The FBRK editorial team has been writing for years about the problems facing residents of the capital's Boston Comfort House residential complex, the developer of which is Grand Status LLP headed by founder Alibek Mukhamedov. In brief, let us recall the long-running history of this problematic building.
The difficulties for the shareholders of the Boston Comfort House residential complex began back in 2019, when they did not receive the documents for their apartments by the promised date. The reason for this was the developer's decision to build an additional storey, which complicated the process of putting the property into operation.
As we have previously noted, the Boston Comfort House residential complex was built by the company Grand Status, owned by Alibek Mukhamedov. As far back as 2021, Grand Status was placed on a list of developers not authorised to raise funds from shareholders. More details about the business of the young, but not particularly successful, entrepreneur Mukhamedov can be read via this link.
Despite the lack of documents, some of the shareholders moved into the apartments. However, life in the new residential complex was accompanied by difficulties: residents were forced to pay utility bills at the business tariff rate, and after a while it emerged that the building was completely lacking the technical conditions for electricity and heating supply.
With the onset of cold weather, the apartments in the new building began to freeze. The developer claimed the problem arose due to arrears owed by residents for utility services. Then, in December 2022, residents learned that the money they were paying for utilities at the higher rate was being spent by the developer for personal use.
At that time, district authorities and law enforcement were brought in for detailed investigations. The housing estate inspector promised residents they would take control of the developer's activities and conduct a financial audit. The law enforcement officers supposedly began to look into the violations, but the case was soon sent to the archive.
In March 2023, the FBRK editorial team uncovered another violation in the developer's activities. It emerged that Grand Status LLP's rights to lease the land plot for the Boston Comfort House residential complex had expired back in October 2021.
We then sent an official request to the Akimat of Astana asking what measures the capital's authorities were taking to resolve the problems of the residents of the Boston Comfort House residential complex, to which we received a response stating that the developer had been fined, the lease term for the land plot had been extended, and the building had been temporarily connected to the electricity and heating supply.
But even today the story has not ended: the building still has not been put into operation, the heating has been switched off, and the local executive authorities continue to promise to resolve everything in the near future. The developer initially claimed there were debts for utility services, but having collected money from the shareholders, has since disappeared.
It is worth noting that in recent years, the problems of Grand Status LLP have only multiplied.
For instance, in October 2022 the company had debt under enforcement proceedings totalling 3.2 million tenge. Today, the debt stands at around 40 million tenge, of which 24.6 million is owed to 'Astana Su Arnasy', and 9.5 million is owed to JSC 'Astana - REC'.
Since April 2023, Grand Status has had 4 prohibitions on registration actions imposed by decision of the Department of Justice of Astana city, specifically the territorial department for the enforcement of non-pecuniary claims.
The amount of taxes paid to the budget for 2023 amounted to 613 thousand tenge. For comparison: in 2022, the company paid 5.2 million tenge in taxes, and in 2021 – 10.7 million.
Furthermore, in December 2023, Grand Status LLP once again entered the so-called 'blacklist' of developers who were conducting construction 'without engineering networks and coordination with the master plan'.
How Alibek Mukhamedov will resolve the problems of the construction projects under his control remains a mystery.
To find out what measures the local authorities actually plan to take to bring the Boston Comfort House residential complex into operation, the FBRK editorial team has sent an official request to the Akimat of Astana.
To be continued…