JUST IN: Property firm selling stands on disputed land Justice Paul Siyabona Musithu upheld the lockdown amendment saying these regulations were not in breach of the Constitution. 

Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
Prospective home seekers could lose millions of United States dollars buying high-class residential stands on a Harare piece of land under dispute at the High Court.

Equity Properties (Pvt) Limited has flighted advertisements for stands it is selling at an upmarket low density area named “The Golden CT suburb”, next to Mount Pleasant Heights, about 13 kilometres from the central business district. The average stand size is 2 000 square metres, with a market value of US$50 000.

Equity Properties has confirmed that servicing of the stands is ongoing on the 163 000-hectare Northern Harare estate. The property firm, which claims to have a genuine title to sell residential stands from the property is embroiled in a vicious legal wrangle with global financier, Al Shams Global BVI Limited, currently holding the title deeds for the property, over an unsettled loan.

The protracted property dispute arose after Equity Properties offered its Lot 3 of Bannockburn land to Interfin Bank as collateral to enable it to get a US$2,2 million loan. Interfin closed in June 2012 due to a liquidity crunch. Equity Properties has since sold more than 300 stands at Lot 3 of Bannockburn to home-seekers, which land was encumbered by the loan. Al Shams Global BVI acquired a stake in Interfin through a loan it had advanced to the bank.

Despite the fact that the dispute is raging in courts, Equity Properties continues on the ground servicing and disposing of the stands.
This comes after the Supreme Court ruled in April this year that a default judgment against Al Shams was granted in error. The appeals court also ordered a hearing on all the matters consolidated into a single case before the High Court. An advert published in the press last week has prompted Al Shams Global BVI to file an urgent application at the High Court.

The global financial firm is seeking to stop Equity Properties from servicing and consequently subdividing the land, until the wrangle is determined. Through its lawyer Advocate Lewis Uriri, Al Shams Global BVI asked the court to interdict Equity Properties from selling the stands and servicing the land still under dispute in courts.

“The first (Equity Properties) respondent’s actions are dishonest as it is enforcing a default order which it fully knows was granted in error and through non-disclosure on the part of its legal practitioners,” read part of the application for interdict filed under case No HC 7769/19 at the High Court.

The civil trial of the consolidated case will be heard on from 9 to 11 October in the High Court. Equity Properties is yet to file its response to the urgent application.

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