The dream of hundreds of consumers in Bekasi and Depok, West Java, to own an apartment unit has been shattered. Hundreds of millions of rupiah has been deposited, but the coveted apartment never materialized.
By
STEFANUS ATO, AGUIDO ADRI
·5 minutes read
Ariesta Sitepu (45) often visits the empty 1-hectare land on Jl. Raya Bogor, Depok city. The land, which is filled with shrubs, was the planned location of the Cimanggis City Apartment.
The condition of the site was not much different from when he paid a down payment of Rp 5 million in 2017 to buy an apartment unit there. In total, he has paid Rp 137 million in installments and should have received the unit by early 2021. There are no activities or any developments on the land. The marketing office has been empty for a long time. He does not know where to go to collect the promised apartment unit.
The darkness of the office and overcast clouds that day illustrate Ariesta's mental condition, which is shrouded in uncertainty at the threat of losing hundreds of millions of rupiah.
"We ask for clarity on the construction and the money we have paid," said Ariesta on Wednesday (18/1/2023).
Ariesta was lured into buying an apartment due to the massive promotion and selling price of the units, which was considered affordable and inexpensive.
According to Ariesta, PT Permata Sakti Mandiri, which is managing the project, has promised to return the Rp 137 million. The money will be paid periodically over 36 months.
"However, I have received only two payments amounting to Rp 9 million. After that, there have been no further follow-ups," he said.
We ask for clarity on the construction and the money we have paid.
Ariesta is only one of hundreds of people who are still waiting without certainty regarding the construction of the vertical housing project on Jl. Raya Bogor. As reported by Kompas.com, up until 2018 PT Permata Sakti Mandiri was said to have sold 685 units out of a total of 1,600 units that would be built as the Cimanggis City Apartment.
When reached via telephone calls and text messages, PT Permata Sakti Mandiri has not yet provided an answer regarding the construction of the apartment or the complaints of its consumers.
Meikarta victims
Advertisements offering comfortable and affordable housing kept appearing on television screens and got into the mind of Tommy Yusak (53). The man who in 2017 lived in Palu, Central Sulawesi, was convinced of buying an apartment.
"I then planned to buy an apartment unit because I was going to relocate to Bekasi. I wanted to live in an apartment," he said in early January.
He dreamed of enjoying old age by living in an apartment that was part of the Meikarta project in Cikarang, Bekasi regency.
The project was planned to be built on an area of land of 2,200 ha with a total investment of Rp 278 trillion.
The new city motto promoted by Meikarta helped Tommy make up his mind. Moreover, his tenure as a government employee in Palu ended in 2019.
For the purchase of an apartment unit in Meikarta, in 2017 he submitted a down payment of Rp 32 million. Repayment is made in seven years with an installment of Rp 2.9 million per month.
In the sale and purchase contract, the studio type apartment unit should have been handed over in 2019. However, until 2022, the apartment unit located in District 2 of Meikarta was not yet ready.
The man who currently lives in Cileungsi, Bogor, also decided to stop paying installments in March 2022, or after paying 33 installments. The total installments and down payments he paid had reached Rp 130 million.
"I stopped paying because I saw that the situation was no longer supportive. I can't buy invisible things," he said.
I just want my money back, a normal life, a normal SLIK.
When he unilaterally decided not to pay installments anymore, another problem arose. Tommy’s name was registered as a problematic customer in the Financial Information Service System (SLIK) of the Financial Services Authority.
Based on data from the Meikarta Consumer Care Community Association (PKPKM), the apartment units that have been booked reached 20,000 units. Of this number of units, a total of 15,800 consumers have signed the postponement of debt payment obligations (PKPU). Also from PKPKM calculations, PT Mahkota Sentosa Utama as the management of the Meikarta project is estimated to have pocketed more than Rp 4.5 trillion in consumers’ money (Kompas, 5/12/2022).
PKPKM chairman Aep Mulyana said his party only wanted consumer rights in the form of a refund. Since consumers purchased Meikarta apartment units in cash or credit, they have never received the units that were initially promised to be handed over in 2018-2020.
Regarding the demands of a number of Meikarta consumers, the Lippo Group through its subsidiary PT Lippo Cikarang (LPCK), stated that the dispute with Meikarta's buyers was resolved through an amicable settlement at the Central Jakarta District Court. The agreement in the form of a homologation decision has permanent legal force on 26 July 2021. In the decision, the handover of the units will be carried out in stages until 2027.
LPCK Corporate Secretary Veronika Sitepu said PT Mahkota Sentosa Utama (MSU) as a subsidiary of LPCK, which manages the Meikarta project in Cikarang, informed the decision to all buyers who have not received the unit (Kompas, 15/12/2022).
Lippo Group Communication Director Danang Kemayan Jati, who was contacted on Monday (23/1), stated he was no longer dealing with issues that Meikarta consumers had complained about.
With this increasingly complicated problem, Tommy no longer has the willingness to live in Meikarta. "I just want my money back, a normal life, a normal SLIK," he said.