HOW NIGERIANS ABROAD ARE EXPLOITED BY BELOVED FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS IN PROPERTY MATTERS

MANY Nigerians leave the shores of the country to improve their lot in life and that of their family members. They spend enormously to secure visa and other traveling expenses, which sometimes runs into a million. On getting to their destination they set audacious goal of  sending money back home to build or purchase a property. Family members expect you to do this since most people have done likewise. After settling for a while, they begin making arrangement for this purpose. To this end, most take up as many jobs as possible and often running shifts from one job to the other. They work so hard that there is little time for rest, relaxation and recreation. Then money start coming in gradually.

Some choose to send money to their brother in Nigeria to start up the building project. First, he will have to buy a suitable land. Sadly, when the money gets to the hand of the brother it is a completely different issue. The money is been diverted and used for different other purposes never before arranged. He begins to live a different lifestyle with your hard-earned money. He goes to clubs, having fun with different girls who are ever ready to yield upon the scent of money. He changes his ward-drop and begin leaving big. As you keep sending money down, he further expands his taste. He buys a car, drives around the community to the admiration and cheers of friends. They hail him. They bow in his approach in attempt to get him to drop some money for them. Of course, he wont disappoint them. Some purchase their own property and start developing it gradually, spending the leftover own your project.  All these happen over the course of time.

"The hen that lays the golden egg suffers great pain in the process, but the consumer eats the egg with pleasure"....Rutherford Chidi

 

All along you receive reassurance that the building project is moving on smoothly. At a point you develop some doubt and want to see the stage your building has reached. So you request a photo shot of the project. The so-called brother, having known that the truth is about to come to light, runs around and gets a photographer to snap somebody else’s building. This he sends across to you. Upon receiving it you are very happy. 

It is now time to come to the country to greet your loved ones and friends and most importantly  to see the house they built for you. Guess what happens!. You are taken to a building they claim is yours which is far from complete. From your calculation, you know that the money you have sent over the years is enough to erect a befitting structure. Now filled with disappointment, anger and  betrayer you vow never to come back to the country and never to send any money back home for whatever purposes.

The situation described above is all too common. Worst still it takes the cooperation of other family members for you to be carried away by such lies. Even some parents find it difficult to tell you the exact situation at home.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO TO AVOID THIS SITUATION

1.       Know your family very well. Can you trust them with such project? Analyse them very well. In money matters a lot of honorable people have abandoned their morals for quick financial gain.

2.       Have other information gathering source to monitor the project

3.       Give the project to a trusted, reliable contractor(click here to know more about the activities of some contractors) with a track record of good job.

4.        Leave nothing to chance. Do your best to know the level of work been carried  out.

5.       Contact us for more information about how to secure your building project.07031384722

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EXPOSED: 8 TERRIBLE TRICKS OF SOME GREEDY BUILDING CONTRACTORS AND 6 TERRIFIC SOLUTIONS.

All the shame and sham of some greedy contractors is hereby unveiled. I feel particularly compelled to write this article because, among others, there  is a wave of confusion among our esteemed clients and high-level of distrust. They have lost all trust for   contractors even though there may still be those who are genuine and does not exploit their clients. Following are the different techniques counterfeit contractors employ to dupe their clients:

1.       Deliberate increase of cost of materials: when they observe that you have little knowledge of the prevalent price of materials in the market place, then they are set to put a big hole in your pocket and just put a bowl beneath it so that it pours into it. About four months ago a friend of mine related to me how a London based Nigerian citizen, precisely a lady in her mid-sixties who have spent well over twenty years in London, came back to her beloved country Nigeria to erect some structures. She contacted her lawyer and informed him of her plans. Thus the lawyer contacted a seemingly  honest but wolf –in- sheep- clothing friend to handle the contract. Having realized that the client was well loaded with cash coupled with the fact that the client lacked the Nigerian blood flowing through her veins (she had complete trust on the contractor ) the so-called contractor swung into action. A bag of cement that cost about 1800 naira became 20,000 naira and he bought plenty bags at this rate. Worst still the client fell for it and kept bringing out more money. Later on the son of the client came around to see how the project was going and was horrified to see the mind-blowing charges. He screamed. Immediately the contractor and lawyer were arrested and the case was about to be charged to court. Even in this situation the advanced lady felt pity for the contractor on the reason that he might have been very poor to act in such dubious ways. In the end, they were let off the hook but with the innocent lawyer’s image badly damaged.

