#APPROVED-Ras Al Khaimah: YASMIN VILLAGE TOWER, 35F Res (Yasmin Village)

[EM]

Biffer,

I do not know what's happening I approached my Lawyer to try and get my money back but the company played the Force Majour (not sure spelling), they said the delays were down to Goverment legislation and my lawyer said it's a licence to do whet ever they want!

I have a two bedroom on the third floor and I was hoping to get rid of it, however if things improve and I can get an income I will be happy enough.

I hope to go out for a look later in year, will post my concerns.

[SA BOY]

force majore means act of god so its associated with naturally occurring events such as earthquake, hurricane , floods etc.

It does not mean man made events such as delay in getting electricity, financial crisis etc

Im surprised no one has sued against the use of this clause and its current use in Dubai to cover any and everthing

[maximus1]

do not invest with them. i wish that i had never heard of them , let alone given them my hard earned money. bought an overpriced invest, delivered three years late (actually its still not been handed over yet) and despite all of their wealth builder plans & promisses they now tell me that the rental returns are not as they had hoped, and they are now trying to scare us into signing up for somthing, that is not at all beneficial to me.its kind of funny, if you phone them regarding any of ther projects, they will tell you that ther doing great and you better get a wiggle on or you will miss out and they tell tales of great returns via rentals.then like me when you talk to them about rentals or possible resale they tell you, good luck trying to sell or rent anything at the moment because nothing is moving, and they are right as i have checked out many est agents in the area, and nothing much is selling unless you want to sell at a loss. they do however continue to falsley advertise the high return rates etc on ther web site, and still send out to existing and potential customers ther rates that they know not to be true. i am in the process of now taking legal action against them.my journey with them has been one of dissapointment and being let down time after time, stressfull and to date the worst investment i have ever made, actually its the only epic disaster i have been involved with. this is why i am sharing this with whoever wants to take heed from it.
regarding the returns, i cannot quite believe what they have told me today, it hurt big time. they are saying the expected rental is now going to be in the region of 20 to 30 thousand aed a year, thats right folks a year 3 to 5 thousand sterling. they are expecting final payment. its not going to happen, the stark reality is it is no deal, this means i am going to be in dis pute with them and i now realise that i have lost my investment pretty much as i am sure that if i do not make the final payment they will probably seize it or somthing in ther favour. but it is already not worth what i paid for it, and 5k a year rental? it will take me about 60 years just to break even. if anyone is interested in contacting me then do so i can forward copies of correspondance to you. i think it is to late for anyone who has purchased in yasmin now we are all in the same situation? i have been misled and deceived i made decisions on the facts i was given. it was tfg so called facts that were untrue.

Last edited by maximus1; Today at 03:22 PM.

[maximus1]

i am looking for someone who has property in phase 1 yasmin, being rented out by tfg wealth builder plan. i need to talk confidentially.send me a private message.

[biffer]

Hi EM and everyone else who has bought into Yasmin village.

I am visiting Dubai next month and staying in Ras Al Khaimah for 3 nights in a hotel. I will get a visit to the site and see what is happening. I visited last year and to be honest there is never really anyone around to talk to about the progress apart from the labourers.

I was in contact with TFG a couple of months ago and was told that it is unlikely that phase three will go ahead (not anytime soon at any rate) and if you see their monthly newletter phase 3 consists of Building 12 only. However, if phase 3 doesnt go ahead they surely have to finish the lake and landscape the area. Was told by TFG that the gym was open!! Great stuff!! The only upside is that there are people living in apartments in phase 1 as I have seen the cars parked outside. What the occupancy rate is I do not know.

Seriously dont know what is happning with the management of the apartments once they are handed over. Wealthbuilder programee etc. TFG were going to get their current letting agent to contact me but to date have not heard from them. There's a shock!

Unfortunately, I have taken my finger off the pulse recently due to work and financial commitments at home but the more I look into this the more I think we need to do something about the progress of this development.

If any of you are interested I think we should get as many names together (buyers) and write to them collectively to get more of an idea as to what is happening and time scales. At the moment we are, as a group, a bit statcarto and may be solidarity is the way to go.

