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The argument over electricity meters in a new Flemington Road apartment building has taken a new twist, with the developer now offering to pay for meters to compensate for having the wrong colour scheme in some of the apartments. Buyers in the 90-unit Esque building in Franklin were surprised recently to be asked to pay $563 for electricity meters to be installed, with the developer M and A group not willing to foot the bill. Now, some owners have received a letter from the developer's lawyer, Bernard Tan, saying, "We note that under the contract, your client has chosen the "Graphite" colour scheme. We regret to inform you that this is no longer available for this unit. Please kindly sign and return this letter ... if the "Sandstone" colour scheme is acceptable. Considering this, our client has agreed to provide the electricity meter at no additional cost to your client." The electricity meters are $563. The colour scheme applies not only to paint, but to tiles, flooring and benchtops and is written into the sales contract. It is unclear how many apartments are involved Independent Property Group is selling the apartments, and chief operating officer John Minns said Independent had not discovered the problem with the colour scheme in some apartments until the letter had arrived from the developer's lawyer. Independent had not been able to make contact with the developer since the controversy over electricity meters, but was concerned if buyers were not getting everything they had been offered as part of the purchase and was following up. "The sooner we hear back from the developer the happier we are going to be," he said. Mr Minns said it would not make sense for buyers to agree to the electricity meter offer without seeing the colour scheme in their apartments - but if they were happy once they had checked the alternative colours they could make their own decision about whether to accept the "olive branch of sorts", he said. While there was no specific requirement for an electricity meter, Independent's view was that meters should be provided in new buildings and included in the pricing, he said. In this case the development had been caught up in Actew's decision in July 2015 to start charging for meters, when it had previously installed them without charge. M and A group could not be reached for comment. Questions have been put to Keypoint Law's Bernard Tan. Earlier, Mr Tan defended the decision to charge for electricity meters, saying it was a "cost recovery exercise", and "not a profit making exercise". M and A group had bought the site in August 2014, well before Actew began charging for meters - and had done feasibility studies based on known costs at the time. Actew's new charge, imposed without sufficient notice to developers, had a direct bearing on feasibility of the project, he said. Mr Barr described the decision on electricity meters as disappointing. The ACT Law Society expressed dismay, and said a certificate of occupancy should not be issued without a meter, given that the point of the certificate was to confirm that building work, including electrical work, was complete and the property was habitable.

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