Property developer disputes Katsimberis allegations

PROPERTY developer, WestProp, has accused Harare businessman Georgios Katsimberis of misleading the court after he sued the developer for breaching a joint venture agreement.

Katsimberis signed a joint venture agreement with Pokugara Properties, a subsidiary of WestProp, to build cluster houses in the plush suburb of Borrowdale.

The agreement was cancelled after Katsimberis allegedly built sub-standard show houses using a plan which had not been approved by the City of Harare.

Pokugara Properties submitted its defence plea to the High Court case where Katsimberis is suing it for breach of contract, saying the property developer’s application had some misleading information and should be dismissed.

“SG 756/2017 was not lawfully and properly obtained in that it was based on a building plan that was not approved,” WestProp said in its defence.

“The procedure of obtaining such plans was not followed. The building plans were issued without adjudication processes required for approval of the plans. The responsible authority disowns them. So it was fraudulently obtained, therefore, it’s a nullity.”

It also submitted that Katsimberis failed to build the required six houses as per agreement and also failed to obtain legitimate plans, which led to the demolition of its show house.

Pokugara Properties also submitted to the High Court that when Katsimberis signed the agreement, the company had already serviced stand 19828 to the tune of US$2 million and all council inspections and compliance for the serviced stand had been done prior to his involvement.

Katsimberis also allegedly failed to deposit cash or Old Mutual shares amounting to $883 728 in terms of the agreement.

They said he could not seek enforcement of the agreement when he was in default.

l