I will update you when I come back from RAK and get some photos put together.

Let me know what you think about getting together and facing TFG head on to get some answers to our questions.

Biffer

[maximus1]

hello biffer,
my unit is ready to be handed over, tfg have contacted me via their own asset management team and informed me that they want to rent some 70 units out to a blue chip client , they sent the rates and for a two bed pent house it was about £5k a year.the wealth builder scheme is no longer in existance.and do remember that all figures quoted are for illustrational purposes only. they want to sign you up for three years. thats a wopping 15k and you just know that your not going to get it,management / maintenance costs etc. they also say in ther letter that one owner has tried to rent out ther unit privatley for a long time with no joy. this is to get people to jump for one of the 70 units to recieve a little rather than nothing.
they also want a utilities connection fee of around 35,000 aed.
i have tried to get david lewis and the asset management team to answer some basic questions in writing and they wont. david lewis said he would call me on the phone i think thats because he doesnt want to put some things in writing,i said ok call me on the phone and advised him that all calls are recorded for training and security, guess what he hasnt called and i would love him to, all tfg calls are recorded.
i will be contacting the directors of tfg shortly and shall post ther response if any.i know that they read and monitor whos saying what on these forums, so hello david.
i am taking legal proceedings as i beleive i have a case, i would join or be part of a group that was interested in trying to recover funds. i wouldnt want to be part of a group that wants to talk to them as i cannot believe a thing that they say, and i am looking to get out. i would be interested in developing a web site totally dedicated to them, where people can post both good and bad experiences in all of ther developments. and make it so it comes up easily on urls/search engines, so at least when newbies do a first group search somthing comes up quickly, its not expensive to do, i can see it now the home page will have the name , THE LAST GROUP. we could get lawyers and other related proffessionals to advertise on it.after all new investors will be needing these services, if anyone wants to invest in this idea please get in touch.
i was told that phase 1 was pretty much rented out by david lewis of tfg he owns/owned a unit/s in it , that is what he told me and what a good thing it is to be transfering from white bay into yasmin, he obviously knew it wasnt.
when i look at property for sale in yasmin ther seems to be a load for sale between 400 aed and 600 aed sqr ft, i just want to get as far away as possible from tfg, ill sell at a loss if i can.
does anyone know how much of the development is built as of today?
have the units oppositte us been built?
re their new development in abuja the one, i have been thinking out of all the places in the world that they could have built in why choose abuja west africa? i think that they tfg will pull out of it just like white bay, i think it is nothing more than a money shake down, after all who wants to invest with them no one from the uk, uae, or europe or russia because most people have heard of them . russia would be very dangerous if they pulled any stunts over ther what with the russian mafia after them, its a sight i would like to have seen)so one of a few places left is africa, anyway time will tell perhaps ill ask tfg.

[maximus1]

a letter to tfg. danny lubert director & david lewis

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

this is a copy of a email i have just sent out to tfg to see if they want to answer any of the questions, they havent to date.

to danny lubert director of tfg and david lewis an empolyee, dated

25/9/2011

this is a copy of a email i have just sent to david lewis but it is also for you to repond to or not. i have another letter for you that shall follow shortly.
why can you not answer the following questions despite asking you on numerous times now. it shows that you tfg do not want to put anything in writing, and waisting more time, that we need.
1, when did tfg know that rental returns were nose diving?
2,why didnt tfg notify its clients that rentals were crashing?
if you had of done at least we would have had longer to try andsell our units. as it is finding out at handover leaves us only 2.5 months in a very bad market.
3, why do you continue to advertise yasmin rak on your web site as a great place to invest etc etc. its outright fraud. but good for my legal case.

you advertise the right place, the right time, the right price in my experience it has been the wrong place,time and price!
4.why did you tell me that the wealth builder was still in place and good, when you were adviseing us to go in ther , transfering from white bay?
5, i have advised you and will be advising the directors of our intention not to be making any further payments to tfg, ie final 20%. as we are taking legal action against tfg
.i have asked you what the concequences of this will be, ie penalties etc all of the details? you have failed to respond on this also.
6, what have the annual maintenance fees been in phase 1?
7, what are and have been the annual rental fees in phase 1?
8, do you intend to finish the development? and in what time frame?
9, have you tfg notified people in phase 3 of the wealth builders demise ie poor rentals?
10, why has your asset management team not reponded to our request to put whatever it is they are saying in writing? they have not even sent email through, ther is no communication from tfg at all either, hence this letter again?
11, how quickly did the rental market change in rak? over how many years or was it days?
12, what does tfg think will happen to both the rental market and property prices in rak in the next three years?

