Julesrule:
There will be a meeting at the Lekki Gardens estate; the 1 opposite Ebeano Supermarket down chevron drive. Come and air your views; not sure they invited all the stake holders. They will be discussing service charge; facility management (which was not in the package they advertised o!) amongst other things. Please endeavor to attend so no one is taken unawares!!

@Julesrule, Did you attend? What came out of the meeting?

SangoCrusader:


I don't understand your fear mongering. Do you have any tangible advice that we can use instead of just coming here to shout "Watch out people". I find such meaningless and hollow utterances very irritating.

@eziokwu2015 If you don't have anything of substance to say, just shut up.

@SangoCrusader... you are entitled to your opinion.
I have every reason to be concerned about my experiences and that of others pertaining to treatments from GTRich/ Lekki gardens. That's the reason I will say to anybody to be careful in dealing with them. They may mean well, but their attitudes of late is very concerning. If you bought a house, then demand for your house or ask for your money. My concerns are that they have not delivered on their promise and still are making more promises and sucking more naïve people into the system. Estates number 2 to 18 or 20 have not been completed, yet they are collecting more money from the unsuspecting public. Now they are trying to sneak things through the back door to keep sapping more money from people.

what is difficult about good customer service? they are nice when you're paying but once you complete payment, no one picks your call.
what is difficult about being honest and understanding with "your clients"?
what is right in a man buying a house and you repeatedly call him a subscriber/customer/ and treat him like a tenant?
what is right about charging one N55/KW? (meanwhile PHCN is giving the estate power for N24/KW bulk supply)

Let me ask you... assuming the man at the head jets out of this country today, what will you tell someone who paid monies and have not seen any house? Boarding a plane and leaving this country, is it a hard thing?
If you're here to defend Richard Nyong, pls back off. Tell him to do the right thing.

eziokwu2015:


@SangoCrusader... you are entitled to your opinion.
I have every reason to be concerned about my experiences and that of others pertaining to treatments from GTRich/ Lekki gardens. That's the reason I will say to anybody to be careful in dealing with them. They may mean well, but their attitudes of late is very concerning. If you bought a house, then demand for your house or ask for your money. My concerns are that they have not delivered on their promise and still are making more promises and sucking more naïve people into the system. Estates number 2 to 18 or 20 have not been completed, yet they are collecting more money from the unsuspecting public. Now they are trying to sneak things through the back door to keep sapping more money from people.

what is difficult about good customer service? they are nice when you're paying but once you complete payment, no one picks your call.
what is difficult about being honest and understanding with "your clients"?
what is right in a man buying a house and you repeatedly call him a subscriber/customer/ and treat him like a tenant?
what is right about charging one N55/KW? (meanwhile PHCN is giving the estate power for N24/KW bulk supply)

Let me ask you... assuming the man at the head jets out of this country today, what will you tell someone who paid monies and have not seen any house? Boarding a plane and leaving this country, is it a hard thing?
If you're here to defend Richard Nyong, pls back off. Tell him to do the right thing.

That's better. At least now we all understand your grievance and you have provided more meaningful information than "watch out people".

To be honest, I am just as annoyed as you are about them and they have treated me as bad as the next guy, after spending close to N23m with them. They have proved to be an incredible disappointment and there are fears that this may some kind of Ponzi scheme however, for the sake of the other people reading this, can we restrict our accusations to only factual conclusions so as not to create unnecessary panic.

All the points you have raised above, however, are perfectly valid @eziokwu2015

ejisky:
@ SangoCrusader, please can tell us about the quality of the shell unit you got? Delays in delivery are normal with most estate companies so that's not really an issue for me. I Recently subscribed and all these comments about quality are making me very worried.... Is it bad? Have googled several times but haven't seen any alarming info on Lekki Gardens apart from this thread...