2.       Purchase of substandard materials so as to realize high profit margin. Hmm, this is a crazily popular trend. Substandard materials are flowing everywhere. These contractors know just where to buy them and go for them. In fact, every building material  has a fake counterpart. Indeed, there are fake cement, fake rods, fake pipes and every goddamn thing used in building. They simply purchase large quantities of these and build your desired home with them. Then give your building a very beautiful painting, thereby heavily concealing the imperfect material used. In the long run, you see cracks on the wall. Worse, this situation is largely responsible for the widespread report of collapsed building with lives lost. You don’t want to risk your life and that of your family members, do you? The Bible says: “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”

3.       Closely related to the  practice above is the habit of buying cement whose quantity has been deliberately reduced. Some cement dealers greedily take some quantity from different bags of cement to form another bag and then carefully seal it back. Some contractors patronize them, and still buy the cement at the same prevailing rate or price. The result: the same bag of cement but with a reduced quantity now also required to give the same number of blocks per bag. Step on the block and it destroys, rain also washes it away.

4.       Recruiting low paid workers or quacks to do the job and maximize profit. The cost of hiring real experts is usually higher because of their level of experience. To avoid this situation, they simply opt for quacks who accept lower pay. Now think of this: have you ever passed through a building whose seeming lifespan is far into the future but which has visible cracks on the wall? Have you wondered what caused this? Well, when quacks handle a building projects there are cracks later.

5.       Stealing materials. This ugly practice is common among the greedy class of contractors. Right now I look back at the experience I had many years ago. I visited a particular  work site to participate on a building project. But behold! The contractor in charge was seen making space in a heap of sand where he could carefully conceal a bag of cement. The truth is when left unmonitored, many items are diverted for personal use. In the case of cement, when some bags are missing they still try to produce the same quantity of blocks expected from a standard filled bag. But this time with a higher quantity of sand and reduced quantity of cement. Thus making the resulting blocks less strong. And could easily be washed away by rain.

6.       Outright lies and deception. Assuming a tipper is to supply ten-tipper load of sand, the greedy contractor connives with the driver to only supply eight or nine. With the effect that the remaining money for the unsupplied sand is put in his pocket.

7.       Poor monitoring of projects because of too many engagements. In fact, even veteran contractors commit this crime. They handle many building projects at the same thereby reducing the quality and quantity of monitoring attention. You see them running like a headless chicken from one project to the other. Sometimes before they come back to inspect the project the damage is already done, necessitating adjustments. This situation also leads to a shabby execution of projects.

8.       Conniving with workers to misrepresent facts. These greedy contractors appear smart and knowing very well that property owners will sometimes seek confirmation of facts from the workers, they proactively intimate the workers in this regard and tell them what they have to say when the situation arrives. The building owner is completely DECEIVED.

TERRIFIC SOLUTIONS

1.       Get informed. Always survey the market to know the current price of building materials.

2.       Consult other experts in the field to confirm the originality or quality of materials.

3.       Frequent the site to know when projects are not handled properly.

4.       Only patronize contractors (as we are) that have track records of honesty and quality delivery.

5.       Dig deeper into facts, go extra miles in ascertaining the truth.

6.       Keep records of materials bought.

REMEMBER: HE WHO TELLS YOU THE TRUTH IS YOUR FRIEND.

Contact us today:

 07031384722,
07054107283 
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