Woman moves to court to stop Housing Finance Company from transferring her property.

By Dickson Odhiambo.

       

August 17, 2018.

Woman moves to court to stop Housing Finance Company from transferring her property.

A WOMAN has moved to court to stop Housing Finance Company Kenya Limited from transferring her property within Kisumu’s Kenya-Re Estate.

Peres Odhiambo has moved to the High Court seeking an order stopping the financial institution from transferring the property Land Reference Number 15983/192/3 at Kenya Re-Estate in Kisumu to any third party other than her who is the petitioner in this matter.

Through Lawyer Ken Amondi of Amondi and Company Advocates, Odhiambo has obtained temporary conservatory orders of injunction stopping the Housing Finance Company Kenya Limited which is the first respondent in the matter from transferring the said property.

The Housing Finance Company Kenya Limited which is the first respondent in the matter is a mortgage finance company which accepts money from members of the public on deposit repayable on demand or after notice pursuant to section 2 of the Banking Act Cap 488 Laws of Kenya.

Central Bank of Kenya which is the Second Respondent in the petition is an independent financial institution established pursuant to article 231 of the Constitution of Kenya whose functions under section 4A{1}{c} of the Central Bank of Kenya Act Cap 491 of the Laws of Kenya include the licensing and supervision of Authorized dealers such as the Housing Finance Company Kenya Limited.

High Court Duty Judge Justice Jesse Nyaga gave the orders at Kakamega Court temporarily barring the said financial institution from transferring the said property until the matter is heard and determined.

The court also ordered that the applicant to serve the application and the parties appear before the duty judge on this August 30 this year.

The petitioner has accused the Housing Finance Company Kenya Limited infringing on her right as a consumer vis a vis fraudulent, reckless transaction of business by banks.

Her Lawyer Ken Amondi says in the suit filed in the court that the petitioner has instituted the petition both for herself and in the interest of the entire fraternity of consumers of banking services who have fallen victims to fraudulent and reckless transaction of financial institutions contrary to provisions of the section 11{1} {h} of the Banking Act Cap 488 Laws of Kenya.

“The petitioner is also instituting this petition in the public interest in the sense that the public relies on the CBK to make decisions as to investment in banks and the CBK therefore owes the public a duty to ensure that the banks it has licensed and it is constitutionally and statutorily tasked to supervise and operate within the prisms of the set regulations,” Amondi says in the suit.

The Lawyer says the petitioner who lives in Germany sometimes while on holiday in Kenya in early 1998 had a keen interest to invest in and own an accessible property back home which would act as a holiday home and also an income generating initiative through the provision of the monthly rent.

He adds that it is on that basis the petitioner took up the offer to purchase the property Land Reference Number 15983/192/3 at Kenya Re-Estate in Kisumu based at Migosi area of Kisumu which was on offer by the Kenya Re-Insurance Corporation Limited as a Vendor for a consideration of shs 2,119,200  and which was to be facilitated by the Housing Finance Company of Kenya who were the financiers.

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