@ejisky

Truth is, the last pictures I posted were taken September last year (I posted them on this thread) however, I have not been back to Lagos since then. I, have, however, just hired a local contractor to complete my internal finishing (for my three bed terrace in Lekki Phase IV) and he will be sending me weekly pictures showing progress. I will post the pictures for the rest of the group to see so you can judge for yourself, the quality of the units. I will not pass judgment on the quality of LG's buildings now until my contractor starts the job, then I will be in place to make an informed opinion.

My opinion though is that they started off far too sales driven, and overstretched themselves to the point that they have failed to deliver on any of their completion targets. However, I suggest you go and visit them yourselves and it should put your mind at ease @ejisky. Their customer service is horrendous, and they are having major delays in delivery but from what I have seen, they are delivering homes of reasonable quality, albeit 12 months behind schedule.

I subscribed to a semi detached duplex at LG 2 two years back with 24 installments and am just taking possession of the unit now right on schedule. Luckily I was on ground the days the foundation and decking of my unit were done so I can say that, at the least, those two crucial sections were quite robust.

Now I am into finishing I am hearing stories about needing to redo some of the plumbing etc from the artisans but suspect some of it is just artisans being smart. When I asked the plumber yesterday to be specific all the examples he could show me were: 'this pipe should have been six inches to the left or one foot higher'. When I asked if such pipes couldn't be connected to the related sink, toilet or whatever by a hose I was told it wouldn't 'look nice' so he is going to crack the wall to reset such pipework. They are yet to connect the water to see if any leaks will spring so maybe I shouldn't be so relieved yet but I really don't see any significant shoddiness in the work. We shouldn't forget though that for some strange reason LG outsourced the actual construction to multiple contractors so you can find significant differences between the work on one unit and the unit next door.

Overall though I have gotten more grief from the artisans I employed for finishing than from the work of LG. The fellow who was supposed to fix the doors fixed the doors meant for the bathrooms to the room doorway by shrinking the doorways and left the doors meant for the rooms unfixed. Also he set the doors too low for tiling even though the doorway done by LG was high enough. Now I have to essentially re-fix all the doors and that is just one artisan I employed to work on one unit. I think we really should give this young organisation some credit for what they have managed to achieve: more units than either the FGN or any state government has delivered in 16 years of DEMON-CRAZY. More units in more locations than any estate developer they met in the game and at better prices plus better payment terms. Quite a few estates were begun in Lekki axis and other parts of Lagos and Nigeria at the height of the assets bubble eight years ago which till date haven't been completed. Some of those developers / promoters should take a cue from Richard in meeting the demands of the market instead of endless griping and shouting 'ponzi' from the roof top.

Richard and LG have many rough edges including their back office operations and the idea that marketing and securing your subscription is all that matters but I would prefer assessing them on a balanced scorecard and not this ridiculous demonisation.

biodunid:
I subscribed to a semi detached duplex at LG 2 two years back with 24 installments and am just taking possession of the unit now right on schedule. Luckily I was on ground the days the foundation and decking of my unit were done so I can say that, at the least, those two crucial sections were quite robust.

Now I am into finishing I am hearing stories about needing to redo some of the plumbing etc from the artisans but suspect some of it is just artisans being smart. When I asked the plumber yesterday to be specific all the examples he could show me were: 'this pipe should have been six inches to the left or one foot higher'. When I asked if such pipes couldn't be connected to the related sink, toilet or whatever by a hose I was told it wouldn't 'look nice' so he is going to crack the wall to reset such pipework. They are yet to connect the water to see if any leaks will spring so maybe I shouldn't be so relieved yet but I really don't see any significant shoddiness in the work. We shouldn't forget though that for some strange reason LG outsourced the actual construction to multiple contractors so you can find significant differences between the work on one unit and the unit next door.