to all online readers who are following this, thanks for the feed back and comments so far. a copy of this email was alse forwarded to one of tfg directors danny lubert at the same time so lets see if they respond at all?
i shall post all responses on line for you to see.

[maximus1]

well i have just had a phone call this morning from david lewis tfg.
i asked if tfg has or should have notified any of its clients that rentals were terrible and not as they had said.
david lewis replies, wether we should have communicated that things were bad, NO not from our companys stand point.
my question to him, have you ever as a company sent out email re poor performance to clients.
david lewis, reply NO. BECAUSE THE ONLY PROPERTY THAT WE HAVE COMPLETED ON IS THE DIAMOND, its fully sold out but rents and owners are dissapointed at returns they are getting?
things were said between us and went on a bit.
david lewis, says to me so you have spoken to a couple of investors?
me, yes i am posting my acccount online, as if i can save one person from going down the road i have gone down, its worth it.
DAVID LEWIS says, im not trying to threaten you in any way at all max, but we do know , and have ways of finding out whats going on line, and if we do not feel comfortable with whats being said we will take action to protect our corporate image.
im not try to threaten you but if we see somything we are not happy with we will have to take action.
me to him,
all i have ever said on line is the truth and i can prove it, and if we do end up in court ill only ever tell the truth and somone will listen to me.

we then went on a bit more, basically david lewis was saying that nothing could be done by tfg, and i went on to say ok put everything that we have discussed in writing as i shall be pursuing a legal route.
i shall try and work out a way of putting this telephone conversation on line so that all can hear.
if they do threaten me i shall let you all know what they say.
ill keep on posting
a copy of this is going to be forwarded to daany lubert one of the first groups directors

[EM]

Hello everyone, I hopefully have obtained a two bedroom apartment in Yasmin Village..I certainly have paid a substantial amount of money towards one although I wished I never let TFG get a hold of anything.

I think we are all in the same place when it comes to being "hoodwinked" into something only the people fooling us realised would not be delivered as the majority hoped or expected.

I do not know how we can resolve the failings and shortcomings, I did approach a lawyer after I was given the "force majore" excuse, I am aware the WWW meaning...... means act of god so its associated with naturally occurring events such as earthquake, hurricane , floods etc, however the feedback from TFG was "goverment legislation" and delays were outwith there hands.
My solicitor indicated if they follow that route they have a license to do whatever they want, and pending what country we are from it would take a specialised Solicitor to sort it out who is well clued up on the UAE property laws.

I am all for a collective group getting togethor to recoup the monies we have squandered and/or seek compensation for any shortfallings....five years is a long wait....who is to say they do not complete and end up trying to set us up with another fantastic opportunity somewhere else!!

[andymarshall]

Maximus

I am responding to your points regarding Yasmin Village and the issues with TFG. I have also sent you a private message in response to you contacting me.

I have personally invested in several units at Yasmin Village right at the beginning when the development was first released. I, like many people that have invested with TFG and Yasmin Village did so hoping that we would get big increases in the project over a short period of time. Dubai was over priced at the time i was looking to invest, but a new and up and coming area was maybe worth a punt. Now i like everyone that has invested in Yasmin have been frustrated by the slow development in the project. I have had a lot of money over a long period of time tied up, but what could i do. In fairness to TFG they are not to blame for the world economy going into melt down. They are also not to blame for prices in the UAE falling off a cliff, this then has an adverse effect on rentals due to supply and demand.

