In 2022, when Kelvin Umeh, an Abuja resident, paid N12 million to PWAN Homes for plots of land on behalf of his sister and her husband living abroad, he did not expect that pleading for allocation would become part of the process.
Umeh told FIJ that PWAN Homes was running a promotion for plots of land available for sale at the company’s Flourish Luxury Villas Centenary in Enugu State.
His aunt and her husband, who were interested in buying plots of land in Enugu, assigned him to oversee the purchase and other processes involved in the acquisition.
They opted for a promo option that required them to pay N11,250,000 for two plots.
In addition to the N11.2 million, they were required to pay N750,000 to cover deeds of assignment, survey plans and corner-piece demarcation. This additional price brought the total sum paid to N12 million.
Documents reviewed by FIJ showed that the couple paid this money in six instalments between April 11 and July 29, 2024. Payment was made in this manner: N4.05 million on April 11, N4 million on May 7, N3.2 million on May 30, N400,000 on June 2, N150,000 on June 14 and N200,000 on July 29.
Three years later, PWAN Homes failed to allocate the plots of land. All Umeh has been getting from the company are failed promises.
“I flew to Enugu for inspection before payment, and PWAN showed me the supposed land. Immediately we finished the payment, they said the allocation would come up. They told me that they allocate once a month,” Umeh said.
“They sent contracts that we signed. But for them to show us the exact plot of land, they have been giving one excuse after another. They keep promising and promising.”
FIJ learnt that Umeh hired a lawyer in 2024 to write to PWAN Homes, and the real estate company said their legal team would communicate with the lawyer.
The letter, dated October 15, directed the company to refund the couple’s N12 million. It reads in part:
Our clients have further informed us that after waiting vainly for two years for your company to allocate their land to them and grant them possession, they grew worried and sought explanations from you. It is our client’s report that your response was that the estate was over- subscribed and that you do not have land at the Estate for them. Rather you have proposed to re-allocate lands elsewhere to them; a proposal which our clients find absolutely unacceptable.
Please note that the fact of allowing the estate to be over-subscribed
is criminal and has strongly established that your company
deliberately and intentionally defrauded our clients of their hard-
earned funds. This is an important legal angle which our clients have
no intention to overlook.
Despite involving a lawyer to push for the N12 million refund, PWAN Homes has refused to either allocate the original land or refund the payment.
“They told me that they would allocate another land close to the first place they showed us during the inspection. While that is not good enough because this means they probably had no land available at the time they took us for inspection, the company has still not allocated anything to us,” Umeh told FIJ.
FIJ emailed PWAN on Thursday, but no response had been received at the time of publication.