{"id":3233,"date":"2019-11-26T00:17:48","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T00:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3233"},"modified":"2019-11-26T00:17:50","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T00:17:50","slug":"misery-at-estuary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3233","title":{"rendered":"Misery at Estuary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Clinton Pickering <\/em>– <\/strong>Freelance Writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The joy of home-ownership is fading into misery for some persons who, initially, counted their blessings at being able to get one of the nearly 1,500 one-bedroom units at The Estuary, on the outskirts of Montego Bay.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A stone wall and gutter being built to protect this house being flooded.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some issues have arisen which the National Housing Trust\n((NHT) and the developer, West Indies Home Contractors (WIHCON), say are being\naddressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Located in Friendship, the development is a joint venture\npartnership between WIHCON and the NHT. Prime Minister Andrew Holness was lead\ncelebrant at the grand ground-breaking in February 2017 and a year later, when\nthe first set of keys were presented to beneficiaries, paving the way for\noccupation to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second phase of The Estuary housing development has\nstarted in earnest, but in the meantime, some early homeowners are venting\ntheir disappointment, with one occupant saying it amounts to \u201cthe complete\ndisregard of the NHT and WICON for the safety of the residents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor for the John\u2019s Hall Division, Uvel Graham, said\nhe was aware of some issues but did not see them as being major. \u201cI went to a\ncouple of meetings and they have lodged their complaints \u2013 but nothing major,\njust minor complaints, things that can be dealt with,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did pass on the complaints and some of them were dealt\nwith and even one lady got relocated from her house which was flooded out,\u201d\ndisclosed Cllr. Graham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LEAKING ROOFS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports have been made of leaking roofs continuing to leak\neven after they had been repaired, and while homeowners agree that the issues\ncan be dealt with, there is a feeling among them that they are not getting the\nattention they deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have gone to the NHT office here in Montego Bay on\nseveral occasions, I have written to the NHT \u2018We Care\u2019 email address on more\nthan one occasion, and I have also sent a letter to the Office of the Prime\nMinister and I have not received a response,\u201d claimed one resident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another, who is making plans to take up occupancy by\nyear-end, is hoping the problem he is experiencing will be dealt before he\nmoves in. \u201cMy problem (is) around my backyard want to build up; every time rain\nfall, my backyard flood out and carry down the marl on my backdoor,\u201d he says, adding,\n\u201cI report it to them (NHT) how many time and them don\u2019t come and do something\nabout it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A homeowner who has been in residence since September\nconcurs. \u201cThe marl (is) terrible at the back,\u201d she says. \u201cEach time the rain\nfalls, you have the marl coming down to the back.\u201d She says the problem has\nbeen reported to the NHT \u201cand they say they will soon deal with it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence has been shown of unsettled earth and of grass\nbeing planted in an effort to hold the soil together to halt it breaking away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

INCORRECT LAND SPACE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another complaint is that the acreage some persons occupy\nfor their lots is not in keeping with the land space they were made to believe\nthey were getting. In the absence of not being able to carry out a physical\nsurvey, however, this has not been verified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Information posted on both the NHT and WIHCON\u2019s websites\nstates, \u201cWith a lot size of 2,800 sq. ft. (min.)\/(260 sq. m), these 380 sq. ft.\nunits have social amenities such as a\nClub House and has access to recreational parks, basic school and police post.\nThey will be designed with timber rafter roof, ceramic floor tiles,\nwindows with mesh screens and external laundry tub.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WIHCON was not prepared to comment on the issues, opting to\nredirect enquiries to the NHT for a response as \u201cthose units were not sold by\nus, they were sold by the NHT, so they would be the best person to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a response from the NHT, Corporate and Public Affairs\nOfficer, Dwayne Berbick said, \u201cThere are about twelve units that reported\nleaking. Repairs were made and the leaking reoccurred, so we\u2019re in the process\nof repairing them again.\u201d He said if the leaking reoccurs, there is an\nassurance from the developer that those will be replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the marl issue, he pointed out that the terrain is sloping and currently, there are some unstable areas which WIHCON \u201cis about to implement some slope stabilization techniques shortly and once implemented, should be completed in about six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NHT says it is investigating the concern about land\nspace on a case by case basis, and will engage its customers regarding how that\nwill be treated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The joy of home-ownership is fading into misery for some persons who, initially, counted their blessings at being able to get one of the nearly 1,500 one-bedroom units at The Estuary, on the outskirts of Montego Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1643,1645,1644,704,1646,706,707],"class_list":["post-3233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-estuary","tag-homeownership","tag-misery","tag-national-housing-trust","tag-the-estuary","tag-west-indies-home-contractors","tag-wihcon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3236,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233\/revisions\/3236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}