Suburban
A property developer is involved in a wrangle with some residents of a block of flats in Avondale West and other neighbours after his company reportedly damaged their security wall while building another block of flats next to their properties.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Suburban Reporter
The property developer Rakesh Parmar who is building nine flats along West Road in Avondale West is accused by residents whose properties share a boundary with the new flats of damaging their security walls in the process putting them at security risk and endangering their houses.
However, Parmar is denying the accusations by the residents saying his company did nothing wrong.
One of the affected residents Ms Viv Wythoss who stays at Number 7 Chester Road in Avondale West, which is at corner with Wicklow Road said the developer had no permission to take down part of their durawall at Lorraine Court as it does not belong to them.
The developer is also said to have asked the residents to remove the steel bars placed on the security wall in the construction of a carport where three cars are parked. According to the residents, the property developer left wood planks as support and promised to put back the steel bars two weeks ago.
Up to now nothing has been done and the failure to place the steel bars is now posing a security risk to residents.
Ms Wythoss is now appealing to authorities to convince the developer to clear up their mess and fix the carport as it might will collapse soon. She says Mr Parmar’s company must make the carport secure as it was before they took it down.
“The developer had no permission to take down the durawall at Lorraine Court. On the carport they asked if they could cut the (steel) cages off the durawall which was securing three motor vehicles and left them on wood planks as support after they promised to put back them back two weeks ago, “ she said.
“When we contacted the owner Rakesh on three occasions he said he would have a look into it and still nothing has been done. They took down the durawall and they promised to clean up and move the old panel and pillars which have been left all over on our side.
“They have also put durawall panels with holes at the flats and houses which means we will have water draining off their property which will flood our property with the heavy rains and watering. They should have dug a trench down the whole side of their property for water to flow into Wicklow Road but it’s been dumped out onto to us.
“They promised to move my electric fence on top of the carports at Lorraine Court which has not happened and now my property is at a security risk.
“I have had to put corrugated sheet up against this side as the panels across are the size of a wooden door. Their walling is sub-standard with cracks on my side. Just today we saw they were cementing the cracks on their side.
“They have not come to fill in sand at the bottom of the wall our side. They are just cutting costs and leaving our side a total mess,” added Ms Wythoss.
She also said that she had since asked the Avondale Neighbourhood Watch chairperson to assist them and when he contacted one of the other owners he said he had washed his hands off this property “as Rakesh just wants profit, profit” because that’s all he is interested in.
When contacted for a comment on the complaints by the residents Mr Parmar said: “We did nothing wrong. We have developed a number of properties and we have never had any problems with anyone. This woman has delayed progress, there was a substandard durawall at this property and our guys kept on coming and she was telling them to come the next day, causing a serious delay to this project.
“Otherwise everything is being done by the book, we are all for development. We have a number of residents and contractors who will repeat what I have just said.”
