OVER 300 residents who bought residential stands at the upmarket Crowhill Farm on the outskirts of Harare have reportedly regularised their ownership of the pieces of land with the new owner, Ozias Bvute.
By Staff Reporter
Bvute reached an out-of-court settlement earlier this year with property developer Cephas Msipa Jnr who had “illegally” sold the stands to unsuspecting buyers.
Last month, Bvute advertised asking residents to each pay $300 as registration fees with his Crowhill Farm (Private) Limited to facilitate the re-evaluation of the stands he claimed were sold to the residents “at prices ridiculously far below the market value” in order to rectify their title deeds.
“The majority of the illegal occupants at Crowhill – about 300 or so – have already complied with our request for them to regularise their ownership of the stands they were sold without our approval,” lawyer Tinashe Tanyanyiwa of Manase and Manase, representing Bvute, told NewsDay yesterday.
“We could simply have invalidated their purported purchase of the stands or evicted all of them from our property, but we decided to legalise their title claims only if they were also willing to meet us halfway.”
Bvute’s statement came at a time some residents have approached lawyer Tazorora Musarurwa of Mambosasa Legal Practitioners to challenge him over his attempts to revalue the land.
But Bvute, who has filed notice of opposition to challenge Musarurwa’s application, yesterday said the majority of the people who bought stands were not interested in the legal battle.
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“Fortunately, hundreds of them agree they could not have paid scandalously low amounts for the residential stands in such an upmarket development and they have therefore registered for re-evaluation before they can get legal title deeds,” he said. Musarurwa claimed other residents have approached him for representation.
The other residents claimed the consent order granted by Justice Chinembiri Bhunu endorsing Msipa’s surrender of Crowhill Estate and all business related to the property back to Bvute could not be used to compel them to buy “their” stands again or face eviction.
“The consent order entered into in case number HC7674/14 essentially means they do not have title and they have since been asked to buy their properties again or face eviction,” Musarurwa said in his application.
But Tanyanyiwa, in his notice of opposition, said the consent order gave Bvute legal rights over the property and all residents on the estate were as a matter of fact living there illegally.
