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Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
Aspindale Park owners, Marimba Industrial Properties Limited, have come under fire from homeowners who purchased stands at their property after it allegedly revalued outstanding instalments for stands using the interbank rate of 2,5 RTGS dollars to the United States dollar.

Two of their clients have since instructed Alex F and Associates Attorneys to demand that the property moguls reverse their decision within 72 hours, failiing which they will face legal action.

In a letter to Marimba Industrial Properties Limited, Alex F and Associates Attorneys allege that the decision by the company was illegal and in violation of Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019.

“Clearly, your refusal to accept further payments from our clients and/or your purported revaluations of pre-existing balances offend against the provisions of Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019 Section 4(1)(b) and (d) thereof provides as follows. That RTGS balances expressed in the US dollar immediately before the effective date shall . . . be deemed to be opening balances in RTGS dollars at par with US dollars and, (4(1) (d) that for accounting purposes, all assets and liabilities that were immediately before the effective date, valued and expressed in US dollar shall on and after the effective date deemed to be values in RTGS at the rate of one to one to the US dollar”.

The lawyers argued that the cumulative effect, therefore, of the provisions is that any purported revaluation of pre-existing balances multiplying by a certain rate of the US dollar after the effective date is illegal and is a breach of the contract.

Marimba Industrial Properties Limited and the clients Mr Brighton T and Mrs Shylin M Mufumi in January 2018, entered into an agreement and the terms were that the company would sell to the clients Stand 2013 Aspindale Park, measuring 200 square metres.

In terms of the agreement, the purchase price of the property would be US$19 400, which would be settled over a 24-month period through instalments of US$600 per month from February.

The occupation of the property would be given upon payment of at least 75 percent of the agreed purchase price. To that end, the lawyers argued, their clients made payments through bank transfers accordingly as it was implied in the terms of agreement that payments could be effected otherwise through a POS, RTGS, or like facility.

On or around February 20, following the announcement of the Monetary Policy Statement, Marimba Industrial Properties Limited announced on its Facebook page that it no longer accepted any payments from all its clients until further notice.

The company is still to respond to the letter.