I think we can all agree that the delay in the project is very frustrating. I think we must all agree that we are very lucky this project is actually being completed. Many developments in the UAE are either shelved, cancelled or the developer has done a runner. At least Yasmin village is now taking shape with the Lake due for completion start of 2012.

your points you have stated whilst all true and significant would not stand up in a court of law in the Uk, let alone in the UAE.
Your first three points about rentals are nose diving, again TFG are not to blame for this. A judge would look at it and say economic circumstances dictate this and that TFG could have not dictated it happening. point Three where TFG claim it is the place to live. Again a judge would look at it and say basically true love is in the eye of the beholder. Im sure you can work that out.
Regarding transferring from white bay, again a judge would look at it and say to could have stayed in White bay in a project that not one brick has been layed, or transfer to Yasmin. He would claim that you have been lucky that at least you have a unit completed.
Your point about not completing and paying your final 20%, this is your decision.
Point 6-7 i feel are pretty insignificant on a legal front and a judge would not look at them in any serious light. Whilst we are very interested in them this is not an obligation by TFG when selling you the unit. We would have been told that there are connection fees and maintenance fees are a standard thing in any property.
Point 8 regarding TFG intending to complete the project, the fact development is and has been TFG continued the whole time to build the development and from their point of view have fulfilled their obligation, whilst very slow.
Point 9 they will not report to phase 3 purchasers about low rentals as they will claim that rentals will increase by the time phase 3 is complete. It is also not for TFG to pre empt the rental market.
point 10-11 it would seem TFG have not responded in writing as this would potentially place the company in an potentially dangerous position if the wrong person wrote the wrong thing.

So where to go from here. From my experience TFG whilst have been frustrating have always tried to accomodate as best as possible. They understand the economic conditions and the fact people have no money. I from personal experience have had it the other way where a developer built a development in Canary Wharf. When the credit crisis hit the developer actually speeded up the project and forced everyone to complete within a month of notice to complete as per contract. The banks down valued the project by 20% and then decided that they would only lend 60% on the project rather than 80% which was previously agreed. I know of many people that where taken to the cleaners by this company as they could not complete. The company was completely ruthless and had no care that people where either made redundant or had no finances to complete due to lack of finance.

Taking all this into account i would personally advise you that going legal would cost you a fortune, with pretty much no chance of succeeding. You have paid 80% to TFG. They are in profit from your 80% so if you refuse to complete on your unit they have a legal right to take your unit back. To lose so much money i am sure would hurt anyone.

As the development is so far advanced from where we where 12-24 months ago i would advise getting behind the project and hope more people invest in Yasmin. This in turn would make the project complete quicker, making it a more desirable place to live and in turn increasing rentals-hopefully.

Finally i know of someone in Rak that advised against me investing in Yasmin five years back. They purchased in Marjan Island instead and to date they own a very expensive piece of sand.

This is just my point of view and i am impartial, just wanting the best for my investment. I understand the frustrations you point out but i felt i should give you some of the experiences i have been through in a hope to try to save you any losses you potential could incur.

[maximus1]

this is an extract from the email andy marshall sent to me, yesterday, and andy my point is that if i can stop anybody from getting on the boat in the begining it will be worth it.


Maximus.

I do have several units in Phase 1 of Yasmin. I have to say it has been a long road, and at times painful. The units i have currently are renting out at 23000 aed a year for a 2 bed unfurnished property of approx 1200 sq ft.
One thing i will state to you is that i was one of the first people to purchase in Yasmin and i have alot of money over there. I have as much interest in making this development work. I have been frustrated by what has happened.
I will reply to your posts on the forum as we are already in the boat and we need to continue floating rather than sinking and any negative posts will only be detrimental to the project that we may as well all get behind now.

[andymarshall]

Maximus

The idea of posting private posts is so that you can talk direct with the person you wish to in private. By doing so you then respond in private, and not then post it on an open forum. An open forum which i also posted a separate conversation on is for everyone else to view. If you cannot get these simple points then to be honest there is no point in discussing any further with you, you fool.

[maximus1]

Andy pandy, Sounds like you have got your knickers in a twist son. i posted your private comments online so that everyone can see how to faced you are. you sound like an angry kind of person, you should see someone about that, its not good for you know. do you always resort to name calling? people with low intellect often do, its a knee JERK response.it says a lot about a person. are you a bit of a bully?