Overall though I have gotten more grief from the artisans I employed for finishing than from the work of LG. The fellow who was supposed to fix the doors fixed the doors meant for the bathrooms to the room doorway by shrinking the doorways and left the doors meant for the rooms unfixed. Also he set the doors too low for tiling even though the doorway done by LG was high enough. Now I have to essentially re-fix all the doors and that is just one artisan I employed to work on one unit. I think we really should give this young organisation some credit for what they have managed to achieve: more units than either the FGN or any state government has delivered in 16 years of DEMON-CRAZY. More units in more locations than any estate developer they met in the game and at better prices plus better payment terms. Quite a few estates were begun in Lekki axis and other parts of Lagos and Nigeria at the height of the assets bubble eight years ago which till date haven't been completed. Some of those developers / promoters should take a cue from Richard in meeting the demands of the market instead of endless griping and shouting 'ponzi' from the roof top.

Richard and LG have many rough edges including their back office operations and the idea that marketing and securing your subscription is all that matters but I would prefer assessing them on a balanced scorecard and not this ridiculous demonisation.

Fair and objective assessment in my opinion. Thanks for sharing.

Please, which estate did you buy in... phase 3?

Does anyone know if any subscribers to phase 4 have gotten their keys. If any, when did they subscribe to phase 4??

Here are the minutes from the last meeting at LG.

Richard Nyong answers a lot (but not all) of your questions/concerns.

Guys,

Just thought I should add one or two things. I will suggest you redo the plumbing works when doing internal finishing. Apart from a few structural defects , plumbing work is a major concern at Lekki garden. Change all internal pipes at least. Nobody wants to start breaking walls after all work has been done .

I am speaking from experience and I know what I went thru!!

Thanks @Pecos

Please, how much did it cost you to change the internal pipes? I am just about to start work on mine...

SangoCrusader:
Thanks @Pecos

Please, how much did it cost you to change the internal pipes? I am just about to start work on mine...

@ Sangocrusader. I used a contractor and from his bill of quantity , I paid 550K for 2 rolls of enco pipes which is more expensive than the regular pipes used by Lekki garden. Labour varies and it depends on your bargain power. But I will tell you direct labour is the best way to go.

Pecos:


@ Sangocrusader. I used a contractor and from his bill of quantity , I paid 550K for 2 rolls of enco pipes which is more expensive than the regular pipes used by Lekki garden. Labour varies and it depends on your bargain power. But I will tell you direct labour is the best way to go.

Thanks @Pecos, I will have to budget that as well, I didn't think of that at all.

I hope you don't find it too intrusive if I ask how much you paid overall for internal finishing - including the plumbing works. I have hired a local contractor but the quote I have received so far for a standard finish is N4.3m.

SangoCrusader:


Thanks @Pecos, I will have to budget that as well, I didn't think of that at all.

I hope you don't find it too intrusive if I ask how much you paid overall for internal finishing - including the plumbing works. I have hired a local contractor but the quote I have received so far for a standard finish is N4.3m.

@ Sangocrusader . Well I brought all the tiles, marble, faucets and toilets from the U.S. I had to buy the wardrobe from Ikea as well when I the charges became so ridiculous.

He gave me a BOQ of almost 7m but I removed the accessories mentioned and still paid him 3.1m. I wouldn't do that again and will definitely use direct labor for the one I'm working on in phase 3. The charges were ridiculous. He quoted 800K for painting but got it done for 370K, Ballustrade for 770K and I paid direct 300K. I got a cheaper deal for doors and kitchen as well .

He did all corrections, plumbing, electrical , tiling,screeding and POP for the 3.1m.

Personally I will go direct labor .

The contractor that handled it for my friend (3/4 bedroom terrace) collected N2.7m for everything but she did not change the pipes.

blank:
The contractor that handled it for my friend (3/4 bedroom terrace) collected N2.7m for everything but she did not change the pipes.

