More than a hundred angry apartment owners gathered in a demonstration organized in front of the Duna Terasz Grande residential park in the 13th district on Friday morning, after they have not been able to move into their apartments there for months due to the settlement dispute between the investor Duna Terasz Kft. and the builder Kész Építő Zrt. The situation between the two companies deteriorated so much that the investor Duna Terasz Kft. terminated its contract with the builder, while 1,500 owners paid the full purchase price of the apartments and are waiting to finally move in.
Who doesn’t tell the truth? From whom do we demand an immediate solution to the situation?
asked the organizers, who said that the information provided by the two companies often contradicted each other. Duna Terasz Grande already received the occupancy permit in November, and the foundation of the condominium was also completed, but the owners still do not know when they will finally be able to take possession of their apartments.
Our money was only interesting until it was collected from us, said one of the owners. Representatives of the companies also appeared at the tense demonstration, but they still could not provide a specific date for the handover, and their speeches were regularly interrupted by the shouts of the residents. The organizers talked about the fact that many people sold their previous homes in order to be able to pay for the apartments, and there are also people whose children already started the school year in the district school in the fall. The lawyers of Duna Terasz talked about how they are now trying to get the project area back through legal means, but they did not manage to appease the crowd who have been waiting to take possession of their apartment for almost a year.
The largest investment in residential real estate in the capital in recent years was the 790-apartment Duna Terasz Grande in the XIII. district. Sales of the apartments started in January 2021, and the developer planned to hand over the investment in March 2023. The development, consisting of nine-story buildings and covering an area of more than two hectares, was finally completed with half a year’s delay.
Photo: István Huszti / Telex
The apartment building was founded and Duna Terasz Grande received the occupancy permit, but Duna Terasz Kft. is not willing to take over the building from Kész Építő Zrt. due to problems related to the quality of the apartments. Previous information from Portfolio according to there were indeed problems, but these technical glitches have since been largely fixed.
Duna Terasz Kft. finally terminated the contract with the builder, and the legal battle between the two companies started again. It is impossible to know exactly when the dispute will end, and this also makes moving in impossible. Thus, approximately 1,500 owners are currently waiting to finally move into the property, for which they have practically already paid the entire purchase price.
According to the lawyers of Duna Terasz Kft., the project’s investor, who appeared at the demonstration, the company has also been waiting since the termination of their contract for Kész Építő Zrt. to withdraw from the Duna Terasz Grande area. Based on their claim, the contract was terminated after Kész delayed the completion of the works by several months and proposed a reduction in quality. According to Duna Terasz Kft., Kész Építő Zrt. had claims of several billion forints in addition to the original order price, until the settlement of which the builder is keeping the properties as security, and also excluded the investor from the project area.
Representative of Kész Építő Zrt. and Duna Terasz Kft. – Photo: István Huszti / Telex
According to the representatives of Kész Építő Zrt., who appeared at the demonstration, the works were already completed in the fall of 2023, so the properties are waiting for the residents turnkey. They talked about the fact that labor and raw material prices have risen significantly since the start of the project, and that these costs are currently only borne by Kész Építő Zrt. However, the main source of tension between the companies was due to construction defects.
On Thursday, Telex received a notice from Kész, the developer of the apartments, according to which their company has started to correct the errors in the customer list as the last step before the handover, so the building has been ready for move-in for months. According to their claim, the residents were also able to make sure of this after the buyers were able to look around their own apartments during a personal tour organized by Kés.
However, according to the letter, the builder of the residential park, Duna Terasz Grande Kft., in addition to the repaired defects, added tens of thousands of new deficiencies to be corrected to the handover defect list. According to Kész Építő Zrt., these complaints recorded by the builder are not technically interpretable, they do not affect the usability of the apartments, and they only hinder the conclusion of the handover with Duna Terasz Grande Kft.
However, according to one of our homeowner sources, Kész is still not finished with the property, and there are much bigger deficiencies than what the company claims. According to him, there is a lack of painting and a bathroom with broken tiles, and the company still hasn’t finished building the garden.
Photo: István Huszti Telex
According to Kész, Duna Terasz Kft. refused to negotiate with them.
so they cannot transfer the property until there is a settlement between the two companies.
And while the two companies are pulling together, hundreds of people are waiting to finally take possession of their apartments. The protesting crowd repeatedly called on the two companies to finally sit down at the negotiating table. Duna Terasz Kft. wants to resolve the situation in court, so it started execution against Kész Építő Zrt., according to their lawyers, this could be completed in a week or two if the court decides in their favor. Then they could take over the area, the condition of which would be reassessed – but based on the reactions of the demonstrating crowd, residents remain skeptical of the solution.
The employees of the office responsible for the design of the Duna Terasz Grande also appeared at the demonstration, according to their statement, 13 technical inspections were carried out in the area, where a total of 50,000 defects were found. According to them, Kész Építő Zrt. has corrected 40,000 of these, but they have no information about the last 10,000 defects, as they have not been able to survey the area for a month and a half due to the exclusion.