BENGALURU: In yet another landmark verdict in favour of home buyers, the Karnataka-Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA) has asked a residential society at Nagawara in the city to take control of an upscale project left incomplete by the builder for the last seven years.
It has also authorised the society to sell the unsold flats to mobilise funds to complete the project work. The Hanging Gardens Nagawara Flat Owners’ Co-operative Society was given the green signal on August 3 by a RERA bench comprising chairman HC Kishore Chandra and members Neelamani N Raju and GR Reddy.
Work on “Hanging Gardens” at Nagawara near Hebbal was launched by Koramangala-based Orchid Elite Developers Private Ltd (previously called Prisha Properties India Pvt Ltd) in 2014-2015. The three-tower nine-floor apartment complex with 132 flats was supposed to be ready by 2016 as per the original agreement. However, only less than 50 per cent of the work was completed by then.
Society identifies another promoter
“The builder sold 45 3-BHK flats for prices ranging between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2 crore. Later, the builder conveyed his inability to complete the work citing financial problems,” Anil Navali, president of the society, told The New Indian Express.
The RERA registration for it ended on March 30, 2021. Work on most of the amenities, including the promised club house, did not start, Navali said. “While some buyers had paid 80% of the project cost, a few paid the full amount.”
With no solution in sight, the buyers approached RERA in 2021. “After 22 hearings in one-and-a-half years, the authority ruled in our favour,” the president said. The association has identified another promoter who is willing to fund the project and raise resources through unsold flats, he said.
The RERA order has given the society a deadline of 18 months to complete the project work. The order also freezes the existing account maintained by the promoter. “All liabilities of the original promoter, including the funds he had taken, will remain with him,” Anil said.