suraya Property Group Ltd is a real estate company that markets and sells residential houses. According to the experience shared by  one of its clients, it has horrible services.  It appears to be a scam that uses media to deceive people. Below is an experience shared by one of Suraya Home buyers. The buyer bought a home with Suraya at Fourways which once appeared in the property show TV programme (The story was first shared by Jackson Njeru on Buyer Beware Fb Group).

By Fourways resident,

Hello Jackson

We write to you as disgruntled homeowners at Fourways Junction Kiambu road. What started off as a dream for us as homeowners has slowly turned to be a nightmare.

We purchased an apartment from Suraya developers a few years back. The problems we have encountered with this developer started from the onset.

Even after making the full payment of the unit including the legal, service charge and electricity and water meter installation, we still had to wait for the developer to complete the house even after having assured us that every thing would be in order once we completed the payments.

We eventually got the call to pick up our keys and handover documents that would enable us to move in.

When we arrived, the house was still not connected to power but the developer assured us we would be connected by the time we completed moving our things in. Three days later the developer connected us to their power setup as a temporary solution. We inquired when KPLC would come in to set us up with power and a meter. The developer told us they had notified KPLC and had started the process and they were confident KPLC would set us up soon, they also assured us that we would not pay a cent for electricity until we were set up with a KPLC meter.

Long story short after 1 year of unstable and insufficient power, damaged appliances we were slapped with a ksh 30, 000 bill by the developer that we were meant to pay in 2 days or else be disconnected. Which indeed was what happened when we together with the other residents agreed not to pay unless we had meters installed by KPLC. We were disconnected for a week until we gave in and paid. We gave in because some of us have newborn babies, sick family members who need attentive care and without power that becomes a challenge.

The following month we received a ksh 5000 bill as a standard bill distributed to each and every house occupied until the developer installed sub meters. We paid ksh 5000 for 2 months and the 3rd month after the sub meters were installed we were given a bill of ksh 13000 and the other residents ranged from 5k-15k. We have now refused to pay for those bills but we were of course threatened to be disconnected. We have tried to get KPLC onboard but every time there seems to be a way forward, they are bribed and step back.

We have realized that the developer does not intend to connect us to KPLC power but has instead decided to supply us with power and charge us so that we can offset the bill they have accumulated while developing the project.

We have resorted to writing to you after exhausting all the available avenues. We have tried to speak to the Suraya general manager a Mr Paul Masaai who never seems to have answers to our problems. We have tried to reach out to the Muraya’s who are the developers (Suraya) but they bluntly ask you to speak to Paul Masaai and hang up immediately.

Our pain is this;

1. How is it possible for Suraya the developers be allowed by KPLC to distribute power from one meter which is also connected to the sewer system?
2. How does KPLC allow Suraya to haphazardly run cables throughout the courts without safety in place? (We have had fires start from this cables a number of times)
3. How can this development be occupied for over 2 years without proper cable installation and meter boxes per house?
4. Are they allowed to charge us electricity as they deem fit and yet we own the houses and have our own title deeds?
5. The power we receive is unstable and insufficient to power our home appliances at night when most residents are at home.
6. Power is not the only problem we are facing. Exposed manholes and power cables. We have had an incident of a resident being electrocuted.
7. A collapsed perimeter wall that has been down for the last six months and no security guards.
8. Some residents who have completed their payments of the units have had to dig deeper in their pockets and take it upon themselves to complete building their homes after waiting for a long period for the developer to complete the units.
9. Substandard finishing with leaking roofs etc

Post not written by Kenyayote but shared as it is