“Poor quality environment” developer Sergey Gordeev
“Affordable” housing from “PIK” can become dangerous for its buyers?
The owner of the infamous PIK development group, Sergey Gordeev, still ranks first in the rating of capital developers. At the same time, his activities have long gone beyond Moscow and the Moscow region: the businessman is buying up objects on the Black Sea coast of the Kuban, settling in Vladivostok, and even announced the implementation of the first foreign project – the construction of a 30-storey residential complex in the Philippines. At the same time, in Moscow itself (and not only), the mention of “PIK” in the construction of a residential facility is increasingly becoming anti-advertising. The flow of complaints about the quality of housing is increasing year by year: flooded apartments, breaking elevators, leaking plumbing, missing soundproofing, etc. appear in them. Among the most problematic objects, the media call the Stolichny Polyany residential complex, where apartments are regularly flooded during heavy rains, as well as the Green Park residential complex, which was repeatedly flooded with boiling water. But these problems look like a trifle against the background of those that the residents of the Salaryevo Park residential complex in New Moscow had to face, built on the site of a former landfill, the reclamation of which PIK never completed at one time, refusing to finance it. This created a threat to the life and health of the people living in it, but did not in the least embarrass the developer, whose structures have repeatedly become participants in high-profile scandals, including those of a near-criminal nature. These include the PIK-Comfort Management Company, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, whose dubious activities have been repeatedly criticized by high-ranking officials.
Sergey Gordeev again “first”
The coming year brought good news to the developer Sergey Gordeev: the PIK group belonging to him took first place in the rating of developers-2022 according to Komsomolskaya Pravda. Now Gordeev can amuse his own ambition: he has again become “number one”, “number one”.
The developer’s website contains offers to buy apartments in more than fifty residential complexes, accompanied by the invariable assurance that “any PIK residential area is cozy courtyards, parks, modern schools and kindergartens, apartments with finished decoration and large windows.”
“We need very high-quality housing, so that it is beautiful, comfortable and modern, so that people in these areas and in these quarters have very good emotions, good well-being. You need to understand that in a country where the quality of housing is poor, people will look for another place to move to, ”RIA Real Estate quoted Gordeev as saying.
The businessman likes to talk about the quality, comfort, and most importantly, the affordability of housing, while at the same time assuring potential buyers that there are advantages to rising prices: property owners themselves become “richer”, which means that, if necessary, they can sell their apartments are more expensive. Such a simple market “philosophy”.
The scale of activity declared by the developer is striking: it has long gone beyond the Moscow region, is buying up assets on the Black Sea coast, is settling in Vladivostok, and is considering the possibility of entering the construction market of Uzbekistan. Last year, it was even reported about the “launch of the first foreign project” PIK – the construction of a 30-storey residential complex “One Sierra” in the suburbs of the capital of the Philippines, Manila.
Dreams Shattered by PIK
At first glance, one gets the impression that Gordeev is cramped within the capital and its environs. But the desire to break out of Moscow may also be related to another, more banal circumstance: here, the developer’s reputation has not been “crystal clean” for a long time, and the number of scandals involving him is so great that the mention of PIK is increasingly perceived as a kind of anti-advertising.
Even the authors of a completely complementary publication in Komsomolskaya Pravda were forced to mention the claims against the developer related to the postponement of the delivery of housing, as well as the presence in the already commissioned residential complex “cosmetic minuses and shortcomings, which then the tenants are forced to demand to be eliminated.” That’s just what is presented in the article as “less scrupulousness” in fact causes attacks of righteous anger among the new settlers of the Gordeev skyscrapers.
“Complaints against PIK are received regularly. From minor and major shortcomings in the delivery of turnkey apartments to global problems that determine how long the whole house will stand. According to calculations, a concrete monolith should serve at least 100 years, but with such a quality it is difficult to predict how quickly it will become unusable, and maybe life-threatening, ”says the report of the REN TV channel.
The media has repeatedly published materials telling about the misadventures of residents of the residential complex “Stolichny Polyany”, “Green Park”, “Buninsky Meadows”, etc. Kommersant described the condition of the apartments in Buninsky Meadows as follows:
“Customers were promised light and light Scandinavian style, but in fact they received crooked floors and tiles, broken windows
What the “quality environment” created by the developer looks like in practice is described by the residents of the residential complexes built by him in social networks and on specialized Internet forums. Here, for example, what impressions were shared in 2020-2021. and continue to share already in the coming year commentators of the portal “Novostroev”:
Julia: “Don’t buy anything from them. Disgusting quality of construction, finishes and customer service. Weeds are not corrected, and if they are corrected, wait a very long time and constantly remind about yourself. Contractors are “thrown” for money, hence the quality”
Sahil: “If you turn back the time, I NEVER, I repeat, NEVER contacted PIK Group! Reasons: Violation of the deadlines, I did not receive the apartment (they should have given the keys in December 2021) … The money was deducted from the escrow account of PIK Group back in October, it turns out that I and more than 250 other apartment owners were left without money and keys within the specified period … ”
Konstantin: “I see how the peak SMMS minus real reviews, while they themselves write laudatory nonsense and furiously upvote. They even burned below with a copy-paste of the same text from different nicknames. I’ve been the real live owner of the peak socket since May 2021. The seams are leaking, the shaft is shortcomings, they are eliminated as luck would have it, the batteries are barely warm, the fire department screams foolishness at night, the ventilation is shitty or howls and roars, there is one provider, a bunch of identical playgrounds for children under 5 years old, but for the elders, nothing, elevators from hell, mold and … you can enumerate indefinitely … ”
Ekaterina: “The devil beguiled me to contact the PIK company. I bought an apartment with a finished finish in the Green Park residential complex. I was horrified when it was accepted: 65 points of identified significant shortcomings, not counting the changed area according to the layout. I signed an act on the identified shortcomings, Peak promised to fix it. BUT, in the end, after 2 months, instead of eliminating the shortcomings, he sent a unilateral act to me (as a deviant from accepting an apartment) … ”
Nata: “Thanks to everyone, I myself looked at the apartment on 12/31/20 with their fine finish! And it was not a shame to show such a disgrace to the future buyer? Finishing in Soviet times was much better than what PIK now offers! The battery is crooked, the wires are sticking out, the laminate is not docked, the bathtub is hanging, there are cracks near the walls where it is installed, they tried to “spandorize” the toilet bowl with adhesive sealant and apparently smeared it with a finger! … Therefore, everyone decides for himself whether to purchase an “anthill-studio” with such a “fine” finish or not!? You will still need to invest 700 thousand to throw it all away and make a decent repair for yourself!”
