HDC says sorry to Greenvale residents

WITH two more days left in 2018, the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) yesterday apologised to residents of Greenvale whose homes were yet to be repaired following October’s flooding.

In a WhatsApp response to TV6 which HDC shared with Sunday Newsday, the agency said: “The HDC has noted the comments and feedback from some residents of Greenvale Park who were interviewed for a story in Friday evening’s TV6 News. The HDC wishes to apologise to these residents for the delay in repairing their homes and any inconvenience caused by this delay. Further, the HDC has realised that some contractors have not provided satisfactory work; we will treat with that accordingly. The HDC intends to ensure that every affected house, receives the requisite attention and that the work is completed as soon as possible.”

Following the October 19 flooding, HDC hired several contractors to repair damaged HDC homes. The repairs were expected to be completed by Christmas, however, several contractors failed to meet the deadline. Sunday Newsday was informed that HDC gave no official deadline to the contractors but hoped they would complete their work in a timely manner.

Sunday Newsday has been told by residents that they were being asked to sign completion certificates while work was still being done.

Last week, when the issue was raised by Sunday Newsday, HDC’s managing director Brent Lyons advised residents not to sign any documents if the work was incomplete. He also said he would investigate the claims.

“We had hoped that all would be completed by Christmas. That did not happen and we did have an issue with contractors with regard to quality of work and capacity and we addressed the issue each time it came up, whether it was to change the contractor or have the work re-done.”

The completion certificates are needed for the contractors to be paid by HDC. Lyons said contractors were to be paid between $30,000 - $60,000 per unit depending on the level of work that was needed and some 40 contractors had been hired for Greenvale.