🐝 PROPERTY BUZZ 🐝: Avida Residents Up in Arms Against Ayala Developer

A sordid affair at Avida Woodhill Setting Nuvali in Laguna involving an Ayala-friendly HOA BOT, Avida the developer, and upset residents.

“War” has erupted in Avida Woodhill Settings Nuvali, one of the subdivisions owned by AyalaLand in the sprawling and high-end community of Nuvali in Calamba City, Laguna. The conflict, as far as “Property Buzz” has been able to gather based on information from residents, started after Avida failed to complete the village on time, as promised. AvidaLand opened the nearly 40-hectare property around 2014, giving assurance to buyers that it would finish it and turn over units within the next two years. And yet, to this day, 10 years after it was launched, the village, according to residents, remained unfinished and incomplete. Many residents also complained of units turned over years after the supposed deadline.

More than two years ago, some residents filed a complaint before the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development (DHSUD) questioning Avida’s move to have the village “conveyed” to the homeowner association with the end in view of entering into a contract of lease with the HOA so that it could take over the property. Residents opposed this and questioned the move for a transfer of the administration of the village to the HOA when it’s not yet completed. The HSAC, the adjudication council of the DHSUD, agreed with the residents and denied Avida’s application for a certificate of completion. (It has denied Avida a COC on a least one other previous occasion.) It also required Avida to complete the village, even providing the developer with a “punch list” of things it ought to do, but it has allegedly not done so in any significant way, some residents say.

Amid all of this, Avida attempted to take control of the HOA's board of trustees (BOT) by supporting homeowner BOT candidates who were perceived in the community as being supporters of the Ayala company. They succeeded but were ousted in 2022 when residents complained before the DHSUD, accusing the members of the BOT of being too friendly with Avida.

Fast forward to this month, when the new BOT elected last year held what was supposed to be a “special meeting” that turned into an abrupt referendum on a scheme Avida and the BOT cooked up — to turn over the property to the HOA so that the BOT could enter into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Avida. This MOA would effectively turn over the management of the village to Ayala’s property management company, APMC. Among other provisions, the MOA would require that the homeowneers pay APMC a whopping 5 million pesos a year to run the village, which many residents find highly irregular. Irregular because the MOA would effectively require residents to now spend with their own HOA dues the completion of the village — something that Avida should be shouldering because, well, it has not completed the village as it’s supposed to even after all these years, even after being ordered by DHSUD to do so.

Residents who support the BOT and Avida said they just want to “move forward,” according to some villagers, after years of the village being incomplete and ran not as efficiently as the other properties in Nuvali. Many of them were also tired of the constant bickering among the homeowners.

In the voting last week, the HOA managed to hold the allegedly questionable referendum; the YES votes prevailed — yes, that is to the conveyance and the MOA with Avida, and yes to association dues amounting to 13.50 pesos per square meter, supposedly the highest in Nuvali. Residents questioned the fact that there was a lack of quorum in that referendum (and in a previous one the HOA held). Some residents questioned the alleged procedural lapses by the BOT in holding these events.

It has all been a sordid affair at Avida Woodhill Setting Nuvali, which, we gather, also happened and is happening in other subdivisions, not just those owned by Ayala. In the case of Woodhill, residents were pitted against each other. Disinformation and propaganda were used, including one where pro-BOT/Avida residents accused the oppositors that they would be allowing the adjacent poor community of Majada access to Woodhill if the village’s open spaces -- such as roads and parks -- are donated to the LGU, which the law actually mandates. Last year, a string of robbery and break-ins were reported by residents but were never fully investigated by authorities — leading some to suspect that it was all meant to instill fear among villagers so that they reject the donation to the LGU.

Residents claim that there has been a divide-and-rule strategy designed to silence criticism of Avida’s actions and the BOT’s alleged collusion with the developer. The residents, for instance, have different Viber and Facebook groups, each dominated by whoever they’re supporting, In one Viber group, residents exchange hurtful and insulting words, we were told. In the meeting last week, a shouting match between the residents erupted; security was called in after one homeowner started gesturing with his finger while speaking.

The BOT, as with the past BOT, did not entertain the objections of some of the residents. The BOT has been accused of a severe lack of transparency in all these, an allegation that’s probably questionable given that it did email to residents the draft of the MOA (although it did not leave much room for discussion). Still, residents allege that the BOT only engages with residents who support it and Avida’s moves.

While HOA disputes are common across the Philippines, what’s happening at Woodhill is not a simple case of conflict over petty matters. What seems evident is the hand of AvidaLand and AyalaLand in all this. Why? Your guess is as good as ours. It may have something to do with the fact that Ayala will lose control of open spaces that will become public domain if the community is donated to the LGU. Regardless of the motives, there have always been efforts by developers to control villages even outside of their mandate and to the detriment of homeowners.

Because AyalaLand is a major corporation, this development bears watching. Property journalists in the country ought to take a closesr look at what’s happening at Woodhill and elsewhere. They might be shocked at the level of violations against homeowner rights in these places. (The Filipino Homeowner)

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“Property Buzz” is a column in The Filipino Homeowner. Send us tips here: filipinohomeowner (at) gmail.com.

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