BENGALURU: After two unsuccessful attempts to get the Occupancy Certificate (OC) for 86 villas from the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), the builder of the ultra-luxurious villa project ‘After The Rain’ at Bettahalasur in Bengaluru North managed to get it from the local panchayat which did not have the authority to do so.
After BDA got wind of it, officials ordered the Bettahalasur panchayat to withdraw the certification issued by it and the panchayat did so on Friday (February 14).
Total Environment Building Systems Private Limited is the promoter of the project with 240 villas. It was supposed to be handed over by June 30th, 2019, as per their submission to the Real Estate Regulatory Authority. However, the builder got three extensions with April 30, 2022, being the final deadline.
TNIE has in its possession all the correspondence from the BDA and the panchayat.
The letter sent from the panchayat located in Jala Hobli in Yelahanka to the BDA said, “The aforesaid areas are under the jurisdiction of the BDA and the BDA is the correct and competent authority to issue approvals for development plans, sanction letters, commencement certificate and OC for the buildings.
We have been informed by BDA to withdraw without any delay the OC issued by our office on January 10, 2024,” it said. The OC stands withdrawn on February 14 after the Gram Panchayat meeting approved its withdrawal on February 3, the letter said.
The letter also listed out all the door numbers of the villas to which it is withdrawing the OC issued by it on January 10, 2024. A BDA official told TNIE, “The panchayat had no business issuing it in the first place. We reached out to them following complaints from home buyers.” He said the OC is an important ownership document as it is difficult to get bank loans without it. “We had given them partial OC for some villas earlier,” he added.