@ Blank... Finishing varies. And I sincerely hope they don't have a problem with the plumbing in future. All the resident I spoke to said plumbing is the number one problem. At least for phase 2 sha. Take a tour of phase 2 and you will see people breaking walls and decking to fix the water problem. It's a choice

Pecos:


@ Blank... Finishing varies. And I sincerely hope they don't have a problem with the plumbing in future. All the resident I spoke to said plumbing is the number one problem. At least for phase 2 sha. Take a tour of phase 2 and you will see people breaking walls and decking to fix the water problem. It's a choice

I know. Just wanted him to know that he has a choice. If he is not going to live in it himself, he doesn't have to spend too much money.

blank:


I know. Just wanted him to know that he has a choice. If he is not going to live in it himself, he doesn't have to spend too much money.

Fair point. However, you need to recognise that major plumbing issues not rectified, can affect the structural integrity of a building over time.

So regardless of the fact about the house being owner occupied or not, the inherent plumbing issues will continue to linger & degenerate over time. Lots of issues around: Pipe leakages into the walls/decking, burst pipes or not properly routed waste water have a way of affecting the house over time. So it's advisable to fix all these niggling issues before the house becomes occupied as they're more difficult to fix subsequently when the house has been occupied.

That's the Nos.1 wahala with conduit piping. You need to get it right first time! Any further corrections after completing the house is usually such an ardours, costly & time-consuming exercise.

@Pecos
@nikkygal
@blank

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the feedback and I can imagine that other LG property owners will get an idea of how much to budget (and what to look out for) from your stories and experiences.

Just for information, my contractor is charging me about N3.7m for the following:

Burglary proofing, windows, painting, screeding, tiling, wardrobes, kitchen fixtures and fittings, internal and external doors, stainless railing for stairs and all sanitary wares.

I will keep y'all posted as work progresses.

@Pecos congratulations, your house has a very clean finish. Do you intend to live there, or rent out?

I ve been following this thread and I love your honesty, I don't ve any deal nor contract with them. in fact I lack resources and I just gained admission, struggling for my fee and how to to feed, but I know i'll do better and I believe I will be like you all if not better...... as for some of you saying you ve not seen people complaining about the houses, don't forget not everyone one earns legit money, these people complaining work hard for their income so they ve every right to be honest on their views, either critics or putting in a good word for the company..thanks for reading and I pray you guys keep going higher.

Hello,
I was at lekki gardens horizon 1 and saw the 2 additional floors that were added on the finished structures. Obviously a poor after thought! I hope that lifts will be provided as I just can't imagine climbing up to the 6th floor daily. I want to believe that over subscription led to these additional floors or maybe the 'buy 2 get 1 free' did.
On the positive side, I visited the new horizon 1. The finishing was quite good compared to what I had seen in their other estates.

Hi Folks, I'm currently in Lagos to inspect finishes of my LG properties. If you have burning questions or some pics of your house I MAY be able to help (requests only from people living abroad like myself). I can only guarantee visiting Phase 2 & 3 as those are where my properties are. I'm here till Thursday. Please be kind with your requests.

yates:
Hi Folks, I'm currently in Lagos to inspect finishes of my LG properties. If you have burning questions or some pics of your house I MAY be able to help (requests only from people living abroad like myself). I can only guarantee visiting Phase 2 & 3 as those are where my properties are. I'm here till Thursday. Please be kind with your requests.

Thanks for the offer man.

That's too bad, you are only going to Phase 2 and 3. If you do happen to go to Phase IV or Horizon 1, I would certainly appreciate some pictures of both developments.

SangoCrusader:
@Pecos
@nikkygal
@blank

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the feedback and I can imagine that other LG property owners will get an idea of how much to budget (and what to look out for) from your stories and experiences.

Just for information, my contractor is charging me about N3.7m for the following:

Burglary proofing, windows, painting, screeding, tiling, wardrobes, kitchen fixtures and fittings, internal and external doors, stainless railing for stairs and all sanitary wares.

I will keep y'all posted as work progresses.

@Pecos congratulations, your house has a very clean finish. Do you intend to live there, or rent out?