[andymarshall]

Maximus. Lets not go there about intelligence. Please read your post back and tell me how intelligent that looks. Spelling is a basic thing taught at school. Also trying to pursue on a legal front a case which you have no grounds. Also someone who is willing to give up 80% of a £300.000 investment to me could not be classed as being of superior intelligence.

I dont need to get into a slanging match with you. If you cannot afford to complete on your ONE unit then you should not buy it. My FIVE units are sitting very pretty and i will enjoy them to my dying day and so shall my children.

Name calling i do not revert too.But then again i am a very good judge of character

[maximus1]

to the all knowing and great one andy marshall.
ther is somthing about you that stinks, do you work or have you worked for tfg? you write as though ther is a connection,you sound as though you are on their side you dont write like a normal investor/looser.i think ther is more to you. i shall come back to you at a later date, when i am ready.

yes you shall enjoy your units till your dying day,thats a very good way of looking at things, because you wont be able to sell them, so enjoy and your children will have somthing to remember you by.
re intelligence not so smart 5 units , you have made a terrible investment. but if you are happy thats all that matters. when you say that you have 5 units and i only have 1, you are funny in a rediculous way, you sound like a bigheaded show off. i think you are a bit of a bully, if allowed to get away with it.
you also assume that i cannot afford to complete on my unit? where did you get that from?
and re pursuing a legal case, i never mentioned on what grounds my case would proceed, you must be very clever to know that i would have no chance. i wonder how it must feel to be so all knowing. it must be a burden.
you think you are a very good judge of character, sounds like your blowing your own trumpet after all if you dont say good things about yourself who will? i dont normally do name calling either but in your case i will, i think you are a pompous presumptuous fool.

but to end on a lighter note andy, my arguement is not with you. and i fully understand your 5 reasons for getting behind the project.

anyway must dash

[potter.martin]

jesus, sounds horrendous. Today I have received my handover documents for YV/8/008 in Yasmin village. They want 43,000.00 aed up front for connection fees and community charges as part of the wealth management agreement. I have no idea which direction to take next? I have a friend who is a contracts lawyer for a major co.in the UK. The only thing he questioned was the force majeure and it's interpretations. I am very interested in knowing your advice and possibly getting together as a group.

[SayNoToRAK]

Unfortunately all of us who invested hard earned money into long term investments in RAK are fools. If you continue to stay with your investments you are scammed over and over. If you walk away you lose the money invested.

RAK is a shambles of an emirate and the whole of the UAE should be ashamed of what is happening to long term investors.

www.almarjanislandrak.com

[andymarshall]

Wow you really are a case.

To answer your question, i have no association with TFG except that i have purchased units from them. The fact of the matter is i have made an investment, the same as yourself and it is pointless trying to slag off the project as we have all invested money into it.

You mention that i am not to know your grounds on pursuing legal action. That is a very strange thing to say considering you quoted all these points on a previous post, to which i responded.

I am at a complete loss with yourself. You contact me on a private message asking my advice. I give you a complete impartial recommendation on my experience and you then post this for public viewing. Learn how to conduct yourself, private means private.

With regards to everything else you have said, it really is not worth trying to respond to you anymore. All i can say is that you are such a clever guy, you will know what to do.

Oh by the way i do know a good private tutor to help you with your grammer and spelling, they are helping my Five year old daughter.

[EM]

Gents, I do not want to get involved with which one of you can pee the highest or who is the most intellegent, I would much rather try and use this forum to work as a group to try and identify what we can get out of whatever investment we have chosen to pursue.

The forum is a place were we all want to bicker because we have been let down, i suggest we have to collectively try and speak to TFG and ask what they think and what we can get back in way of rentals and how much it will cost us, whether its all paid up front or in a month by month basis...less we forget the wealth builder sounded amazing to begin with but since I first invested the company dealing with the wealth builder has changed, I for one was never officially told this and have not got any information on what they offer.
I fear TFG have a few other tricks up there sleeve that will dissapoint us all greatly prior to handing keys over. I think we are all committed and to carry things through will incur a few bags of sand more!!

[potter.martin]

well said EM, let's get together and see what we can do. Collectively we have a better case. My contracts lawyer friend says "we have a good case"