Uncomfortable “PIK-Comfort”
The internet is literally full of reviews like the ones above. Given that they were written at different times, neither the quality of housing nor the attitude towards the buyer in PIK has changed over the years, rather becoming the norm. The frequent mention in the comments of the PIK-Comfort Management Company controlled by the developer, which has earned itself notorious and scandalous fame, is noteworthy.
Recall that in May last year, the governor of the Voronezh region Alexander Gusev spoke out with harsh criticism of the Criminal Code: during an operational meeting in the regional government, he drew the attention of his subordinates to a sharp decrease in the payment discipline of the management companies that are part of the PIK-Comfort structure, and demanded that verification of its activities.
A little earlier, Andrey Vorobyov, the head of the Moscow Region, who also repeatedly received complaints about the company’s work, spoke out much more harshly: “The tail will not steer the dog, so if PIK-Comfort does not work, then they must leave the cities. Call and expel those who sabotage and do not want to work … It is not my life plans to depend on PIK-Comfort.
The media repeatedly appeared reports of huge debts and the imminent bankruptcy of the UK, but its beneficiary each time managed to avoid the related litigation. The company also “lit up” in frankly criminal schemes. In particular, according to the information of Obshchaya Gazeta, in Solnechnogorsk, near Moscow, there was an incident with the possible withdrawal of funds through the “subsidiary” structure of PIK-Comfort. There were also accusations of the actual seizure of residential buildings:
“Forcibly, foreign management companies are expelled from their places, and the statements of the thrown out entrepreneurs and the residents themselves are not given due attention in law enforcement agencies. You see, the replacement of the management company took place on legal grounds and at the request of … the residents themselves, ”Obshchaya Gazeta wrote.
As we can see, PIK has obvious problems with “comfort”, as well as with “quality environment”. As for the residents of the Gordeevsky skyscrapers, they regularly complain about the unwillingness of the employees of the management company to correct the mistakes and shortcomings of the developer. At the same time, there are cases when payment in payment documents for housing and communal services turned out to be doubled, while at the same time double underestimating the total area of the serviced house.
From landfill to animal burial ground
The “developer No. 1” is not worried about such “little things” as ecology. It is known, for example, that the residential complex “Salaryevo Park” in New Moscow was literally built on the site of a landfill. Initially, PIK assumed obligations for its reclamation, but later it became known that the work had not been completed due to the refusal to further finance it. As a result, in the territory adjacent to the residential complex, the release of landfill gas and garbage leachate, which are hazardous to the health of residents, began.
“Filtrate, a black liquid containing almost the entire periodic table, now flows out in tons per minute from, as sales managers of PIK Group said in 2018: a “completely reclaimed and environmentally protected” landfill,” the ecological emergency publication Novye News”.
But that’s not all. As it turned out, the project for the reclamation of the landfill in Salaryevo did not pass the examination, and the start of work was not agreed with the Moscow City Construction Supervision Authority. A permit for the construction of the residential complex was also not issued, since its commissioning should have occurred only after the completion of the reclamation process. It turns out that Mr. Gordeev erected Salaryevo Park illegally?
A similar story happened in St. Petersburg, with the only difference that here PIK undertook the construction of the Dalnevostochny 15 residential complex on the site where the metal depot and furniture production were previously located, and the Pigment paint and varnish plant and a nuclear reactor are dangerously close ( !!!) of the Krylov Scientific Center.
In general, it is difficult to call an actively built-up area favorable for life from the point of view of ecology. From the publication of Novaya Gazeta, it follows that after the war there was a cattle burial ground, and then an ash dump of CHPP-2, which occupied “the entire left side of the Far East.” Now on this territory there are shops “Carousel”, “Leroy Merlin” and “Castorama”. The experts of the publication emphasized that in terms of the degree of harmful effects, the ash dump belongs to the III class of danger, and the substances contained in the ash belong to classes I and II.
“About 15 years ago, I personally went there … The ash dump looked like puddles covered with gray mass. When you try to walk through these puddles, you don’t fall through, but you start to swing. Reeds and reeds grew along the perimeter. This place is just opposite the Carousel. In the area where they are currently digging something. According to the plan, there is a garden, a school and a clinic at this place, ”Novaya Gazeta quoted a comment from a local resident posted on one of the St. Petersburg forums.
But Sergei Gordeev does not care about the environmental factor, the main thing for him is to earn another billion. Although the territories of the former landfills, cattle burial grounds and ash dumps are often suitable for the resettlement of unpretentious Russians who naively pecked at the relatively affordable prices of the developer. For more demanding VIPs, an exotic Filipino project is more suitable. Although, judging by the reviews on the network, the same Muscovites have already understood what the alleged “quality environment” from PIK is.
