People who live in the apartment building located at 12 Socoleni St in Chisinau accuse the building company SRL “Demi-Alitora” of committing wrongdoings in relation to dwellers, which have been covered by state institutions during many years. In a news conference at IPN, a group of investors said the company collected considerable amounts of money from people, but completed the works much later than planned. After the company ultimately finished the works and the building was accepted as suitable for residence, the director refused to issue ownership documents to investors, blackmailing them in order to obtain additional sums that were not indicated in contracts.
Investor Kiril Malaireu said the block has 194 apartments, an underground parking lot and nonresidential areas. He signed the contract with SRL “Demi-Alitora”, whose director-founder is Ion Sarbu, in 2008. The building was to be made available for occupancy at the end of 2010. “We, the investors, honored our payment obligations in accordance with the contract and even paid in advance a part of the last installments that we were to pay when receiving the ownership documents. We did it in order not to cause problems in the financing of the construction works,” stated Kiril Malaireu.
According to him, at the end of 2013 the company practically suspended the works, but the investors were invited to move to the new apartments, the director promising that the works will be soon finished. The investors that moved in that period had to pay for public utilities in accordance with the tariffs applied to legal entities as the house hadn’t been yet officially accepted as suitable. In 2015 it became clear that the works will be yet late.
The dwellers submitted petitions to the Government, Parliament, the Presidential Office, the Chisinau City Hall and law enforcement agencies. Kiril Malaireu said the conclusions formulated after numerous inspections were performed there were dubious. As a result, the criminal case was dropped, but the prosecutor dealing with the case refused to present the case dropping order to them so that they could challenge it in court. “We have reasonable suspicions to believe that it was a case of protection on the part of the investigation bodies or even an act of corruption. We suspect that the pecuniary interest was above the interests of the law,” stated the investor.
After the Rascani district head’s office became involved, the dwellers started to pay for power and heat at the tariffs intended for household users. The investors paid in advance the last installments and the works could be thus completed. Asking the building company to issue them with ownership documents, the dwellers were told to pay another sum of money, being thus blackmailed. The company’s director explained that he incurred additional costs, including for advocacy services, after the investors submitted petitions.
The apartment owners have to seek justice. According to them, as they do not have ownership documents and residence, they cannot enroll the children to kindergartens and cannot register with a local medical institution or, elementarily, go and vote. The investors said that if they are not helped, they are ready to go to court and to also mount protests.