@ SangoCrusader. Its a vacation home. We actually stayed their in Dec and that is another story. I was there when Richard removed the generator. I had to move my family to the hotel when we had no electricity. Overall, things seem to have improved when I went back in February. If they can get the act together on electricity it will be a nice estate.

Good information here, we have as a fabrications company been working on some projects in some properties in LG at Ajah axis just by Lbs and currently we are working on a spiral standalone staircase for a top library we above the staircase, we will post pix as we proceed on this thread. And if you need information relating to fabrications job and cost we can help out from handrails, burglary, Kitchen cabinet wardrobes, bookshelf, doors, carport and shades, glass works, aluminum works and related services.

Pecos:
Hello Elmtree,

I'm with Yates on this one. Shine your eyes with the finishing. The contractor I hired quoted 1.5m for kitchen cabinets , 900K for doors , 725K for handrails for Steps and 900K for internal painting just to name a few. I took my time to visit Nigeria and paid far less than what I was quoted. You can imagine I only paid 200K for kitchen cabinet and was nicely done with marble top, another 250K for doors which met my standard because I could be very picky and 300K for the handrails as well.

I might have even overpaid because I was overjoyed with the savings and didn't really price it very well. You will save yourself a whole lot if you engage all this artisan directly. You will even get most of this people in Lekki Gardens. Just make sure you get minimum of 2 quotation to compare with.

Contractors on this forum- No offense intended , just sharing experience and giving my 2 cents advice!!

You are very right sir, Crystal Images Furniture produces excellent, durable and affordable kitchen cabinets, doors, wardrobes, settee, etc Their website is www.crystalimages.com.ng

debojyde:
I paid outright for 2 properties(cornerpiece 3 bedroom terrace duplex) at LG phase 4 in Jan 2014. Was allocated 2 buildings in Aug 0f 2014 but yet to see the specific building. Had my agent(not a LG agent) take some pictures of the site sometime in July and it looked like work was well in progress based on the pictures I saw. He told me if work continued at that rate I should expect delivery anytime between December and feb 2015. I have been following this thread now for a while and I am keeping my fingers crossed.

When I saw the adverts for phase 5 few months ago I wanted to dive in and buy two more properties but based on what I have seen so far on this thread I thank God I did not. I will wait till delivery of my properties, completion of finishing and renting it out before deciding if I want to invest further in Lekki Gardens. After renting it out, I need to evaluate if it was worth it as a business decision.

Talking about rent, my agent told me it depends on how good the interior finishing is. He says a three bedroom cornerpiece terrace would average 1.5million per annum but with excellent interior finishing could attract 2million per annum.

Talking about finishing. Does anybody have any idea how much I should budget for this. My agent on ground in naija said 1.5 to 3.5 per building depending on quality.

In other news I am looking for Land to buy in Magodo GRA/itsheri??. Anyone knows a contact I can talk too.

Crystal Images Furniture produces durable and affordable kitchen cabinets, doors, wardrobe, settee, etc Their website is www.crystalimages.com.ng

I'm getting a headache just thinking about these things?

So candidly, yay or nay on these 'affordable' properties? Are we better off just buying land and doing the work 'small small'?

queensmith:
I'm getting a headache just thinking about these things?

So candidly, yay or nay on these 'affordable' properties? Are we better off just buying land and doing the work 'small small'?

LG have their issues, but they appear committed to delivering their promised units. You just have to be prepared for significant delays (> 12 months). If you're not on ground, and don't have any1 you can trust, these developers are unfortunately the only option. And tbh, it is a fraction of what you would pay to buy your own land in those same areas, build, fence and arrange electricity/security. Depending on your budget, there may be better options for you than LG.

I have picked up my keys. They were only about 2 weeks late. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised as I expected a longer delay. I didn't think I will be saying this but yeah, Kudos to Lekki Gardens for keeping to their promise. I will send in some pictures when I start the finishing.