Investors in Ivory Tower project still receive cancellation threats

Investors in Sokook’s much-maligned Ivory Tower project continue to be threatened with cancellation of their contracts, according to investors.

One investor said that although Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera) is backing investors, Saudi developer Sokook is still sending 14-day notices instructing investors to pay the remaining 90 per cent on their units or the contracts will be cancelled. The letters are signed by an unknown person at Sokook.

Another investor told Gulf News that the Ivory Tower action group, which is now more than 40 people strong, visited the Land Department last week to seek guidance. Hundreds of investors bought off-plan units in the 20-storey tower since it was launched in 2005.

Last February the development began to sour, with Sokook telling investors to stop paying their monthly installments due to a dispute with Tecom, the master developer of the International Media Production Zone.

Construction was supposed to begin in November, three years behind schedule.

Sokook then began cancelling contracts, accusing investors of not paying the installments.

Investors hope that a couple of new laws that are being implemented by the Dubai Land Department will help keep developers in line.

Emad Eldin Farouq, senior legal adviser in the Land Department, told investors that law No 13 of 2008 aims to regulate off-plan sales and make registration of units with the Land Department compulsory.

“Any sale or other disposition that transfers or restricts title shall be void if not registered in the interim real estate register,” the new law stipulates.

Another law that is due to be passed in the coming days will regulate payments, ensuring installments are kept in line with the progress of construction, or lack of it in the Sokook case.

Mohammad Bin Ghalib, chief executive officer of Sokook, was unavailable for comment when contacted by Gulf News yesterday.

Investors in Ivory Tower claim Sokook is ignoring all requests to reinstate the contracts and believe that taking Sokook to court is “inevitable”.

Gulfnews

Ivory Tower-contracts cancelled

Hundreds of investors in the long-delayed Ivory Tower residential project in Dubai have been told by the developer, Sokook Investment Group, that their contracts will be cancelled and 20 per cent of the sales price kept.

Investors were told the move was made because they were in arrears in instalment payments, despite Sokook allegedly informing them a year ago that no further payment was due until construction began, according to The National.

“Since you were not able to pay within the due date and we did remind you of your payment schedule, please accept our apology that your contract has been cancelled automatically,” Sokook said to investors in a letter.

It added that Sokook would retain 20 per cent of the sales price as a cancellation fee.

Earlier this month, Sokook pledged to the Dubai Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera) that construction would begin on Nov 1 after a dispute over a bank guarantee with Tecom – the master developer of the International Media Production Zone, where Ivory Tower is to be located – was resolved.

Rera sent a statement to investors confirming that the issue had been resolved and that construction was likely to begin, albeit three years after the project was launched.

The latest move has provoked more fury among those investors who bought units off-plan.

“Sokook has said that the reason for cancelling our contracts was due to not receiving instalment payments from us on time, even though we were told in writing from Sokook [about a year ago] that our next payment instalment was put on hold until construction began,” an investor from the UK told the newspaper.

In the past week, several investors have allegedly threatened legal action against the Saudi Arabian company.
About 770 investors are believed to have bought property in Ivory Tower, 100 of whom were from the UK.

ArabianBusiness