During the first nine months of the current year, the Competition Development and Consumer Rights Protection Committee of Uzbekistan received over 1,700 complaints regarding poor construction quality and delayed delivery of residential housing. Following the official review of these grievances, authorities secured the recalculation and refund of 14.5 billion sums in favor of aggrieved consumers, highlighting widespread issues within the domestic real estate market.
Key Takeaways: The Committee analyzed shared-construction contracts from 132 developers across 12 regions, uncovering systemic flaws. Notably, 77.3% of contracts lacked refund timelines upon termination, while 63.6% failed to specify post-completion warranty periods.
The comprehensive legal analysis revealed that 59.1% of the examined agreements were drafted exclusively to serve the interests of developers while disregarding buyers' basic rights. In 54.5% of cases, contracts omitted any obligation for the builder to fix defects discovered during the warranty period, and 50.8% failed to establish penalties for construction delays. Furthermore, 33.3% lacked precise completion dates, and 30.3% were executed in Russian rather than the mandatory state language.
Investigators also uncovered predatory clauses that allowed developers to withhold between 4% and 15% of payments if a buyer terminated the contract, conditioned refunds on the resale of the apartment, and authorized unilateral price hikes. Concurrently, developers imposed exorbitant financial penalties on buyers for minor payment delays.
In response to these findings, the regulatory body submitted formal proposals to authorized authorities to close legal loopholes. Officials strongly advised citizens to consult legal experts before signing purchase agreements and to seek intervention from state bodies or courts if unlawful contract terms are identified.
Source: www.uznews.uz