The Untold Story Of RevoPlus & Its Angry Clients

 

• What You Won't Read Anywhere!

Talk of top real estate firms in Lagos with years of experience, pedigree in the real estate sector, the name RevolutionPlus Property will pop up, especially when using the Google search engine. 

The name (RevolutionPlus) will also be mentioned when you ask one or two people in Nigeria to name a few real estate companies that come to mind. The company has built a strong image over the years. In a few months, the company will celebrate a decade in the real estate sector. In the last ten years, the company has developed several housing estates for people in Nigeria and beyond. Over 40 estates were developed and sold to clients across the world. 

IN 2022.

In February, 2022, one of their customers who was yet to be allocated went on social media to cast aspersion on the company’s inability to allocate to him his land. This video went viral on social media.  

What is the real story? Truly, the company hadn’t allocated just like the few people who bought land in Houston, Miami and Dallas Court, to be precise. 

City People did a thorough investigations on this issue, speaking to the company and customers.  

This is what we found out. According to our findings, during the Covid 19, a lot of people bought landed properties from the company. They sold and allocated more than 10 estates. Out of these estates were DALLAS, Miami and HOUSTON ESTATE. Out of the many people who bought from these 3 estates especially, only a few of them couldn’t get allocations. Why? During the course of allocations, some of the land were enroached by landgrabbers (Omoonile). These are land they had sold to different customers. “One of the directors of the company complained bitterly. “This is not a matter of over-selling or carelessness. When we bought for example 100 hectares of land and we paid Omoonile. We carried out due diligence on the land. We also secured necessary documents of the land before we start selling to our esteemed customers who have been buying from us over the years and after some months we realised that part of the land had been sold to other developers. The land that meant to cater for over 200 subscribers may not even serve 100. So you start running from pillar to post in order to allocate the remaining people “. That’s one. 

“I have bought a landed property for over 3 times just to satisfy my customers. This runs into billion of naira”.  

ANOTHER REASONS WHY CLIENTS MAY NOT BE ALLOCATED

Before every purchase on any of our estates, prospective clients are given a subscription form to fill which contains frequently ask questions (FAQ) and terms which bind both the company and the client, the clients are expected to read the terms and conditions, fill the form and duly execute before making payment for any of our estates. One of such terms is a 90 days deadline in which the client is required to pay for other stipulated charges, failure of which would lead to loss of allocation with the option of a refund or relocation to another estate.

Clients are allocated in batches. They may experience slight delay in allocation when a specific number required to be sent to the Surveyor for processing has not been completed. 

 DEFAULT IN PAYMENT

This is common practice among real estate investors. Some of the issues Revolutionplus encounters are those who default in payment but claimed they hadn’t been allocated. 

We asked one of the directors of the company to share with us how this has affected them.  

“RevolutionPlus Property has provided various flexible payment plans to enable subscribers pay at ease when purchasing a property from the company. These payment plans can range from a period of 3 months to 18 months. Clients are expected to pick the plan most convenient for them and this is reflected in the Contract of Sale duly executed by both parties.

The realtor or agent who brought in the client has an obligation to ensure the client pays within the stipulated period but if payments are not made within the said period (without any request for a payment extension) such a client will be out of contract and he will be asked to either move to another estate with all previous payment transferred to the new estate or he/she can request for a refund with a 40% deduction. This deduction is borne out of the breach of contract by the purchaser as this is the usual practice. 

Why the 40 percent deduction? The company responded that, when they were selling some of those estates, incentives and gifts were given free of charge, this include bag of rice, some were given Air Conditioning etc. And also, they could have even sold that property to other person and move on to another estate rather than wait...

DELAY IN ALLOCATION

While we have stated the possible faults of some clients, City People is also aware that some clients have subscribed and fully made payments for both land and statutory fees and have not been allocation within the said a"llotted timeframe.

Like we earlier stated, majority of these subscribers bought Dallas, Miami and Houston, that have various issues or the others, like Omoonile and Co. 

Below are some of the estates Revolutionplus has sold and delivered to thousands of their subscribers: Flourish Residence, Eluju, Lagos State, Houston Park, Lagos State, Dallas Court, Lagos state, Lekki Sunrise, Lagos State, Champions Court, Lagos State, Grandeur1, Lagos state, Dallas Court, Lagos State, Flourish Residence 2, Lagos State, Royal Haven Garden, Mowe, Emirate Seaview, Lagos State, Royalty Garden, Shimawa, Lagos State, Royal Haven, Ikorodu, Lagos State, Grandeur, Lagos State Dallas Court, Victoria Court, Richmond Court,   Caleb’s Court, Hillcrest, Royalty Park and Garden, California City, Manchester Park and Garden, Manchester Park and Garden, Ogun State (Abeokuta), Manchester Park and Garden, Ogun State (Abeokuta), Oxford Park and many other estates they have just launched. In all these estates, only about 3 to 4 estates have issues and they are resolving them by the fact they presented. 

The company has refunded over 900 million naira to their clients in the last 20 months.  

They told City People why they had to refund some of them. “First, Revolutionplus is a known brand and we value our customers. We are still one of the big players in the sector. We have offices around in Lagos and other states in Nigeria. We have 3 major offices in Lagos alone and we are all over the south west states. Where are we going? 

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

One of the top directors also pointed out another reason why some clients are bent on tarnishing the image of the company. He told us in a chat when we asked him. Below are his revelation. 

