BENGALURU: A city-based builder has been made to reimburse over `52 lakh handed over to him by a property buyer as initial deposit amount as well as interest, thanks to an order issued by the Karnataka State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) court recently. The judgment delivered in this and 21 other cases in Urban Bengaluru were made public on Saturday by the RERA as part of its efforts to ensure erring real estate developers across the state fall in line.
While initial deposit amounts were reimbursed in a few cases, the court ensured that the demands of the buyers were met by the developer by ensuring a compromise between the parties.
Details of various complaints filed by buyers have been made public in the judgments put out on its portal (https://rera.karnataka.gov.in) under the ‘Complaints’ subhead feature added now. All cases had been registered by the court under Section 31 of the RERA Act. “All the verdicts delivered have solved the grievances of the buyers,” said a top RERA offical.
Indiranagar-based developer ‘Paranjape Windfields’ was ordered by the court to reimburse `52,06,901 to complainant Kunal Patil of Basavanagara in connection with the ‘Windfields’ project. Patil had filed a case against the builder stating that the carpet area in the flat he had purchased was lesser than what was initially promised by the builder. The RERA court heard the case on January 18, 2018.
The court made both parties enter into an agreement wherein the builder would also pay the buyer the interest amount for the loan. “The amount needs to be paid to HDFC Ltd by the builder and the bank needs to handover the NoC to the buyer for his flat (C504). After the NoC is obtained, the adjudication officer has also asked the builder to pay an additional amount of `18,19,547 as interest and tax amount paid by the buyer,” a source said.
IT professional T Sandeep was the first person in the city to be refunded his deposit of `9,00,064 by Sriram Properties after he lodged a complaint with RERA. “I had paid an initial amount for a 1,400 sqft house in Electronics City. Later, I changed my mind and wanted a refund,” he said. “I visited the office 10 times seeking a refund, but never got it,” he said. The RERA court ruled in favour of Sandeep.
“The main objective behind publicising these complaints and the judgments is to make the public believe there is a forum from which they can seek justice in case there is any breach of trust in connection with their property purchase,” a senior official said.
Karsten Homes Pvt Ltd, based in Koramangala, has given an undertaking to the court that it would rectify its mistake in providing erroneous information on carpet area and project description based on a complaint filed by Karteek Reddy while disposing of his case.
Out of the 22 cases that the court delivered its judgment, 11 cases were registered against a single project ‘Unishire Terraza’ in connection with delay in completion of work, a RERA official said. The work was carried out by M/S Unishire Home LLP. The court has made both the parties consent to a compromise petition by mutual understanding. The developer has also come forward to register his name under RERA.
The verdicts were delivered by the court on various dates, but were made public for the first time.
Under investigation
Altogether 485 projects across the state are under investigation till date and the website has listed them with their addresses. A warning has also been issued on the RERA portal calling upon the public not to deal with these projects. As many as 1,259 projects have been registered across Karnataka under RERA while 414 more projects are being processed. In total, 45 projects have been rejected for not complying to various norms.