Kulaksiz 5 | The Reason Pauline Read Moved Out of Her Home

Pauline Read, love her, hate her, tolerate her, one thing she won’t let you do is ignore her.

Despite those who would like to think otherwise, she is a member of Kulaksiz 5 litigation group and she is a die hard campaigner. Her style does not suit everyone but then she fully expects criticism since to her it is another way to highlight the problems of property victims.

She openly admits that although she has her own problems, she does not want them solved at the expense of other victims. Kulaksiz 5 in her opinion is just the start and she will not be happy till all victims are given justice. In her opinion, the age of the victims is not the barometer by which anything should be measured. In fact chronologically she believes she is number three in the age range of victims in the K5 group; clearly Mike and Phil Watkins are by far the oldest. She has never made any concession to her age and as she says, age is a state of mind and in her mind she is not old.

When she moved into her K5 villa, in May 2006, it was meant to be her last home. Within two months of moving in major problems revealed themselves, just five months after moving in she and Agile were forced to move out whilst the whole of the back end was rebuilt. On this occasion the builder paid the rent for them to stay across the road in the villa belonging to Christine Arline Barclay. Believing all their problems were solved they set about landscaping their garden, and turning their dream villa into their home.

The saga of the leaking pool that had to be redone 5 times, was just another of their adventures. Imagine then their horror when all the remedial work failed and the back end had to be rebuilt yet again. This time Kulaksiz were on the downturn and they were forced to live in the front room during the building process. Nevertheless they still nursed the dream that this was where they would end their days and that, if the worst came to the worst, they would still have the land. March 2008 put paid to that dream too. The discovery of the mortgage on the land was a body blow to both Pauline and Agile.

In June 2008 Pauline received her Permission to Purchase and more in hope than expectation she had her Advocate invite Kulaksiz to attend the Tapu and transfer title as per Contract. Other events happened during this time but she always tried to give the builder and the landowner the opportunity to do the right thing, pay off the mortgage. Little did she know that events had progressed as far as they had. Little did she know that the interest rate was so prohibitive that paying was never an option. She believes that this was the plan from day one and that there was never an intention to pay the mortgage and always an intention to take all the properties and the land. Whilst this was happening, major faults were once again manifesting themselves in their home too. After the inability of the builder to fulfil his Contractual obligation she still tried to find solutions, in a bank meeting she made an offer for the empty villa next door to her, her logic that it may be the money needed to pay off the mortgage, this offer was not even considered.

At the end of December 2008 the builder came up with a plan that each owner should pay £5,000 each and that with the proceeds of the unsold villa (he stated they had a buyer) would, we were told, be enough to pay off the mortgage. Pauline voted to pay as did others but they were outvoted and this plan failed. At that point Pauline even offered to loan £5000 to one owner who said they did not have the money.

As everyone knows that is all now water under the bridge, but the point she wishes to make is that she did not ever make a conscious decision to leave her first choice of a retirement home. The mortgage situation, combined with the further deterioration of the property, took the decision out of her hands. The damp penetration and the continued problems made her realise that spending money on a property that she in all probability would not be allowed to keep would have been foolish. In May 2010, two weeks away from the Auction, she left to live elsewhere. Contrary to some opinion expressed, she did not ABANDON her villa, the doors and windows were locked securely, the gate chained and padlocked.

Pauline and Agile lived in their villa on Kulaksiz 5 for four years. Pauline started Breach of Contract proceedings in September 2008 and won her case in November 2009. A very hollow victory, but it seems that some feel that the promise of compensation should be enough for her. She most certainly does not agree with them and she assures me that until she and all victims receive justice, she is going nowhere and she is not going to be silenced. So if you do not like it, get some ear plugs.

Faults noted by surveyor

Rubbish outside bedroom window from floor excavation on second rebuild April 2008

Cracks in the bathroom in July 2006

Living through one nightmare to be closely followed by an even bigger one.

O B JOYFUL

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