A few years back, the Group Managing Director of the Company, Dr Bamidele Onalaja was made Chairman of Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Lagos State Chapter, the position which he still holds till date. But as Chairman of REDAN, Lagos Chapter, he noticed how some realtors who weren’t qualified to play in the industry flooded the real estate sector. So he called a meeting among developers to regulate the activity of every realtor and developer. At that time, some realtors had been demanding 25-30 percent to sell a product. And they would also collect sign-on fee. And there (realtors) activity was becoming unbearable for many developers. In trying to regulate them, they ganged up against him and they threatened to bring him down. All the people who hadn’t been allocated, some of those realtors ask the clients to go online to tarnish the image of the company. 

Do you know that, almost all the big real estate companies have the same problem today? Theirs are even bigger than ours but nobody has gone online to make a video because this company is trying to regulate some people in the sector. 

"Do you know it’s not easy to buy large expanse of land, develop it and provide infrastructure? So, if you are doing all these, you can’t still pay over 20 percent commission to anybody. You will run at loss. But many estates which are being sold today don’t have infrastructure, whatsoever," he lamented. 

In a separate chat with Mrs Onalaja (GED of the company), she has this to say: 

“The issue is majorly buying land twice or thrice from Omoonile, issues arising after you have sold. Miami Court issue has to do with Omoonile. Someone in the society came out with another evidence that the land belongs to him after we had done due diligence from Alausa. We had to get court injunction and the clients are impatient that they have paid for over two three years without allocation. 

We have spent over 30milliln trying to resolve the issues till date and we are now trying to get another land free of issues to move them to. That’s Miami . Some clients have been refunded. 

For Dallas and Houston, we are clearing all that is left. Before the middle of this year, we should get it sorted. So out of 48 estates, 3 are the only ones we had issues with ”. 

A few weeks back, Lagos State also did their own findings through the office of the Ministry of Housing. They also certified them as a worthy business people. 

Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Housing, Barr.Barakat Odunuga-Bakare called the management of RevolutionPlus and Mr. Kayode to a meeting in Alausa.  You will recall that before the viral video made by Mr Kayode Oladipo, there had been some concerns raised by members of the public about the conduct of RevolutionPlus Property Limited to some of its subscribers.

The members of the investigation team reiterated the resolve of the state government to investigate the allegation against RevolutionPlus Limited in line with LASRERA Law 2022.

The CEO/MD of the real estate company, Dr. Bamidele Onalaja, affirmed that Mr. Kayode Oladipo (complainant) subscribed for 20 (Twenty) plots of land from RevolutionPlus Property Limited at Dallas Court, Lekki and Royalty Gardens, Ajah, in Lagos State. 

Dr. Onalaja explained that 2 (two) out of the original 20 plots were fully paid for by the client, while the necessary documentation has been completed and handed over to him.

He added that the remaining 18 (eighteen) plots of those land have not been fully paid by Mr. Kayode Oladipo as he flouted the payment agreement on the contract.

He said that property NOT fully paid for with its associated costs will not be processed based on contract conditions because, in case of non-compliance, the company policy requires the relocation of such subscriber to another site upon completion of payment or refund of the deposited sum less 40% (forty percent).

He noted that having defaulted in his payment pattern, RevolutionPlus Property Limited relocated him to another land site at Amazon Estate, Epe, which he declined while the option of refunding the sum advanced was also rejected by Mr Kayode Oladipo, the complainant.

However, in the course of the committee’s investigation, Mr Kayode Oladipo who was contacted on the phone, maintained that he paid the deposit sum of N18,606,000.00 (Eighteen Million, Six Hundred and Six Thousand Naira to RevolutionPlus Property Limited in 2017. 

He said that along the line, he lost his job and couldn’t continue with the payment as he initially agreed.

Onalaja said that the company has finalized the allocation of 5 (five) plots to Mr. Kayode Oladipo at Amazon Estate based on the payment made with necessary documents forwarded to him.

The company mandated Mr Kayode to do another video, to state clearly that the company didn’t dupe him but he defaulted and the Lagos State Government also alluded to that. 

WHY REVOLUTIONPLUS IS STILL NO1 CHOICE?

Due to delay of allocation which has become an issue, the company has embarked on a 48 hours land allocation. 

Speaking on this innovation is, Mrs Tolu Onalaja, Group Executive Director of the company. She describes instant land allocation as a lasting solution to major real estate challenges that may create doubt in the minds of prospects. She stated that the idea was borne out of an intense brainstorming sessions that lasted for many weeks considering all the bottlenecks in acquiring landed documents from the government.

She stated, “We have all our estates on layouts right now, buyers will get allocation immediately once payment is complete.

“Innovation and creativity is the hallmark of RevolutionPlus Property. We have upgraded our mode of operation so going forward once any of our client completes his/her land payment they are allocated instantly on the layout with their plot and block number, any client that pays all fees with the land immediately gets physical allocation instantly within 48 hours and clients also have up to 90 days to complete the payment for survey, deed of assignment and development levy after paying fully for land.

“However, for clients that complete payment for land and statutory fees (Survey, deed of assignment and Development levy) outrightly, their physical allocation instant within 48 hours while the SURVEY documents and Deed Of Assignment will be received by the client who had already taken physical allocation within 30 days.”

THEY ARE ALSO INTO LAND BANKING

What this simply means is that, they will help you invest in a landed property and you and this comes with 40 percent profit. They have been coming up with so many innovations which has really helped the company to stand out among other real estate brands in Nigeria. 

Do you know that REVOLUTIONPLUS PROPERTY will be celebrating 10 years of existence in a few months? The company has made thousands of people landlords in Nigeria and beyond one this time and they have competed favorably over the years.  

RevolutionPlus Property is the proud owner of over 45 estates with several declared sold-out and over 6,000 subscribers both in and out of the country. Currently, the company’s portfolio of property is over 20 landed properties and 7 houses (4 completely built) still selling.