हिंदी
Builders to refund close to Rs. 50 crore
Don’t take buyers for granted: RERA to builders
Chandigarh July 21- In a big relief to homebuyers and a strong message to the city-based developers, the real estate regulatory authority (RERA), Gurugram, has come in rescue of homebuyers issuing multiple orders pertaining to multiple builders asking them to refund homebuyers’ money on their failure to give possession of apartment/plots in the stipulated time period and that in ninety days without fail along with interest at the rate of 9.70 percent. The refund, the orders say, be paid keeping allottees right to seek compensation and the expenses involved in legal proceedings.
The RERA orders have come in the wake of multiple complaints from the disgruntled city-based homebuyers who after losing their hopes to have their units had moved to RERA for refund of the amount paid by them to builders.
Chairman, RERA, Dr. KK Khandelwal said, “The authority has ordered to refund deposited amounts to homebuyers after hearing both the parties i.e., builders and allottee and on finding builders guilty for non-delivery of units as per builder buyer agreements. The builders should not take homebuyers for granted. The RERA has to protect their rights.”
“The builders failed to complete the projects and deliver the promised units to homebuyers within stipulated time even after collecting good initial amounts,” said Khandelwal.
In the month of July only, nearly 300 matters were listed before the authority for adjudication. In the 63 cases the authority adjudicated the matter allowing refund with interest at the rate of 9.70 percent. These adjudications pertain to seventeen builders and refund amount is close to Rs. 50 crore – the Raheja developers alone has to refund close to Rs. 12 crore to eleven homebuyers, of which one refund is Rs. 2.35 crore.
Member, HARERA, Gurugram, Sh. VK Goyal, said, “The authority has directed the respondent builders to follow the order. In case they don’t, the complainant can approach the adjudicating authority for execution of orders.”
In another 15 matters, the authority ordered refund after deduction of ten percent earnest money. In all 300 matters, the homebuyers largely wanted refund and that shows the callous attitude of promoters, the authority observed.
In one case, Ritu Gupta versus Raheja developers, the complainant wanted the authority to direct respondent builders to refund their deposited amount with the interest from the respective dates of deposit till the date of refund.
As per law legislature has consciously provided this right of refund on demand as an unconditional absolute right to the allottee, if the promoter fails to give possession of apartment within the time stipulated under the term of agreement regardless of unforeseen events or stay order of court/tribunal which is in either way not attributable to the allottee/home buyer the promoter is under an obligation to refund the amount on demand with interest.
Adjudicating Ritu Gupta’s matter, the authority directed Raheja developers to refund Rs. 29, 88, 092 the amount she had deposited with the builder in two parts at time of booking in December 2013 a unit in an upcoming project Raheja Navodaya at Sector 92/95, Gurugram. The authority also has asked the builder to pay interest at the rate of 9.70 percent as prescribed since the builder failed to offer possession to her in stipulated time.
The modus operandi of builders was observed similar in all the cases – arbitrary execution of the agreement
“In the case of Gupta and Raheja developers, Gupta had to pay balance amount at time of possession of unit that was due in June 2016 but builder failed and after expiry of what the homebuyer refused to pay further. Yet, the builder continued to send her demand notice arbitrarily. Just to extract money from buyer the builder offered her possession of unit even without obtaining the OC from the TCP. This is complete violation of agreement and mental harassment to buyer,” the authority observed during scrutiny of complaint lodged with the RERA in October 2020 adjudicated after thorough scrutiny.
Sh. Khandelwal said the authority gets hundreds of complaints on daily basis in which mostly buyers want refund or delayed interest.
The authority adjudicated 23 more complaints allowing a total refund of roughly Rs. 19 crore of which 11 complaints pertained to the Raheja developers limited who have to refund roughly Rs. 12 crore followed by nine complaints against Ansal housing & construction limited, two against Angle infrastructure private limited and one against Anant Raj Limited.
Further the authority allowed the refund of approximately Rs. 9.5 crore adjudicating complaints of 20 homebuyers pertaining to Orris Infrastructure Private Limited, International Land Developers Private Limited, Pareena Infrastructure Private Limited, M3M India Private Limited Martial Buildcon Private Limited, Spaze Tower Pvt Ltd, Imperia Structures Ltd, ALM Infotech City Pvt Ltd.
The authority also allowed refund of nearly Rs. 6.81 crore while adjudicating complaints against promoters Samyak Projects Pvt ltd, Vatika Ltd, CHD developers ltd, DSS Buildtech pvt ltd, and Experion Developers Pvt Ltd of 20 buyers.
