Irish Cry Foul over Overseas Property Company Dealings in Bulgaria

Business » PROPERTIES | February 15, 2010, Monday // 17:00
Bulgaria: Irish Cry Foul over Overseas Property Company Dealings in Bulgaria Irish property developer Darragh MacAnthony. Photo by Sunday Times

Dozens of Irish customers of MacAnthony Realty International (MRI), an overseas property company owned by Darragh MacAnthony, have said that furniture they bought for their apartments has not been delivered and that the company has refused to refund them, Sunday Times reported.

The MRI clients, who bought apartments in Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Morocco, Romania and Cyprus, say that furniture “packs” costing an average of EUR 15,000 per apartment had still not been delivered months, in some cases years, after they were due. Some say they have been unable to let their properties as they remain unfurnished.

A number also allege that MRI failed to meet the obligations of a “lifetime’s after sales service” bought for up to EUR 800 each. Under the agreement, MacAnthony should have “snagged” customers’ properties and found tenants.

Dominic Pickering, the chief executive of MRI, has denied some of the claims made by clients of his company. He said that he had not been given enough time to investigate other clients’ complaints. He recently issued a circular to clients saying that “a stream of furniture companies” that MRI had dealt with had fallen victim to the global recession.

“Some went out of business through bad luck, others through bad management,” he said. “However, it left MRI with a huge challenge, as we had paid these companies millions to supply clients with furniture.”

Pickering admitted MRI had problems with suppliers in Bulgaria, “but there were also sizable challenges in Morocco, Cape Verde, Turkey, Cyprus, to name but a few”. He claimed “matters had been resolved” in Turkey, Spain, Portugal and Germany. “Solutions to the situation in Italy and Cyprus have been found and they will be completed in early 2010,” he said. “The outstanding countries are being tackled gradually with an immediate concentration on Bulgaria.”

Pickering also said that the company was “90% of the way through solving [the problems] having installed over 1,000 furniture packs in 2009 alone”.

A previous Sunday Times investigation found that MRI staff used hard-sell tactics and lies to sell second homes to Irish and British buyers. Some employees were also found to have oversold the investment potential of overseas properties. Customers were told their mortgages would be covered with “guaranteed rents”, which never materialized.

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