Our satisfaction lasted only until May 2004. At that time the separations had to be finished, and our payments were supposed to accumulate to 90% of the price. The separations were not really finished (one would say they were started), but someone responsible for the construction convinced my wife, who was inclined to refuse the invoice, that all was OK, and that such invoice was a normal custom. As all was OK until then, we forwarded the invoice to the bank.

This was our first loss, because we could better keep the money and let them grow (as they were on some sort of investment account). The construction did not progress too much since then. Vice versa, we perceived our house as being in a stage of being striped of some elements. Several of them were dismounted, later re-installed in a less satisfactory way. The garage door was re-installed only some time after we got the house.

Moreover, nobody was willing to indicate the delivery time, and promises were slowly mowing towards the end of December. While legally it is possible to deliver the house on 31 December, the oral information should have also some weight. When Promogim wanted our money, they promised October. When they had our money, they changed. When they finally sent us the letter at the end of September (to be sent,as a rule, 3 month before delivery), it was so late, that we could not cancel our lease in Geneva correctly. Promogim had to send the letter twice, because the first one was sent to a wrong address (surprisingly, as the invoices were sent a good address). Our second financial loss was paying for an empty flat in Geneva -- where the rent is really high (our mortgage repayments do not exceed our former rent).

At this stage we took the photos (Access to full size photos was suspended on request of Promogim -- click here for details) -- of the house that was in principle ours (according to contract the land and all completed objects are the property of the buyer who purchased the house under the "VEFA" regime). I shared them with a couple of friends, colleagues and did not object against them sharing it further. At that time we were at risk of a big financial loss of paying a mortgage for unfinished house and paying a high rent in Geneva. People from Promogim began to be quite "client-unfriendly". For example they argued that the access to the construction site was forbidden for public (we were the owners, we were not just a public), as if they had something to hide from us. All guides, including our bank's instructions, invite the "VEFA" buyers to visit the construction site regularly. At the same time the site was not protected against vandalism. The house did not show any progress those days, it was looking worse and worse.

To add more examples, the representative of Promogim said to the representative of the kitchen vendor delivering a kitchen, that there was no need to take detailed measures of the kitchen space, because “the house was not to be delivered soon”. We had to contact Promogim headquarters in order to get access for the kitchen vendor to the construction site. The kitchen was produced just for us, and the production process took several months.